Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them … bought male and female slaves … owned more herds and flocks than anyone … I amassed silver and gold … became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem … took delight in all my labor … when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Solomon was a Godly man who understood the God’s Word and wrote some of it. He was enormously successful, fabulously wealthy, and powerful. He ruled a nation, gainfully employed thousands of people, and in modern terms was a mover-and-shaker in the world. But at the end of his life, he was disappointed with his achievements.
Principle: According to many who secure them, worldly achievement and financial success are empty pursuits.
Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll was honored and adored as an entertainer. He sold a billion records in his short lifetime. His home, Graceland, is full of his trophies and
symbols of his rich lifestyle, Cadillacs, Stutrz-Blackhawks, a Convair 880 and an smaller jet.
His later lifestyle had no resemblance to the that of the rest of the world. For example, he once had the Convair flown to Denver late one night to get him a peanut butter sandwich. During his glory years, Elvis denied himself nothing that money could buy. He grew up in an Assembly of God church in Tupelo, Mississippi but searched desperately for something to believe in during his last ten years of life. In his last year, he sought meaning in star-gazing, numerology, astrology, occult subjects and, to his undoing, drugs. Like Solomon looking back, his life was the classic case of a ladder leaning against the wrong wall.
Solomon and Elvis are two extreme examples. Most of us will never have the power and influence of Solomon or the riches and popularity of Elvis, but isn’t that what we hope for? Isn’t that the direction of our lives? To some degree, we prefer riches to righteousness. Success over surrender. Control over contentment. Worldliness over obedience. The pursuit of all of that can be interesting and even stimulating at the time will ultimately be disappointing. Followers of Christ who do not seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness will look back on their lives with dissatisfaction.
Discussion:
1. What does your calendar say about how you’re spending your time?
2. What does your bank account say about how you’re spending your money?
3. What change will you make this week to seek first the kingdom of God?
