Getting on the Right Track

The first couple chapters of ecclesiasties remind me of a maze for testing laboratory animals. You know sometimes you see this happen, maybe you do, maybe you don't, maybe you've seen or heard of it, where a mouse goes along a little track and a maze and they run into a dead end and bump up against a wall. And they may retrace their steps and try another track and second time bump up against the dead end, third time bump up against the dead end. And finally, finally, after many failed attempts, may find the right track and getting on the right track find that piece of cheese or food at the end of the track that is designed for them and their enjoyment. Well that's really what the first two chapters of ecclesiasties are all about. Solomon is talking about the maze called life. There is a maze that we all live and the goal and on the right track of that maze is to find purpose in life, meaning, fulfillment, enjoyment of life, the difference between the maze and portal guy up there. He can't figure out which track is right. So he's trying to figure where am I supposed to be. The difference in that maze and the maze called life is God has clearly laid out the instructions for the right track at the beginning if we will only read them and follow them. That's what Solomon is talking about at the end of chapter two. However, we have a tendency to think that other paths, other tracks, look more glamorous, look more rewarding. And so we have a tendency to follow those instead of the one clearly laid out by God in his instructions. In the first two chapters of ecclesiasties, that's what Solomon has been talking about. He's been saying because of the monotony of life, the sameness, routine of life that causes people to wake up in the morning and say, there's got to be more to life than this. Because of that, people try different tracks to find that purpose and meaning in life. Some people try the track of the search for knowledge and they think if I can get all the degrees, gain all the knowledge I can possibly get, that'll give me real meaning in life. That'll teach me what life is really all about. And boom, they hit a dead end. Some people Solomon says, try pleasure and fame and possessions and all that that gives them in life. Boom, bump up against the other dead end. So Solomon says at the end of chapter two, some people try work and they pour themselves into work until they become a workaholic. And they think that if I work more, longer hours, climb the ladder of success, get all that that can bring me, then I'll find fulfillment and success and meaning in life and bump into another dead end. You know, there are people who do all do that all of their lives, who spend their entire life pursuing those kinds of tracks to find meaning and fulfillment in life. There are others who come beaten, broken, disillusioned, frustrated, after many attempts, finally to the right track. There are a few, thank God who read God's instructions at the beginning of the maze and realize this is the track to pursue. And there are some, believe it or not, although for honest, we would believe it. There are some who get on the right track and then are allured and enticed off of the right track to some of those same things that this world is trying to find purpose and fulfillment in. And Solomon says, you've tried all of those things. Now at the end of chapter two, I'm going to take you back to the beginning of the maze and help you see God's instructions. We're going to go back to the beginning and read God's instructions first and see what God says at the beginning of the maze about how to find true purpose, fulfillment and meaning in life. So what Solomon does in chapter two verses 24 to 26, where we are this morning, is Solomon gives us three clear instructions on how to find real meaning in life. Again, they fall at the end of a section where Solomon has said, you've tried everything else. You've tried all those other tracks and you hit a dead end. Now here's what God is trying to get through to you. Here is the instruction on how to find true meaning, purpose and fulfillment, enjoyment in life. Instruction number one is keep life simple. Notice verse 24, a person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil and will stop right there. We just want to take that sentence and break it apart. I want you to be clear though on what I am not saying when I'm talking about keeping life simple. I'm not talking about selling everything you have and living on a shoe string, moving to a high mountain somewhere, cutting wood with an axe to heat your log cabin. Living off the land and reading your Bible by Kerosene lamp at night, I'm not talking necessarily about that. But I am saying don't complicate life so much. Find joy and purpose and meaning in the simple things of life. Here's how Solomon says it. Look again verse 24, here's how Solomon says it. A person can do nothing better. And by the way, some have interpreted that to me. There's nothing to be optimistic into the first two chapters which are pretty depressing anyway. Where Solomon has said, you know, there's nothing of real value in life. Everything is meaningless. It's all empty. It's all vain. And so I'm just telling you forget life. There's nothing to do than just try to get a little enjoyment out of your food and maybe out of your work. But there's nothing good in life. That's not at all what Solomon is doing. You understand his audience and that he means this book to include a wider audience of unsaved people. What Solomon is doing is touching people where they really hurt. Touching people where they really live. And saying, I know you've woken up in the morning and you've asked yourself the question, there's got to be more to life than this. And you've tried this. You've tried the search for knowledge. You've tried pleasure and fame and possessions and everything that that can bring you. You've tried pouring yourself into your work and you hit dead ends didn't you? And it's all meaningless and it's empty. What I'm going to tell you is that there is nothing better than the way God laid out for you to live life to start with. There's nothing better than this. At the end of all those dead ends, here is the way that you should live. It's a very positive statement. A person can do nothing better. Here it is. Nothing is better than this than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own. So eat and drink. Just simply enjoy the food and drink that God gives you and find satisfaction. Notice how he says that in your own toil. Not seeking for something else. Something better in your own job. Not looking at the greener grass on the other side of the fence. Whatever God has given you be satisfied with it. Be content with that. You can find enjoyment in that. You don't need something else to give you purpose and meaning in life. All you need is to be thankful for what God has given you and put right before you. That's how Solomon says it. There are many people and he's already talked about them who drive and push themselves to get more and more and find greater success in this world's things to get all they can get out of life. And he's already dealt with those people. The people who approach life from the search for knowledge. Look back at chapter 1, verse 13. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden. God is laid on mankind. I've seen all the things that are done under the sun. All of them are meaningless chasing after the wind. So that track leads to a dead end. Okay, what about the track of pleasure and possessions and fame? Chapter 2, verse 10. I denied myself nothing. My eyes desired. I refused. My heart. No pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor. This was the reward for all my toil yet. When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had to achieve, everything was meaningless chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. So you've tried that. You bump into the dead end as well. So what about workaholism? Chapter 2, verse 22. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days, their work is grief and pain even at night. Their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. The conclusion to all of those and any other track you try is emptiness, meaninglessness. You do not find purpose and fulfillment that way. Solomon says, I've dealt with all of those kinds of people. And the reason Solomon says, basically, I've experienced all of that. And the reason that doesn't give you fulfillment and satisfaction is because those kind of people always want more. And if you're living that kind of life, you always want more. You're not satisfied with the food and drink God's given you. You're not satisfied with the job God's given you. You're always wanting more. Always wanting better. Always wanting bigger. And so the problem is we're not satisfied that we have clothing. It's not good enough for us. We're not satisfied that we have food. It's not rich enough for us. We're not satisfied that we have a job. It doesn't provide enough income for us. And so we're always looking for more and more and more and more. That's the rat race. That's the maze of life that the mouse bumps up against the wrong tracks on. Always craving for more. When was the last time you actually did what Solomon said here when you actually just enjoyed a meal with your family? You know what it's like for a lot of folks. Stick the thing in the microwave, punch in two minutes. Why does that thing take forever? Come on hurry up to get this thing done. I got to eat fast. And then you pray real quick. At the beginning of the meal, don't mean the thing you say but you pray real quick. We had our grandchildren with us this summer, Ruth and Robert were in Liberia and they brought their three young children ages six, four and about a year old. And Ruben's four years old. We kept him for about ten days. We found out that Ruben had started praying for the meals. And so we asked him to pray. You know what he prayed? Thank you, amen. And he was ready to eat. He was digging in. That's the way a lot of people pray for meals. And I found out that everybody at the table wanted him to pray before the meal because we were anxious to do. So you pray real quick. You dig into the meal. You'll woof it down as quick as you can because you got to get to the next project. Then you spend three hours popping ant acids to help with the stomach turmoil you've just created. That's the way a lot of people live life. When was the last time you just sat down and enjoyed the simplicity of your food and your drink and enjoyed the satisfaction of your own job? That's exactly what Solomon is saying. What he's saying is it doesn't get any better than that. That's the best you can do. It doesn't get any better than to keep life simple and see with joy all that God has given you. But the way most people live is like this. Always looking for bigger, better, more, never satisfied with what we have. Finding fault with everything we have so that we can try to keep up with the neighbors. So our house is never big enough. Our cars never knew enough. Our clothes are never nice enough. Our furniture is never good enough. Our appliances are never fancy enough. Our TV is never big enough. Our cell phone is never does enough. It never has enough apps. And our computers are never fast enough. And everything we have, it's not enough. It's not enough. It's not enough. And so we drive and drive and drive for more and bigger and better. And if you're not able to have all those things, you live with resentment and anger. Remember your lot in life because you can't have them. That's the way most people live. Jewels Ables wrote a very interesting biography of John D Rockefeller. In the late 1800s, John D Rockefeller, the father of all the Rockefeller clan, formed the greatest, the first and greatest oil conglomerate in our country, standard oil. He was a billionaire and died in 1937. At the end of the Great Depression, he was making a million dollars a week. Translated into today's economy, there are many who say he was the most wealthy man America ever produced, including Bill Gates. This biography of Rockefeller is very interesting because Jewels Ables tells about him eating his meals in the last few years of his life. And this is how he describes John D Rockefeller sitting down to his meals. He could not enjoy his food. For breakfast, he would take a sip of coffee, one spoonful of cereal, one bite of egg, a bit of pork chop, the size of a pea. And that's all he could eat. And it wasn't because of physical conditions. It was simply because there was so much about his life that he could not enjoy sitting down to a meal. What Solomon is saying is if you cannot sit down to enjoy the simplicity of your food and drink and find satisfaction in your own job, then you're missing the point in life. If you are living constantly looking at the greener grass, wanting what everybody else has and pushing and driving to get there, you are not getting the point in life. Jesus said much the same thing in Matthew chapter 6 in the sermon on the Mount. He said, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. These things in the context is what he's talked about by way of food, clothing, that kind of thing. You know, remember he said the birds of the air get fed, God feeds them, the flowers of the field get clothed, God closed them, God takes care of them, God will take care of you too. Doesn't mean you'll have what your neighbors have necessarily, but that's not the goal in life. The goal in life is to be enjoying what God has given you. It doesn't get any better than that. A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. So that's principle number one, instruction number one at the beginning of the maze is keep life simple, quit pushing and driving and running the rat race to get more and bigger and better. Newest and best keep life simple second instruction at the beginning of the maze recognize that enjoyment comes only from God. At the end of verse 24 and in verse 25 Solomon makes that very clear. He says at the end of verse 24 this to I see is from the hand of God. What he's saying is what I what I've just talked about this to this ability to eat and drink with a measure of enjoyment satisfaction the ability to find satisfaction in your own toil. That's a gift from God. It's from the hand of God. It is his gift to you and he explains with a question a rhetorical question in verse 25 for without him or literally apart from him who can eat or find enjoyment. Some translations render this who can eat or find enjoyment more than I indicating that nobody could do it more than Solomon. While that's true, that's not really what the text says. The original language literally is for apart from him. The in obvious translated it well without him who can eat or find enjoyment. The idea is this recognize that peace enjoyment fulfillment purpose of life is a gift of God. It comes from him and apart from him you can't find it. That's what Solomon saying no matter what you try you will not find it apart from him without him. So in essence what Solomon is saying is we must have a relationship with God. That is where purpose and meaning in life begins. We must have a relationship with God. Can I remind you of the larger biblical theology here what the Bible teaches about this. We were created to have a relationship with God. We are the only beings in all of God's creation that the Bible says were made in his image and likeness not your dog, not your cat, not your hamster. We were made in the image and likeness of God which means there is something in us that corresponds to him and allows us to have a relationship with him. Rocks and trees don't have that capacity. You have that capacity. And every human being on planet earth would have enjoyed that to the full if it hadn't been for one thing. When Adam's sinned in the Garden of Eden the Bible says he drug the whole human race with him. Romans 5. For by one man sin entered into the world and death by sinned. So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. You see we were all in Adam and we all sinned in him as our representative. He drug us all into that so that the rest of the human race from Adam on was born with a sinful nature passed down from Adam. That causes us from the moment we are born to be apart from God separated from God. So we're born without that relationship with God that we were intended and created to have. That's the empty part of your life. That's the whole in your soul. And that's what you're trying to fill with so many other things. It may be the things Solomon has mentioned. It may be a search for knowledge thinking if you can just get that one more degree and learn that one last bit of knowledge you'll find all the pieces of the puzzle of life come together. It may be pleasure just throwing yourself into a life full of pleasure whatever makes you feel good and we saw back in chapter 2 that just leads to bondage and addictions or it may be fame or it may be possessions or it may be work or it may be other things that Solomon hasn't talked about. And you're trying everything you can to fill that emptiness in your heart and in your soul but you're still waking up in the morning saying it's got to be more to life than this. There is more to life than that and it all begins with a relationship with God. You were created to have that relationship with him. It's broken because of sin but God sent his son Jesus Christ to pay for your sin on the cross to die for your sin and bear God's punishment for your sin so that you could be the person who died. So that you could be the Bible calls it reconciled to God be brought back in to that relationship with God that you were intended and created to have but it is only through Jesus Christ as your savior that you can be reconciled to God that you can have that relationship with him. We must have a relationship with God. Jonathan Edwards that great pastor of the early middle 1700s the man who God used to lead the first great awakening in our nation. The man who is presently his writings are known to us basically through John Piper. Jonathan Edwards said this the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. So in other words you try to satisfy your soul with anything else and it won't be satisfied because your soul was created to have fellowship with God. He goes on to say fathers and mothers husbands wives or children or the company of earthly friends are but shadows but enjoyment of God is the substance. These all these other relationships are but scattered beams but God is the son. These are but streams but God is the fountain. These are but drops but God is the ocean. See what he's saying and I would even take it a step further if you if you recognize the sun if you find purpose and meaning in a relationship with God then all the beams that he allows you to have in your life make sense too and they give you joy. So all the relationships with friends or family they fall into place and give you meaning if you begin with a relationship with God but we must have a relationship with him. Solomon is saying all of this is the gift of God it comes from him not from your maddening pursuits to try to find it other ways. It's from the hand of God apart from him you will not find happiness enjoyment fulfillment and purpose in life you will not find it apart from him. You see a lot of people have the wrong idea many people have the wrong idea about life a lot of people especially those who've never come to Christ have the idea that it's in the world and what it offers you. That you find enjoyment and God is some kind of bully up in heaven with a big stick if he sees you smiling or laughing or having a good time you're going to get it because God doesn't like people to enjoy things you want you to suffer. Obviously God uses suffering sometimes to enrich us and to draw us closer to him for lots of reasons but nobody wants you to enjoy your life more than God does again look at verse 25. For without him or apart from him who can eat or find enjoyment to know that you are right with God to know that you've established a relationship with him where your sin is paid for and no matter what happens to you here you have a home in heaven for eternity. That leads to meaning purpose and enjoyment of life and I'm not just talking about you can enjoy reading your Bible and coming to church and praying I'm talking about you can enjoy all of life if you start with a relationship with God you can enjoy a good joke you can enjoy playing ball you can enjoy walking in your neighborhood. Depending on the neighborhood but you can enjoy all those things in life. You can enjoy all the good things that God gives you your family the meal that you have the job you have that's the point you can enjoy all of those things you know what the great tragedy is the tragedy is a Christian not enjoying life that's the tragedy. Because of all people those who have found the Lord and have a relationship with him where true purpose and meaning in life begin and eternal life is promised of all people we should find the other pieces of the puzzle coming together in a way that we can enjoy life. It's sad when those who claim to know Jesus is saved are always negative critical finding fault with everything just absolutely depressing to be around that's sad. I was thinking about this this week because tonight I'm going to be speaking on Ezra and Ezra is the story at least in part of the children of Israel coming back to the land after they've been in captivity for 70 years. And one of the things that happens in Ezra and Nehemiah's time actually before that time is the 80 years before that time is the building of the temple but Ezra talks about that. And there are a couple of prophets that also talk about that and let's think about this this week that the prophet Haggai and Zachariah deal with the temple that was built when the Jews went back to the land. In comparison to Solomon's temple it was just a shabby little piece of work. I mean Solomon's temple that was was torn down by the Babylonians and leveled was one of the wonders of the ancient world. And the temple that is a rubbable built when he went back was it was pretty meager in comparison to that. And so Haggai raises the question in his little prophecy in chapter 2 you older men that lived through the captivity you were maybe teenagers when you were taken captive and you saw Solomon's temple how does this one compare. He's he's anticipating the questions because they were grumbling and complaining about this little little dinky thing that's rubbable it built. And they are actually crying remembering the old temple and he says how does this one compare. He says do not do not fret over this temple for God's spirit is still among you. And then Zachariah says in Zachariah 410 that God himself will rejoice when Zerubbable places the capstone on this temple. As little as it is as meager as it is in comparison it's a place to worship God and God rejoices in it. It doesn't have to be the biggest the best the most gold one of the ancient wonders of the world. They don't have to be that. So God is modeling for us you don't have to have the biggest the best the newest the nicest of everything. Enjoy what he has given you God does God said Zerubbable I thoroughly enjoy this temple. It's not like Solomon's but that's not the point I thoroughly enjoy this little place you built for me. So God himself models for us that we can enjoy and find purpose and fulfillment and meaning in life if we will recognize that it comes only from God. Here's Solomon's point in verses 24 and 25 only God gives enjoyment fulfillment purpose and meaning in life. Not the search for knowledge not possessions not pleasure not fame not work a holism and climbing the ladder of success only God gives purpose and meaning in fulfillment in life. It is a gift from his hand and you have to have a relationship with him through his son Jesus Christ to find purpose and meaning in life. That's the second instruction as Solomon takes us back to the beginning of the maze and says here God's instructions for how to navigate life. But there's a third one you see it verse 26 make it your priority to please God make it your priority to please God verse 26 to the person who pleases him. God gets wisdom knowledge and happiness but to the center literally the expression there is the one who is the most important. The expression there is the one offensive to God the one who lives in such a way that God turns his back on a simple lifestyle to the center he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God this to and it's clear from the Hebrew text that's referring back to what he's just said about the center who gathers and stores up wealth this to is meaningless a chasing after the wind. What's he saying in verse 26 basically is saying that one of the clear instructions of enjoying life is to make it a priority to please God verse 26 is saying this is the basis on which God gives enjoyment to please him it is to those who please him that God gives wisdom knowledge and happiness enjoyment the real purpose and meaning in life it is to the person who pleases him. So what he's saying is your main goal in life your main priority in life ought to be to please him because that's the basis on which God gives enjoyment of life your goal in life your priority in life should never be to impress other people or to please yourself and all of those other tracks for finding meaning fulfillment in life really come from that motivation. I want to please someone else I want to impress someone else where I want to please myself the priority of life for all of us as believers ought to be to please God. Now here's the importance of this instruction the importance of this instruction especially especially for believers is this even when you recognize that it's not the maddening pursuit after more bigger better newer nicer that's going to satisfy you but keep life simple. Enjoy whatever God's given you even when you recognize that and even when you recognize that enjoyment of life and purpose and meaning only comes from a relationship with God okay so you know him and you know that that's true even when that's true it is easy for those who know those first two instructions to get caught looking at the other side the greener grass the other tracks and they become more enticing more alluring. More desirable and so it's easy even for a believer to get off track again even though you've been on the right track and there's some of you sitting in this room this morning that are right there you know Jesus is your savior you know you're going to heaven but you are right in there with the rest of the world in the rat race of trying to find meaning and fulfillment and purpose in life in all the wrong ways. And you have abandoned the priority of your life to please him and so you've forgotten every morning when you wake up I want to please him today I want to do I want to say I want to think my attitudes my approach to life my ambitions in life I want all of that to please him even a believer can get strangely off track in perspective on life and what it means to have the right priorities that's the reason why this is so important so I want to ask you this morning what are your priorities in life what are they ask yourself that question what are my priorities in life can I say that the way I'm living really is rooted in the ambition to please him or is it really to impress other people or to please myself which is it what really is my I asked yourself that honestly Paul reminds us of this in second Corinthians 5 in verse 9 where he says so we make it our goal okay this is our priority to please him whether we are at home in the body or away from it and in the context Paul's talking there about some day we're going to die and we're going to trade in this earthly tent for a heavenly body for one given to us by God we're going to die and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord is talking about a time when we will be in God's presence he's talking about a heavenly perspective knowing that this life is not all there is knowing that we will be in heaven someday Paul says so because of that we make it our priority our goal to please him to please him so that whether we stay here or go on home in the body or out of the body we please him please that's our goal in life that's our ambition in life that is our priority in life Paul says what is your priority what is your priority there was an interesting article in the New York Times August 7th of this year in the wake of the Olympics right as they were winding up New York Times featured this story about the the Chinese government and their approach toward preparing Olympic athletes they're very successful in the Olympics but the article highlighted what and I quote the human costs of China's Olympic prowess and they told story after story of athletes that are from very young ages separated from their families and taken to these government facilities where they're fed and trained certain ways and trained in athletics when they're when they show some signs of prowess in the early age of three or four years old taking away to train from all of their childhood and through their teen years and and they they mentioned for instance a father of the gold medal winning diver remember that young lady who won the gold medal in diving this year her father was quoted as saying we accepted a long time ago that she doesn't belong to us I don't even dare think about things like family happiness basically this young lady who won the gold medal in diving in the Olympics was never told of her grandparents death both of them had died she was never told about that she was never told that her mother had a life threatening illness why because it would have interrupted her plans to become an Olympic medalist how tragic another story was told of the father of the gold medal winning male weightlifter who claimed that he had not seen his 23 year old son for seven years and the stories went on and on and on talking about athletes that had one gold medals but after they came back they're no longer useful some of them are begging on the streets now it would be very easy to criticize China and that's not my point at all we we made disagree with their approach to training athletes and the government type thing but some of us in this room are guilty of the very same thing very same thing when we pour every bit of our energy into making it in our career every bit of our energy and accumulating whatever possessions we can get or enjoying whatever pleasures we can or gaining whatever knowledge we can and our whole life is focused around that so that whatever time we may have with our families is not very good not quality time it's not focused time our minds are somewhere else our energies are somewhere else and we're really living the same kinds of lives what Solomon is saying is you need to ask yourself a hard question what is your priority is your priority in life to please God those are the people to whom God gives wisdom knowledge about life happiness enjoyment purpose fulfillment you can plug the words in there but contrast the center the end of the verse to the center to the one whose lifestyle is offensive to God who's not pleasing to him he gives the task and it's not some kind of cruel fate it's not like God says oh okay you're gonna live that way then I'm gonna make it this way for you it's this is a proverb this is saying basically this is all these people have to live for if they don't live for me and the priority of aim is to please me then this is all they have to live for they end up in that track of striving and notice he says gathering and storing up well that's what the whole life is about you know they've been described in the first part of chapter two and the last part of chapter two also with people who pour all their life and energy into possessions and work to get them those possessions and all their life is about striving to amass together to to hoard up to build up all of these possessions and then he says you know the irony of it is they got to hand it over to someone else when they die he's already talked about that in chapter two here he says in a proverbial kind of way he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God the basic point is you know you gather all this stuff you pour whole your whole life into gathering stuff and then you gotta leave it to someone else and the irony is that quite often God transfers it to someone who pleases him I mean there are lots of examples of that too many to mention there are lots of examples of that doesn't happen all the time this is a proverb but it does happen and it happens a lot the navigators headquarters in Glen Erie Colorado is a former mansion built for a man's wife to try to pleaser she lived in it one day so I don't like this and it was gone and so the navigators ended up getting it it fell into the hands of those who pleased God the famous French philosopher and atheist Voltaire once said that I will live to see the doing away of the Bible in my lifetime after his death his former home became a Bible printing facility in France God saw to it that the fell into the hands of those who pleased him I've been the hungry and hungry the word of life Bible Institute the word of life ministry and Hungary operates out of a castle it's a castle that was built for royalty abandoned by them and through a series of God ordained circumstances that fell into the hands of the word of life ministry and they operate out of that castle today in Ukraine Pastor Jim has been there some of you have been there to the little town of Kubanka in Kubanka, Lonia and Lubbock, Garmann take young people from their church every Sunday to a meeting house in Kubanka I have preached there that little meeting house was built for the communist government to give their propaganda to the communists to the citizens of that little town and now it's used for preaching the gospel many more examples like this could be given obviously this is not their exceptions to it not everybody who builds up wealth does it happen to fall into the hands of believers but sometimes God ordains that and arranges that the point that Solomon is making though is that if you live a lifestyle that is not pleasing to God you do not know him and do not have him in your life then all you've got left is doing everything you can to get all you can out of this life and then you leave it behind to someone else it's gone this too yeah Solomon says is meaningless a chasing after the wind start contrast to the clear instructions that he's given us for how to live life when our kids were little we enjoyed playing board games and one of the board games we enjoyed the most was called the Game of Life you remember that one the Game of Life that is a lot of fun the game of life has an interesting history very interesting history recently the New Yorker magazine did an article on the Game of Life and they talked about its origin and it's changing through the years and each of the changes in that game reflected the changes in our culture they tell the story that in 1798 is when the game was first introduced to this country a board game from England found its way to the United States and became very popular it was called the New Game of Human Life and in this game if you required virtues it's sped you through the game faster if you entertain vices sin in your life it slowed you down and the board game itself the box said this parents were encouraged to play the game with their children and the main point was and I quote life is a voyage that begins at birth and ends at death God is at the helm fate is cruel and your reward lies beyond the grave that was the game of life in 1798 in 1860 a man by the name of Milton Bradley who would found the company that would later produce this in many other games Milton Bradley invented a simple board game based on this earlier English edition he called it the checkered game of life the goal was still to live the most virtuous life in 1860 here's the way it worked if you follow the path of honesty and bravery that was the good path in life the difficult path included idleness and disgrace industry and perseverance led to wealth and success Bradley described the game this way on the box and I quote a highly moral game that encourages children to lead exemplary lives and entertains both old and young with the spirit of friendly competition that was in 1860 in 1960 the Milton Bradley company produced a hundred year anniversary edition of the game that's the one we had so 35 million copies in the United States wildly popular and in that game notice the difference in shift that reflects our culture in 1960 and that generation it was simply called the game of life in that game the goal was to earn the most money there was no mention of either virtues or vice it was just to gain money and so you had several tracks that depending on where you fell on the board you either got a college degree or you became a certain kind you had a certain kind of occupation and the goal was to get the best occupation that paid you the most money by furniture get all this stuff and you remember at the end of the game the last piece or the last spot that you landed on was called life's day of reckoning do you remember that and the day of reckoning was not standing before God the day of reckoning was the last part of the game where everybody added up their money and you got to see whether or not you retired to millionaire acres that was the goal of the game ah how it had changed from the goal being to live a virtuous life to getting the most money and retiring as a millionaire in 1990 they updated the game again and the designers made it less about money although that would end up being the end result but they emphasized good deeds but the good deeds very culturally relevant were saving an endangered species or solving a pollution problem or things like that and the only reward for that though was to get money and so the goal was still to retire with the most money 2011 they updated it again now listen to this the game of life now this is a reflection of our culture this is what we're teaching life is really about in the 2011 edition you can attend school travel start a family whatever you want if you earn enough points you can reward yourself with a sports car there's no end or last square to the game you can stop anytime you want the box says it this way a thousand ways to live your life you choose it is not value driven values are up for grabs you get as many points for scuba diving as you do for donating a kidney here's what the website says about the game do whatever it takes to retire and style with the most wealth at the end of the game and basically the concept is all roads all paths in this game are equally valid there's no right path there's no wrong path there's no worst path there's no better path wow doesn't that reflect the culturalism of our day and the pluralism and and absolute no absolutes and that kind of thing pluralism of our day wow relativism it's just straight down the path the goal is still to retire with as much money as you can but there is no right way or wrong way do it however you want they're all equally valid sounds like ecclesiasties to me sounds like exactly what you want sounds like exactly what Solomon is saying sounds like the mouse in the maze bumping up against dead ends constantly try this you bump up against the dead end try that try that the only way to find the purpose fulfillment and meaning in life that you were created by God to have is to stop the rat race of trying to get more bigger better newer nicer keep life simple enjoy whatever God is doing simple enjoy whatever God has given you remember and recognize that enjoyment in life is a gift from God and it only comes as you have a relationship with him and then after you establish that relationship with him keep yourself on the path of the priority that says I want my life to please him not to impress others not to please myself please him to please him and then and only then only as you follow God's instructions as you follow God's instructions will you find meaning in the maze of life it's pray Father thank you that you've given us the clear instructions thank you that you've made it clear how we should live life so that we find the purpose and meaning fulfillment even enjoyment Solomon uses the word that you intended us to have Father help us to recognize if we've never established that relationship with Jesus with you as our father through your son Jesus as our Savior help us to realize it's where we need to begin and then for those who have never never trusted Christ I pray that today they will do that I pray for those who may have trusted Jesus but have gotten on the wrong path gotten the rise off of the real meaning and purpose of pleasing you I pray that you'd help us to refocus our lives on what it really means to please you in Jesus name we pray amen