#3 The Novelty Wears Off (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)
Notes
In this sermon on Ecclesiastes 2, Pastor Mark Davies explores Solomon’s bold experiment with hedonism—pursuing pleasure, laughter, wine, grand projects, wealth, music, and sensual delights—only to conclude that it is “vanity and striving after wind.” Drawing on neuroscience, personal testimony, and the tension between self-indulgence and asceticism, Mark shows how even the wisest king discovered that earthly pleasures, while not inherently evil, cannot satisfy the human heart. He contrasts Solomon’s self-focused creations with God’s good creation, highlights the law of diminishing returns in our own pleasure-chasing culture, and directs listeners to the lasting joy found in Christ. The message balances realism about sin with gospel hope, culminating in an invitation to find pleasure in God and the foretaste of eternal satisfaction at the Lord’s Table.
"2:1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun" (Ec 2:1–11).
