What's It Like Down Under? (Part 2)

Those were outside of the Christian faith look at Christians on this. I will be so the folks who don't know how to have fun.

They do this at these other people who are down and negative and they just don't know how to be happy. They said these are the people who never enjoy life while I got news for the opposite is true. The opposite is only true Christians know how to have true enjoyment of life.

Only true Christians can have true permanent happiness in life. Only true Christians can have a lasting peace of mind only true Christians can have an exciting and purposeful life.

Only true Christians have the contentment and the confidence about their identity and their eternal future. In fact that's what King Solomon of old has discovered after conducting this controlled experiment, searching for happiness searching for joy and you got away from God and his midlife crisis and looking for in all the wrong places and then he conclude only those who are in fellowship with God can truly have a fulfilled life. As Solomon tried everything imaginable. And something's probably unimaginable. Why he would say that he was looking for happiness that he was looking for joy that he was looking for something to satisfy him, but he couldn't find it in things that was his conclusion and saw in chapter 2 verse 25 your fine his conclusion, he said only God can give you true enjoyment of life. Only God can give you contentment and joy, regardless of your circumstances. He said I have tried all these other things that people think you gonna bring them happiness.

After all these things or people thought again to bring them joy and enjoyment. And they brought me nothing but emptiness. They brought me nothing but monopoly they brought me nothing but meaninglessness.

In fact, they brought me despair of life itself. And so the apostle Paul thousand years later echoes the same thing in first Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 he said for the children of the living God. God has given us all things. How many all things for our enjoyment. God wants his children to be enjoying life, because without him. Life is meaningless. But with him. Life is full of meaning true enjoyment can only come from God that Solomon's conclusion that this chapter 2. Listen carefully, Solomon experimented with kids today. I will call fun-loving and he was loving fun and Hebron was looking for it and the sad thing is that some of the generations. Repeat Solomon's mistake many young people when even some in the drop in the church when they go to college. They buy into that lie that says that you can experience real fun without God, that you can experience real happiness without doubt that you can have enjoyment in life that you can have freedom from mom and dad and they repeat Solomon's mistake all over again, albeit on a limited budget and most of them.

Thank God they come back and they discover that all of the so-called phone left them empty that all the so-called fun was futile that this so-called phone left him depressed and despondent even of life itself, and sadly even make some of it to be suicidal.

Now I want you to look at Solomon's experiment of searching for fun and happiness in life away from God instead of happiness. He found despair.

Can you imagine the man who had everything that no one before him, and no one since have ever had as much as this man had and all the things that that he mentioned here in the Bible, and yet he said I hated life. Can you imagine that literally. After all of his accomplishment.

He says, is that all there is is that all the rears. After all that accomplished and after all that he pursued with vigor and with enthusiasm is that all there is, so please turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 last message where we began a series from the book of Ecclesiastes entitled what is applied down under and we have learned that under the sun is a reference to our life without God we have learned that life under the sun is a life without God. And Solomon said when I experienced it. I found it to be empty would be futile to be monotonous and to be meaningless and that is why only a life that is lived all over the sun above the sun where God is only alive that is lived in fellowship with God on their life that is lived in the promises of God on their lives. The trusts and the word of God only life that lives under the authority of the word of God that can be truly a joyful life. Let's look at what he did in verses 1 to 3. He tried what we would call fun. In verses 4 to 9. He tried big projects when that didn't work out.

Verses 10 to 12. He tried I've got to have an attitude in verses 13 to 16. He tried to distinguish himself to make a name for himself to be different from everybody else around them, but by the get verses 17 to 23 of chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes you find him disgusted with life itself, and then he concludes verses 24 and 25 it comes to the conclusion that without God, life is not even worth living.

Look at verse one with me is what he said is that I was talking to myself, self talk is part of who we are. We all talked ourselves like the guys at what Dr. cell phone with them is that I just like to talk to wise person. But listen very careful about yourself.

Talk. Be very careful what you say to yourself when you're alone because if your self talk is not focus on the word of God. If it is not focus on the promises of God in the word of God then you gonna find yourself talk will give way to despair and to despondency if you're not careful that you self talk is focus on the word of God and the promises of God. You gonna find yourself going further into self-centeredness and into self-pity. If you're not careful you gonna find that your thoughts will soon give way to thoughts of self worship and even indulgence. I remember back in 1989. I'll never forget it. A man came to me and he said are you the first person I'm talking to you but I've been talking a lot to myself and as it is that I've been thinking that all these years I've been giving of myself all these years I have been sacrificing for other all of these years are doing much for my family and he said I have been doing so much for others. Now I'm convinced that it is time for me to make a change as it all I knew was coming. He said I made a decision after talking to myself for so long that I need to focus on myself. I need to take care of myself that I need to enjoy myself. I told her listen this, self talk is not only of the devil, but nothing good can come out of it. Sure enough, a year later he met a mess of things.

Listen to me. Solomon said I wanted to have fun is that I wanted to have fun and make having fun, to be my total focus that I wanted to having fun, to be my goal in life. I wanted pleasure to be the only reason.

What I can.

I live for. So he hired all the professional comedians. He hired all the singers he got Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra playing every night in his garden. I mean he did everything because he could afford it, is that I wanted to laugh so much that I met laughter to be my aim in life, only to discover that when laughter ended. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It's a rough translation but you get the meaning later on he calls it like cracking dying fire. Listen to me there is nothing wrong with laughter. Did you get that salmon on only Gaza. My decision left.

You know that I love laughing as much as anybody and I have my own quirky sense of humor and I even love of my own jokes when you don't. I love left as much as anybody but when you first shoot laughter as your goal is your aim in life. Solomon said when laughter is finished, you gonna get depressed when laughter did not work out for him.

What did he do so. I try something else.

I tried all sorts of things that can bring the pleasure sorry. He went on to binge drinking. I really thought that really don't help him so he pursued drunkenness, thinking that it may know him his feelings and that will bring him happiness, and the only thing that it brought him was a headache and a hangover.

He said if you live for pleasure alone enjoyment will decrease unless the intensity of the pleasure increases but then you reach a point of diminishing return when there's nothing left but enslavement and bondage, but is a truth there is no greater enjoyment of life. There is no more lasting fulfillment in life. There is no greater joy in life than seeing others being blessed through you.

So when pleasures did not work out did not satisfy him.

What did he do, he thought, well, you know, I need to have some big project that I got to be involved are about to have some big accomplishment in life, so he decided to embark on big projects. Listen to me.

There's nothing wrong with the project.

Did you get that there's nothing wrong with accomplishments. There's nothing wrong with embarking on big project. Nothing wrong with that.

The question is, what you doing it for.

It was said of Nero that he said that I came in our sole role.

The city of bricks and I left it as a city of marble, but why for self-aggrandizement wasn't for the Romans and the benefits of the citizen. This was for his self-aggrandizement, but these self-centered projects and accomplishments.

Solomon said to turn out empty and compounded my emptiness in my life just share with you of one day menu food in Solomon's household is one that 300 bushels of fine flowers 600 bushels of grain of all kinds 10 locks 20 F grade a mind you 100 sheep, and this is not counting the gazelles the Hartzler fetid chicken. The ducks and all kinds of exotic birds. Just one to Michael way to get those in the Bible. By the way, first Kings chapter 4 is in case you think I'm making it up and fight somebody calculated that he's probably was feeding something between 10 to 20,000 people as his entourage.

That's a people's minions running around in his palace.

Let me show you how serious Solomon was in his pursuit of happiness in pursuit of enjoyment in life. Do you know that his father David left him a fortune. David left Solomon for the building of the temple is something between one and $2 billion of our money today one or $2 billion it sunk God told me not to build the temple because he said too much blood in your hand but I'm going to have your son build the temple. And here's the money and Davidson who are we to be able to give that to the Lord and as everything comes from your handle Lord everything goes back to him and Solomon obeyed his father that he is what he did. Listen carefully you know how long it took for him to build the temple seven years. Do you know how long it took him to build his house 14 years, twice as much twice as big twice as time twice as much money for what I just thought you know 700 wives and 300 concubines, bless his heart, he probably needed the space. But after this pleasure seeking mania after this pleasure seeking binge that he was about after these grain building projects. He looked at them and he says he said all the rooms all the risen life's that's a question that every man, woman, boy and girl who live under the sun is asking the question, is that all there is for those who are living above the sun where God is for those who are living in fellowship with God. They can work hard. They can accomplish great things they can experience success, but not for self-aggrandizement, not for self consumption alive because they understand the words of Jesus that when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he will give you all that you need for those who live above the sun. They live above the sun.

How by pleasing God above all by pleasing God with their time and with their money and with the social calendar and with that thought, patents, and with their decision-making and was their financial planning and was their future planning.

Then they will truly experience true happiness and true enjoyment of life, true happiness that others could pay billions of dollars or even a fortune to try to get a new will never get you'll never get it in or out on this one. I've got to have it attitude never brings to happiness or enjoyment in life, but I've got to give it attitude it will give you all the happiness that billions of dollars could never bother you and Solomon concluded now that I haven't done it all. Now that I've experienced it all now that I've accomplished it all on now must face death and he gets depressed. He said I'm going to die just like any other foolish person. All we don't occupy is 6 feet of real estate.

Death is the great equalizer and volume years ago I heard the story about an American businessman who sold his company for mega millions and the went down to one of those Caribbean islands and he decided that now worked hard accumulated all this money I'm going to just enjoy life on the line. The sun just have a ball while he was there, he noticed there was an island in the local native guy who watched him every morning he gets up and takes his boat to the water catch some fish brings the fish sells them in the market and for the rest of the day.

He just sits back and enjoy himself. So finally he decided to talk to him.

He said young man. He said the he said why don't you work harder and expand your business and the native good said why is it well so that you can have many more fishing boats and have more people working for you. Blessed why is it well so that you can make more money and be rich like me who he answered why this is so that you can sit back and enjoy life like me to say that's exactly what I'm doing. King Solomon goes from being depressed at the emptiness of life that all of these things that he have purse you and the all these things that he went after and he said they brought me nothing but made me despair of life itself. Imagine probably the richest man that ever lived, and never will live why Riley began to think of death and leaving it all behind all the things he worked for all the things that he sweat forward all the things that he spent sleepless nights doing, he began to wonder what is the next generation going to do with this. Are they gonna value it will not are they going to preserve at the wasted are they going to conservator destroyer whether they will even appreciate it or not and I got him depressed. Sure enough, this is almost prophetic because his son who inherited all of this literally single-handedly destroyed the kingdom of Israel, never to be the same again and split in half and from that time on went in a downward spiral. Someone said money is an article which may be used as a universal passport to take you everywhere except heaven, yet Jesus said there is a way for all of us to take it with us as swords it is that there is a way that you can take it with you. You can take your wealth with you can protect your wealth right now. He said there where you send along there were nobody can steal it. There is no inflation that will eat it up. There will be no losses that can touch it and that is why Solomon comes at the end and says apart from God lives could never be enjoy life without God is tenuous frustration with maybe intermittent periods of temporary happiness.

Beloved, listen to what I'm going to tell you because this is the truth from the word of God. God wants his children. Those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. Those who know that if they close their eyes and death.

Today there will be in heaven in the presence of Jesus. The moment they leave this world that God wants his children to succeed in life. God wants his children to be diligent in their work.

God wants his children to be wise stewards. God wants his children to be joyful and contented and all of that can happen when you place him first and foremost in your life in every area of life. All that can happen when you live not under the sun but where above the sun there may be someone here today who is living under the sun think that this life is all the race trying fulfillment in trying satisfaction, material things and accumulation of more and more and more things. Please let me urge you before you starve to death. Come to Christ come to Christ today. I plead with you, I appeal to you come to Christ where you can find true fulfillment. True joy, true enjoyment in life regardless of your circumstances. Regardless what you go through regardless of the ups and downs. Regardless of the valleys in the mountaintop, Fanny Crosby wrote many hymns. She was blind almost from birth. Yet you lived almost to be 90 years old and we know many of her hymns, but there is something that you wrote when she was at the age of eight that I want to share it with you is what she wrote at the age of eight. Oh what a happy child. I am although I cannot see I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be how many blessings I enjoy the other people do not to weep inside because I'm blind I cannot and will not that is a life that is lived where above the sun regardless of her circumstances. She lived a fulfilled life or joyful life because she lived not under the sun. Travel warning from Solomon so please do not live under the sun because all the promises that living under the sun makes you a lie's father, we thank you that you are a great God and that you continue to invite us to come and live above the sun and father we know experientially that life under the sun is not what is correct out to be. And yet father we buy into the sly, and we tried to push you happiness and find them realize that will leave us empty and in despair of life itself. Father I pray in the name of Jesus that not one sold his living under the sun walk out of here continuously living under the sun made this day be a day in which many would come and live above the sun receive the forgiveness of sin, repent of their sins walk by faith and trust in you, knowing that you never leave nor forsake you children and father is by faith that I pray that this day in heaven. Names will be written in the book of life in Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening to this message from Dr. Michael.

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