SUNDAY (LIVE) - March 15, 2026 | Ecclesiastes 2:1-20 - Salt Water with Matt Heverly

God kept his promises to a prodigal wayward king that was really shaking his fist at God during this time, And God stayed faithful to him. God kept his promises to him. That's amazing to me. And if you look at your own life, I if I look at my life, when I had my prodigal days, I can look back now, twenty twenty hindsight, I see, man, God, you were there with me the whole time. You kept your promises to me. You kept wooing me and talking to me even when I was in the pigpen, even when I was against you, that God is the faithful God who does not give up on us because he's so good. [01:15:37] (41 seconds)  #GodKeepsPromises

He said most people believe that the world is either a hotel or a jail. And Lewis said, depending on your perspective of what this world is is gonna determine a lot of how much you enjoy it. If you believe the world should be this hotel catered to you, you're gonna always be complaining. Man, the bed was hard. The art in the wall is so ugly. The shower was a little bit small. Man, the hallway light was on all night. I couldn't sleep. Man, the road noise, I heard it. Can't believe it. The view, not very good. [01:11:23] (33 seconds)  #PerspectiveChangesEverything

Look at I have value because I own a Picasso. I have value because I own a Rembrandt. I have value. Look at the wallpaper. That makes me valuable somehow because I own this thing now. That sex wasn't for pleasure. Sex was for meaning. I'm valued. I have purpose. I belong. I've I'm completed somehow by this act, but it didn't work. Because pleasure and fun can never take the weight of meaning. They can't. It's impossible. They always flex and they break. That's what happens. [01:02:08] (31 seconds)  #MeaningOverPleasure

I think the Bible begins by saying this, life with God is good. So when you read Genesis chapter one, God is creating. And every time he creates, what does he say? It's good. The place that I am creating for my image bearers is to be a good place. I want them to have good things and enjoy life. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's very good. Life with God is good. So the opposite is just as true. That life without God is not good. [00:37:16] (40 seconds)  #LifeWithGodIsGood

Solomon looked at people and circumstances to make him happy. The majority of people do that. If I can just get the right people or the right circumstances around me, if I can control these things, then I will be happy. That is a recipe for misery. So I'll put it like this. Man gets married, has some kids, has a job, has a house, has all the things that he would have thought as a 20 year old man would make him happy, and he's not happy. [01:06:12] (39 seconds)  #DontChaseCircumstances

God's not a cosmic killjoy trying to make sure no one's having fun. It's pathetic to me. John Piper calls it Christian hedonism, and I agree that our dad is stoked when we enjoy the good earth that he created for us. He's stoked that Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. You know what Jesus was never accused of? Being a bummer. Not once. You know what Jesus was accused of over and over by the religious elite? Bro, you're a partier. Calm down. [01:09:23] (34 seconds)  #GodLovesJoy

But if you know what this world actually is, since Genesis chapter three, it's a prison that one day we get set free from. Then, man, you're full of gratitude. You're like, a bed? I can't believe I got a bed. This is amazing. Shower. My own shower. My greatest fear was the public shower. It's like, I got my own shower in jail. This is awesome. Food. There was choices. I thought it'd just be oatmeal. They had eggs. I got a view. There's a window. Wow. What's your perspective? [01:12:00] (32 seconds)  #GratefulForSimpleBlessings

And if you're looking for blame, you'll always find someone to blame. There's always somebody that you can point your finger at. If my wife was just, if you look like that, I'd be happy. If my house was bigger, I'd be happy. If my work was more fulfilling, I'd be happy. If my friends weren't such losers, I'd be happy. If my parents hugged me more, I'd be happy. You name it. There's always someone you can blame for your problems. And so it's a recipe for misery. The real thing is life without God is no good. That's the real problem. [01:07:01] (33 seconds)  #StopTheBlameGame

The answer was this. Real relationships are too risky. It's too risky. My heart might be broken. This person might be a player. There's all these risks that he So real relationships are risky. We want the pleasure without the risk. And that's why women said they're turning to pornography. We want we want to be safe. It's like Ecclesiastes. And the sad part about it is this, we're not happy. We've got more of everything, and we're not happy. We're verse 18 now. We hate it. [01:04:20] (44 seconds)  #ChooseRealConnection

Something's not working. We have a culture that is making, creating, pleasure seeking, acquisition buying, achievement oriented, depressed humans. That's what our culture is putting out because we bought into the lie. And life without god is not good. That's the lie. So let me give you the mistake that Solomon made here, and let me give you three things that I think he's missing. Here's the mistake in this chapter. Why the end is despair, hate life, hate work. [01:05:36] (36 seconds)  #PleasureCultureProblems

Second thing that is missing here, gratitude. He's had some pretty cool things, and he never says thanks. Here's why. He expected the world to be something that it could not be. And when it could not be that, he couldn't control, couldn't do the things he wanted, he just got mad at it. Even though he's doing pretty good, he's just mad at it because it wasn't exactly the way he wanted. It wasn't Eden like he wanted it to be. [01:10:49] (31 seconds)  #GratitudeOverExpectation

Solomon is missing good God. I think one of the best witnesses for a Christian is to love life. The end of Solomon is he hates where he's at. The best witness for a Christian is to live life huge and enjoy it. All the good things God has for us. And what you're gonna see is there's these moments of brilliance in Solomon where he comes back to this, that life is a gift. God is a good God. He says it in Ecclesiastes two twenty four, three thirteen, five thirteen, chapter six verse chapter nine verse eight, just over and over. Oh, life's a gift. [01:10:11] (38 seconds)  #LifeIsAGift

The whole idea of a soul mate is a stupid twenty first century lie from the enemy. That somewhere out there is your soul mate. You'll find your soul mate right with a unicorn and the Oompa Loompa. That's where you'll find your soul mate. I know Charity is my soul mate, because on 01/15/2000, I said I do, and she became my soul mate. This idea, Solomon just flushes it out. No. No way. Not gonna happen. [00:50:59] (30 seconds)  #SoulmateMyth

But what you see is this march for the next thing. I tried pleasure. Didn't do it. I tried achievement. Didn't do it. I tried acquisition. Didn't do it. I tried the delight of men's eyes. That didn't do it. I tried reputation. Right? You keep seeing this. Because the human heart is a mirage maker, constantly seeking something. We do it today today at a less level, but we're always, I'm single right now. Man, if I could just get married, I'd be happy. [00:52:38] (30 seconds)  #NeverSatisfied

So men might have fantasies. Solomon had realities. No pleasure did I keep from myself. We're told that Solomon married 700 women and then had an additional 300 concubines. That's a thousand women. Staggering. Like, how many pairs of shoes were in his palace? Maybe he needed thirteen years just to build out the closets. Like, man, FedEx is landing planes unloading pallets of Amazon packages. Like, crazy. A thousand women. Just remembering their name would be difficult. [00:49:35] (46 seconds)  #EmptyExcess

Since there's no meaning, there's no purpose to life, we might as well just go get drunk then. He's not getting drunk and partying because he loves it. He's doing it because life is meaningless. Cause there's nothing else to live for. Since there's nothing to live for, just get drunk. I think in Ecclesiastes two, you see the arc of western civilization now since the enlightenment. Enlightenment was there's no God, naturalism, let's let's get rid of God. And since there's no God, what do we put in that vacuum? [01:01:07] (35 seconds)  #VacuumOfMeaning

My beer commercial that I would make if I had a lot of money and put on the Super Bowl, it'd be this. It'd start with an AA meeting. Men crying over their lost families. It'd pan to a dude in a bathroom at 3AM, puking his guts out, hugging the porcelain queen. It'd go to a woman left in a hotel room after a drunken one night stand, and it would conclude with an angry dad, drunk, raging at his family. That's the beer commercial I'd put on if I had a lot of money. [00:44:23] (33 seconds)  #AlcoholWontFixIt

I think in eternity, when we stand before the Bema seat judgment, we're gonna be shocked At what and who gets rewarded? The first is gonna be last, and the last is gonna be first there. We're gonna be shocked. It makes sense to me of Matthew seven twenty one where Jesus says this, hey, to these guys that were bragging about their achievements. Didn't we do all these great things? And what does Jesus say? I don't know you guys. I don't care about your achievements. Where's your heart? [00:55:58] (29 seconds)  #HeartOverAchievements