Amusement and Achievement Cannot Fill the Soul

And a lot of times in our culture when we look at others through the lens of social media and we think we see their lives but what we're really watching is a carefully curated highlight reel, we wonder if we've made the right life choices. We we question ourselves many times. And what you need to understand is that this is not a new practice. It's at least 3,000 years old because in the Old Testament, the teacher, the one who identifies himself to us as the son of David and king in Jerusalem. Now that narrows it down pretty well to Solomon in my mind. [00:35:01] (43 seconds)  #BeyondTheHighlightReel

And so Solomon has some big questions and last week or two weeks ago, we talked about how that Solomon is going to approach this book and quite honestly when you begin to read it, it's a little unsettling for Christian literature. We want more answers than questions but but Solomon is is asking some really big questions and he's going to go down some dead end streets before he finds the interstate. He's really going to to explore some venues and some avenues that are a little uncomfortable for some of us. And yet Solomon in all his wealth, in all his wisdom, and surrounded by 700 wives and 300 concubines, all his women, Solomon runs an experiment. He says, I I want to know the answers to life. I want to know where there is really meaning in life. And in chapter two, we're going to see two of the experiments that he ran. [00:35:44] (75 seconds)  #SolomonsSearch

But before we're too hard on Solomon, what I would caution you to remember is this, these are two experiments that many of us are still running today, seeing if we can find meaning in life down these very two same streets. Here's the first thing that Solomon's going to experience. Amusement cannot fill the emptiness of our souls. [00:36:58] (29 seconds)  #PleasureDoesntSatisfy

Essentially this is the the philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism is a philosophy that essentially says this. It is the belief that the highest good in life is personal pleasure and the avoidance of pain. You could write the word hedonism over American culture in 2026. It is the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain at all cost. [00:39:47] (36 seconds)  #HedonismUnmasked

And when some people hear the word hedonism, they see sort of an reckless abandon to partying or a reckless abandon to debauchery. And that is one manifestation of it, but it doesn't just mean recklessness, it's just a restlessness. It's constantly searching for a feeling. It's constantly grasping after pleasure, pursuing one avenue of pleasure after another. [00:40:23] (32 seconds)  #ChasingTheHigh

And then he says, and I pursued it with wine. He says, I explored with my mind the pull of wine on my body. He says, I I sought entertainment, I sought laughter, I sought wine, I sought the party life, and yet he says of all of it, it turned out to be futile. He says it's it's just futility. The word there is that word that I told you to look for as we go through this this book of the Old Testament. Heaven in the language of the Old Testament. It doesn't mean nothing. It doesn't mean absolute meaningless. It it just means that it doesn't matter ultimately. It it it is something but it really doesn't produce lasting eternal results and it doesn't produce spiritual joy that sustains us. Oh yes, entertainment can produce for us moments of pleasure and delight and happiness but not lasting meaning. [00:41:28] (71 seconds)  #PartiesDontFillSouls

You see, for all of us, we are looking for experiences many times to dull the pain. We pay for experience after experience, trip after trip, vacation after vacation, moment after moment, toy after toy to dull the pain. But a life built on chasing the next high, on chasing the next fun, exhilarating experience is unsustainable. It is simply not a sustainable way to live. And Solomon finds himself frustrated. [00:43:30] (43 seconds)  #HighsDontHeal

Neil Postman wrote a book that has absolutely been a standard critique of American culture. It was called Amusing Ourselves to Death. In that book, he wrote a couple of quotes that that just stood out to me. Listen to what he wrote. People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. People will come to adore the technologies that will undo their capacities to think. Another quote, when a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, then serious public conversation becomes impossible. Now those two quotes are absolutely true of American society but let me tell you what's what's startling about them. Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985. Forty years ago, before anybody had a cell phone, before anybody had a smartphone, he wrote, we will come to adore our technologies. [00:44:13] (85 seconds)  #TechDullsThought

There are moments when surely amusement, entertainment brings us delight and laughter, but those aren't what really bring meaning to life. They bring relief to struggle and to pain and and and to the seriousness of life and there's nothing wrong with that as a break, but as a pursuit of life you end up just empty. [00:46:00] (27 seconds)  #EntertainmentIsntPurpose

The life in the pursuit of pleasure and amusement cannot fill our souls. Let me tell you something else about amusement. There is the law of diminishing returns that comes from entertainment and amusement. I mean that I don't have to have a scripture verse for that, it's just obvious from life. When my little girl was small, she wanted to ride roller coasters with her dad. And so we would go to an amusement park and we would ride the smallest roller coaster, you know the roller coaster that they build for the little kids and she loved it for a while. But pretty soon, the thrill of the kiddie coaster wore off. Right? So we moved up to kind of the next level, to the adult coaster but kind of the one that that wasn't too intense. And man, that was fantastic. That was great for a while. [00:48:07] (65 seconds)  #DiminishingReturnsOfFun

Achievement cannot fill the emptiness of our souls. If amusement and entertainment won't fill this longing, this emptiness inside me, maybe, just maybe, if I do enough, if I earn enough, if I achieve enough, if I accomplish enough, surely that will fill me with a sense of significance and meaning. [00:51:43] (26 seconds)  #SuccessForSelfIsEmpty

He says, I amassed incredible wealth. And he did. As a matter of fact, in Solomon's day, Israel lived by the gold standard. Gold was the standard. Listen to what the bible says about silver which you know if if gold is the most valuable commodity in a culture like that, then silver would be second. In first Kings ten twenty seven, the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. It was like rocks. It's just everywhere. Silver, it it it was almost worthless. It was devalued because there was so much gold. He had amassed such an incredible fortune. And yet, in all of his achieving, in all of his accumulating, what he discovered is that achievement may deliver success but never satisfaction or significance. [00:54:36] (68 seconds)  #WinsDontCompleteYou

Scottie Scheffler was at one time, I don't know if he still is, the world's number one golfer the last couple of years. He's won the the Masters, he's won the major championships, he's been the top of the of the money board for the last couple of years. Before the British Open last year, he was at a press conference and a reporter asked him if if he felt if he felt like he had arrived, if he had achieved everything that he wanted to achieve, if he was fulfilled in life with these victories. And in a moment of absolute and stunning honesty, Scottie Scheffler said, look, it's nice to win tournaments. But he said this quote, this is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from the sense of the deepest places in your heart. He went on to say this. He said, you know, when you win a tournament, it's it's nice for the moment, you celebrate in the moment, but the next morning you wake up and you say what's next? You always have to achieve more. You always have to accomplish more. [00:55:43] (78 seconds)  #ChasingWhatCantSatisfy

Now, Scotty Scheffler is a Christian and he's a follower of Jesus and what he was trying to communicate is is what Solomon learned right here. That achievement is not what will fill the emptiness of your soul. For so many of us, we are still trying to disprove what Jesus taught us in Luke chapter 12. [00:57:01] (27 seconds)  #BiggerBarnsSyndrome

Luke chapter 12, Jesus told a story about a man who had great fortune. He had he had seen his crops produce bumper crops and rather than thinking of others, rather than thinking of of the kingdom of God, he says, I tell you what I'm gonna do. I've got so much that what I really need to do and and you almost expect him to say, need to give some of the no, no, no. What I need to do is build bigger barns. I need bigger barns. We have bigger barns syndrome in America. We just need more. And if we run out of space at home, we will rent some space somewhere to store away the consumer goods that we've amassed that we don't have any of what thing to do with. We're not gonna touch for you, but we're gonna store them away in the storage unit because we gotta have our stuff. We have bigger Barnes syndrome. [00:57:29] (68 seconds)  #EvenWisdomCanFeelEmpty

What Solomon is trying to say to us three thousand years ago is that it won't work. Oh, we often baptize it with things like responsibility and I'm providing for the my family and I'm providing for the future. But the truth is, we still think that somehow if I get enough, if I gain enough, if I accomplish enough, if I achieve enough, that it's gonna fill up this empty spot and it still leaves us hollow. [00:58:37] (35 seconds)  #ThePartyAlwaysEnds

There are some translations by the way that put this, I hated life. I hated my life. Now that's not suicidal language, that's just his disgust with the way his life is turning out. This was the wealthiest, wisest man who ever lived. [01:01:55] (21 seconds)  #WorshipTheGiverNotTheGift

And yet, he has come to a conclusion. The party always ends, the empire passes to someone else, and all those great collections that you have amassed, all those things that you have spent your life accumulating, your grandchildren are gonna sell them in a yard sale for 50¢ apiece. That's what's gonna happen to them. [01:02:16] (32 seconds)  #NoLifeApartFromGod

Oh, those last three words. They capture what Solomon's finally gotten gotten through to Solomon. He says, enjoy life as a gift. There's nothing better than to eat and to drink and just and and enjoy your work. See the good things and the blessings in life as as a gift from God's hand. [01:03:56] (27 seconds)

Enjoy the gifts but worship the giver. See, we've got that backwards. We almost worship the gifts. He says, who can really eat and enjoy life apart from him? Solomon has finally come to realize that there is no joy and there is no satisfaction apart from God. [01:04:24] (40 seconds)