Ecclesiastes 6

• Sermon Summary

  • Main Point: Life without the satisfying goodness of God is evil and cannot be fixed by man. True satisfaction is only found in God’s goodness through Christ.

  • Scripture: Ecclesiastes 6.

  • Problem:

    • Wealth, honor, and abundance do not guarantee enjoyment (vv.1–2).

    • Long life and many blessings cannot satisfy the soul if God is absent (vv.3–6).

    • All human labor leaves the soul still unsatisfied (vv.7–9).

  • Reality:

    • Man is not God (vv.10–12).

    • Left to ourselves, our definition of “goodness” is warped by sin.

  • God’s Solution:

    • True goodness comes from God, who is goodness Himself (Gen. 1; Mark 10:18).

    • Adam forfeited goodness by sin, but Christ—the goodness of God in the flesh—restores it through His death and resurrection.

    • The Holy Spirit opens blind hearts to see Christ as the only true satisfaction.

  • Applications:

    • To unbelievers: Stop searching in vain places; turn to Christ who gives lasting goodness.

    • To believers: Guard against discontentment; don’t miss the Giver for His gifts. Recognize dissatisfaction, lament sin, and turn to God’s Word, Spirit, and creation as reminders of His goodness.

    • Paul’s secret of contentment: Christ strengthens him in every circumstance (Phil. 4:11–13).

Theme: True Satisfaction in the Goodness of God

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 6; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:11–13; Genesis 1–3; John 1:14; Romans 3:9–18.

1. The Vanity of Human Effort

   • Solomon shows wealth, honor, children, and long life do not guarantee satisfaction.

   • Even wisdom and hard work cannot fill the soul.

   • Discussion: Why do we often assume “more” will finally satisfy us?

2. The Nature of Goodness

   • “Good” (tov) in Genesis 1 describes creation as God intended.

   • Only God is truly good (Mark 10:18).

   • Man lost access to this goodness through sin (Gen. 3).

3. The Goodness of God in Christ

   • Christ is the embodiment of God’s goodness (John 1:14).

   • Though rejected, His death and resurrection secure eternal life and goodness for believers.

   • The Holy Spirit applies this goodness to our restless hearts.

4. Living with True Satisfaction

   • Augustine: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

   • Paul: true contentment comes only through Christ (Phil. 4:13).

   • Believers learn to see glimpses of God’s goodness in creation, providence, and His Word.

Westminster Confession & Catechism References

• WCF 2.1 – God is “most holy, most free, most absolute…most good.”

• WCF 9.3–4 – Man, by the Fall, lost ability to will spiritual good, showing why satisfaction is impossible apart from God.

• WLC Q.1 / WSC Q.1 – Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever—true satisfaction is found in Him.

• WLC Q.21 / WSC Q.21 – Christ as the only Redeemer restores us to God’s goodness.

• WLC Q.36–37 – Benefits of union with Christ: justification, adoption, sanctification, and future glory—lasting satisfaction.

Not sure the sound system's working this morning, but good morning. We're gonna pick up in Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter six. Pastor Brian's been working our way through this book. Last time, if you remember, we were in chapter five, heard about God's good gifts and what happens when we miss the giver for the gifts. Today we're in Ecclesiastes chapter six, and we'll read the whole chapter. If you're using your New King James Pew Bibles, I believe you can find that on page 591. Page 591. This is God's word, let's pay attention. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction. If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he. For it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, even if he lives a thousand years twice, but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place? All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied. For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have who knows how to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. Whatever one is, He has been named already, for it is known that he is man, and he cannot contend with him who is mightier than he. Since there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better? For who knows what is good for man in life? All the days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow. Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun? We'll stop reading God's word there. The truth of the Lord endures forever. Let's pray. Lord, we come before you thankful that we have a word from you, that heaven has spoken and given us this book inspired by your Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray that your word would do that work that only it can do as the sharp two-edged sword of the Spirit to be a discerner of hearts this morning. I pray, Lord, that it would not return to you a void, I pray, Lord, that me as a broken, infallible vessel would not stand in the way of your word. But, Lord, that you would even give me your Holy Spirit and give us your Holy Spirit as your people to be shaped by your word. Lord, would I decrease and would you increase? Would you have the glory today? We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I wonder how many of you sit down with your spouse on a Friday night looking for a restaurant to go to, and look for the worst restaurant with the worst reviews to take your spouse out to. We don't, do we? We all want something good, and we try to find a standard to measure goodness. If you're looking for a restaurant, you might look at the Google reviews, look for a four or five star restaurant to take your wife to. If you want a good movie to watch, you might take it on the recommendation of someone you trust, You want a good car to buy, you might look at the Kelly Blue Book reviews and the safety ratings and make sure that you're getting something good. We all want something good and we don't want to be dissatisfied with anything. And this morning, Ecclesiastes brings us face to face with the reality of that desire. We all desire to be satisfied with goodness. But we also all know the feeling of being disappointed and of being dissatisfied, of that desire that's disappointed. You go to the restaurant, and it didn't match up to the reviews on Google. The food could have been better, the service wasn't great. You watch the show or the movie that was recommended to you, and maybe it was good, but you're left with that sinking feeling that what was in the movie doesn't really match up with reality. You wish you could be in that reality. Maybe it's the new car. Or kids, it's your new toy. Or farmers, it's your new implement. And yeah, it's nice and new and shiny, but it's not as good as you thought it was going to be. And not only do we have this feeling of dissatisfaction, Ecclesiastes tells us that even our standard for goodness, what we think is good, has been fundamentally flawed, so that we can't really truly find what is good left to ourselves. And this is not the way things should be. So this morning as we work through Ecclesiastes 6, God is telling us through Solomon that life without satisfying goodness is an evil that man can't fix. It's not the way things should be and we can't do anything about it. And as we work through this text, we're gonna encounter three types of people. Solomon's gonna tell us that we are not God. We're gonna find that this is an unexpected message in Ecclesiastes chapter six. I want to leave you with God's solution and wrap up with some applications. So as we walk through this text, I want you to feel the call of this passage to wake up to the dissatisfaction of this life by finding your true satisfaction. in the goodness of God. If there's one thing you take away from this sermon, I hope it's this. Wake up to the dissatisfaction of this life by finding your true satisfaction in the goodness of God. So let's chip through this passage together. In verses 1 through 9, we meet three types of people. And right off the bat, we meet man number one in verses 1 through 2. This man has riches, wealth, honor, Solomon says he lacks nothing for himself of all that he desires. But there's one caveat there at the end. God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This man has everything he needs, everything he could ever want, and yet he doesn't get to enjoy any of it. There's a couple of circumstances you can think of. Maybe someone gets robbed. Someone gets scammed. I know when I was in high school trying to build a small business, I found a deal online that was in hindsight way too good to be true. Spent several thousand dollars on someone who ran away with my money. And there's that feeling of injustice. This is not right. I worked hard for all this money and all of a sudden, poof. It's gone. Didn't get to enjoy it. Maybe that's happened to you. Maybe the economy crashes like it did in the 1920s when the Great Depression happened and stock fell by 90% in three years. People's fortune whittled away under their eyes without their power. Or maybe you die. You've amassed all this wealth and God takes your life in a sudden car accident and you can't enjoy it. If we want to think of a biblical example, think of the old Saint Job. And one day, Job lost all his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his servants, his camels, his 10 children, all in one day, through what we would call an act of God. And what is Solomon's conclusion about this? Well, in verse one, he says, there is an evil, which I've seen under the sun. And if that was enough, he emphasizes it again in verse two, this is vanity and it is an evil affliction. This is evil. This word for evil is the idea of calamity or injury or misery. Things are not the way they are supposed to be. So that's man number one. Man number two, we meet in verses three through six. If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he. For it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, even if he lives 1,000 years twice, but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place. So what's this man like? Well, he's got lots of kids, 100 kids, lives a long time, even 1,000 years twice. Solomon here is using exaggerated language to get us the idea that this man is blessed. See, long life in many children would have been seen as a huge blessing in this culture. God promised long life as a reward for obedience. Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 33. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. This man was blessed. Psalm 127.3, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of their womb is a reward. And again, if we want to think of who could this be like, again, think of Job. Job, from what we can understand, probably lived for over 200 years. He had 10 children in the beginning. God took them away from him and then gives him 10 more children at the end. This man was blessed. And yet for all this, man number two, His soul is not satisfied with goodness. Says he hasn't even seen goodness all that time he's been alive. And there's an interesting description of this man in verse three. He says he has no burial. And I was thinking of this, what is Solomon trying to communicate here? It's just an exclamation point on this idea that he hasn't seen goodness. This guy has lived for 2000 years. Wouldn't he have friends by this point? He has a hundred kids. Wouldn't one of them care about him enough to give him a proper burial? And this is another way of saying that this man didn't enjoy the goodness of his life. He didn't enjoy his kids. He didn't enjoy the blessing of relationships. He didn't have the blessing of a good name to be remembered by. He died unnamed, unburied, and unnoticed. And what is Solomon's conclusion about this guy? Well, it's evil. How evil? He says it's worse than being a stillborn child. A stillborn child is better than this man for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness and its name is covered with darkness. And on a quick pastoral aside here, I just want to go into this a little bit because some of your translations will translate this word vanity as meaninglessness or futility. And it would be pastorally insensitive to me to know that there's not people in the congregation who have been touched by stillborn children and by miscarriage. And this word vanity is not so much that there's no meaning or that things are futile, but more that it's a wind or a breath. As soon as you find out you're expecting a child, you get the nursery ready, The hospital bag is packed and they're gone. Just like the wind. It's a harsh reality. And it's not the way things are supposed to be. And Solomon says, this guy is worse than that stillborn child with all of its pain and questions. That's man number two. Man number three, we meet in verses seven through nine. All the labor of man is for his mouth. And yet the soul is not satisfied. For what more has the wise man than the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. Solomon is, we've met a specific guy in man number one, another guy in man number two. This is a blanket statement of men in general. And what do we do? We work, we work. And we work. And what's the result? Verse seven, the soul is not satisfied. Now, some of your translations will use the word appetite here, and that's fine. There is a way that this is true on a very material aspect, right? You work, you work, you work. You can put in 30 hours, 40 hours, 60 hours, 80 hours a week. And guess what? There's always more bills to pay. Seems like no matter how much or how little the kids eat, there's always a pantry to fill up. The grocery cart that was full needs to be filled up again. The clothes keep wearing out. We have to do it all over again. There's this cyclic futility to life that we all understand. But there's also a deeper aspect to this blanket statement Solomon makes about men in general. Because this word for appetite, this word for soul, is the word nephesh, which you may have heard Pastor Brian use before. But it's this idea of our very innermost being. Where do our desires come from? Where does our existence come from? And Solomon is saying no matter how much we work, we can't satisfy the deepest longings of our heart. Think about it. If work was so satisfying to you, why do you long for a vacation every once in a while? If vacation was so satisfying to you, why do you have that itch to get back to work? We aren't able to satisfy the deepest longings of our heart that come from our inner core of who we are. Well, maybe you think, oh, if I'm just wise enough, I can outsmart the system. Solomon doesn't let you wiggle out of that one. What more has the wise man than the fool? Wise man might be smarter about working, be more efficient, He still has to pay the bills and work. The fool, he might have more fun along the way and waste more money, but he's still got to work. What about the poor man? Well, at least he knows how to beg. He knows how to walk before the living. We can't escape it. Solomon gives us no wiggle room here. We're all plagued by never ending desires that beg to be satisfied. And Solomon's conclusion about this, about us in general, is in verse 9. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. Again, that word desire is the same word, nefesh. It's our soul. It's our innermost being. Our soul is wandering around looking for something to satisfy. And his conclusion for that? This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. We can't get our hands on it. And so Solomon is telling us life without the satisfying goodness is evil. It's not the way things are to be. And verses 10 through 12, Solomon goes on to tell us that we aren't God. Look with me at verse 10. Whatever one is, he has been named already for it is known that he is man and he cannot contend with him who is mightier than he. What is man? Well, for one, he's been named. It's an action that was done to him. He didn't name himself. And who named him? God. The one who is mightier than man. Man can't contend with God or argue with him about what his name is. He can't make himself God. In fact, the fact that God named man implies that God has authority over man. Kids, you know this when you get a dog or a cat. Your cat doesn't come up to you and decide to be named Socks, right? You give him that name. And so it is with man. God named man. And what did he name him? Verse 10 said, "...is known that he is man." This word here is Adam. Adam. It's very Genesis-type language that's going to be important later on. So that's what we are. We're man. Verse 11 says, it's vain to argue with God. Since there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better? This is tied with the idea of contending or arguing with God. No matter how many things we bring to the table, we're not going to win the argument. This word for things can also be translated words. The ESV puts it this way, the more words, the more vanity. And what is the advantage to man? It's this idea of no matter how much we bring to God, we can't become God. We can't put ourselves in his place and tell him we should have been named something else. Any argument, any words, any things we bring to God would only increase this vanity, this vapor, this breath, this havel. We're trying to get our hands on something that we really can't. In verse 12, Solomon leaves us with a harsh reality that we don't have the answers. For who knows what is good for a man in life, all the days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun? Solomon here gives us two rhetorical questions. First question, who knows what is good for a man in life? Well, not man. If man could have figured this out, why did he introduce us to man number one, who had all this stuff, all this goodness, and yet couldn't get his hands on it, couldn't actually enjoy it? Maybe that's been painfully true for you. Or man number two, who lives 2,000 years and has 100 children, has all this blessing from God, and yet for all that time and blessing, he didn't even see goodness, and wasn't satisfied with goodness. He didn't have the answer. And what about all of us in general? We work, we work, we work, no matter if we're wise, we're foolish, we're poor, and we're not satisfied with goodness either. We don't have the answers, because goodness doesn't come from man, and it's not defined by us. Solomon follows that up with a second rhetorical question. Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun? Do you know what's going to happen? Who's going to be the next president of the U.S. if you were to die today? No, we don't. We can't figure anything out after we die. Not only can we not figure out what is good in this life, once we're six feet under, we can't figure out anything. No, our life passes away like a shadow because we are not God. Solomon doesn't answer these questions, but leaves them with the stinging ring of these questions in our ears. Life without satisfying goodness is evil, and man can't fix his own problem. It's a tough pill to swallow, isn't it? Not something we really want to hear. And I would posit to you that it's not something that the original audience wanted to hear either. This is an unexpected message. If you think about who this was written to, this is Solomon Koholeth, who's the leader of the assembly, the Israelites. So it's written to the people of God during the reign of Solomon. Chapter 12 also references Solomon's son. So there's some of the royal family who's included in the audience. And these people lived during the glory days of Israel, during the reign of Solomon, when times are good. How good are they? Well, If you're interested later this afternoon, read through 1 Kings 10. I'll just read you one verse here. It says that King Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. Can you imagine that? The gravel dust that we drove over today was just like silver. That's how common it was. And he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. I didn't really understand the reference there to the cedar trees, but The idea here is that cedar trees were known for their resistance to decay, they were a prized and precious building material, but the problem was they didn't grow in the dry and arid climate of Israel, they were north, in the cool northern climate of Lebanon, and they had to be imported. The idea you could think of maybe is that redwood trees out on the west coast are as common as the oak and the maple here in Iowa. We couldn't imagine that much abundance. And yet, that's during the reign of Solomon. And the Queen of Sheba comes and visits Solomon and says, it would be a happy, blessed thing just to even be a servant for Solomon. That's how good things are. The nations are bringing gold, spices, precious stones, exotic almond wood, silver, ivory, apes, monkeys, garments, armor, horses, mules, chariots. All this is flowing into the kingdom. And it's a time of abundance. And it's into that space that the Holy Spirit tells the people of God, life without goodness, life without satisfying goodness is an evil that you can't fix. And I don't know about you, but if I was to put myself in the place of that audience, my response would be, what are you talking about? Life without goodness? I've got goodness. I've got everything I need. I don't have an evil life. I've got a good life. And if there is anything in my life that's not good, I'll find a way to make it good. There's all this goodness around me. After all, this is the time to be alive in Israel. And I wonder about ourselves today. We're not all that much different from the original audience, even though we're separated by thousands of miles and years. Even though inflation may pinch at our wallets a little bit harder these days, Generally speaking, we still live in a time of relative prosperity and abundance. We want to have the best of the best. I mean, just think of all the stuff that you have. Your home, yeah, it's got four walls and a roof, but it could always be better, right? There's always the next DIY project you could do, or stepping up to the home next door to Keep up with the Joneses. The car, it's got four tires and it gets down the road, but you're always thinking about the next car to have. Maybe it's education. There's always another degree to get. There's always bigger and better toys to have for both adults and kids alike. It could always be better. And in the era of interest rates and payment plans for everything, there's no barriers to our satisfaction. At least that's what we like to think. And then we meet man number one, This guy who had all this stuff and yet couldn't actually enjoy it because it was taken from him or he was taken from it. And maybe you have experienced that, maybe not. Maybe you know someone that that's happened to. But maybe we'll wiggle out of that one. Then we meet man number two, the guy with a hundred kids and lives 2,000 years and yet never even satisfied with goodness, doesn't see goodness, doesn't even have a proper burial. And there's something inside of us that just wants to hope that that's not us when we die, right? And then we meet Solomon's statement about men in general. All the labor of man is for his mouth and yet the soul is not satisfied. And we can't wiggle out of that one. No matter how wise we are, no matter how foolish we are, no matter how poor we are, Solomon doesn't let us get out of that one. It's true on a material level, there's always more work to do. It's true on a deeper level, we can't satisfy the deepest longings of our soul. And where are we left? With our soul wandering around, looking for satisfaction. And today, the Holy Spirit tells us a truth that we may not want to hear. Life without that satisfying goodness is evil. It's not the way things are supposed to be. And even when we admit that and we swallow that pill, what's our gut reaction? Well, I can fix it. I can make it better. I'll find a way. And it's as if the Holy Spirit anticipates our next move because then he hits us with the next truth. We can't fix our own problem because we're not God. We like to live in a world of make-believe, don't we? Where things are actually satisfying. Where we can actually find the goodness of life left to ourselves. where work is actually worth it in and of itself. The Holy Spirit gives us a wake-up call to the reality of life. This is just the way things are. Life without satisfying goodness is an evil that we can't fix. And so that leads us to God's solution. Where do we go from here? This is kind of a depressing message. We see Solomon is describing this life without goodness, and he uses this word over and over again. Goodness, goodness, goodness. Word in Hebrew there is tov, and it's the same word that is riddled throughout Genesis 1 and 2. It's all over those chapters as God made the world in six days, and after everything, he says, and God saw that it was good. Tov, it's the same word. So where does goodness come from? It comes from back in Eden where God made the world with goodness because it was made by God who is goodness. Jesus tells us this in Mark 10, no one is good but one, that is God. And into this world of goodness, God made man. And what did he name him? Adam. Same thing that Solomon tells us here. He named him Adam. He made him to exist in this relationship with God, enjoying his presence and basking in his goodness. And yet what happened? Adam and Eve forfeited that goodness, every right to that goodness, because they believed a lie that maybe God wasn't quite as good as he said he was. Maybe he was withholding something good from them. So they went around God, they went beyond God, and tried to come up with their own goodness by eating the fruit that God had told them was off limits. And because of their sin, they became separated from God, and from His goodness. Left in this world of cyclic futility, laboring, laboring, laboring, with the soul wandering around. But see, that's our problem too. We have sinned. We've done the exact same thing that Adam and Eve did. Psalm 14 says, the Lord looked down from heaven on the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. What's the verdict? They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one. And because of our sin, we're still separated from God and from his goodness. Left to ourselves, we can't solve the issue of a life without goodness. Instead, our standard, our review, our benchmark for what we think is good has been so fundamentally warped by the fall, by our sin, we go looking for goodness in all the wrong places. Everything except God. And into this world warped by sin, God sent Jesus in the fullness of time. Jesus, who was the goodness of God in the flesh. to save us from our sin and to bring us back into that relationship with him. John 1.14 says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth. That same radiant goodness that was in Eden was embodied in Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. And you would think that into this world, starving for goodness, that when Jesus shows up, the perfect embodiment of goodness, people would say, finally, this is what we were looking for. This is what we need. Yeah, that's not what happened, is it? Isaiah 53 says, he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised. and we did not esteem him. You see that our appetite, our standard for goodness was so twisted, we didn't even recognize the goodness of God in the flesh when he showed up on this earth. And instead, Jesus was put to death on a Roman cross as a criminal, outside the gates of Jerusalem where the outcasts, the unclean, the lepers, even the trash would go. That's what people thought of him. And through the worst event that's ever happened in the world, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the goodness of God being valued like that and put to death. The pinnacle of God's goodness was on display for the whole world to see. Because three days later, God turned that worst event in human history into the best event in human history by raising Jesus from the dead, victorious over sin and death. And today, God comes to sinners in this evil world, this world where things are not the way they are supposed to be. And this world where sinners would reject him and count him as a criminal and unclean. And he comes to that world. And he gives us the Holy Spirit, the best gift there ever was. Luke 11 says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And that Holy Spirit chases after us in His electing grace and opens the eyes of our hearts so that instead of looking at Jesus and rejecting Him and despising Him, We see Christ for who he actually is, the goodness of God. We see our souls were wandering around, trying to find rest and satisfaction for our souls. And Jesus gives us that rest by giving him himself, giving us himself. Augustine said, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. And that's not all. Because one day God is coming back to bring those who believe in him into his blissful presence to enjoy his goodness forever and ever and ever. So God has a solution for this evil problem in our text. I'm going to leave you with a few applications here. First, I want to talk to those in this room who are unbelievers, those who aren't satisfied in the goodness of God, who want nothing to do with God, who think they've got it made here in this world just fine by themselves. I hope this morning that you hear a wake-up call from this text to come face-to-face with reality. See, Solomon isn't just saying that this is the way for some people or this is the way for a subset of the world. He's just saying this is the way things are. And you can't escape it. So stop trying to wiggle out of this passage. Realize that your soul is wandering, walking around, looking for something to satisfy. And that you're always going to try to find it in things that really cannot satisfy. And maybe you think, well, just give me long enough. I'll get there. I'll get there. I got this. Let me have my fling. Remember, the guy in this passage who lived 2,000 years didn't find it. And even your life, as verse 12 says, is passing away like a shadow. None of us is guaranteed our next breath, and there's an urgency here. Don't wait to try to figure out this problem of life without goodness on your own. You can't trust your heart to find that, because your very sense of what's good has been fundamentally flawed. My sin. You can't fix your own problem because you're not God. You can't contend with God and tell him what's good that you know better than him. To do that would be idolatry. To put yourself in the place of God. I hope that you wake up to this before it's too late. That you turn away from the idolatry of your heart and turn to God. See that he was so intent on giving you goodness that he didn't even spare his own son. but sacrificed him on the cross to give you a hope of goodness with him forever. He rose after three days to give you that hope. And as a good father, he's promised to give you his Holy Spirit, the best gift there has ever been, to open the eyes of your heart and to see how good, how satisfyingly good he is. So wake up to the dissatisfaction of this life and find your true satisfaction in the goodness of God. And to those of you in this room who know the goodness of God, who've tasted and seen that God is good, you know the satisfying goodness of God. You've got the Holy Spirit in your heart. He's opened the eyes of your heart to see Christ for who He is. And you have a hope of spending eternity with God, basking in His goodness forever. There's a problem, right? We often get this backwards. Instead of waking up to the reality of life and the dissatisfaction and letting that point us towards God. We often forget God and become at home in this world, don't we? And when we forget that, when we forget the goodness of God, it breeds discontentment. You see, in effect, discontentment says, God, you're not enough. There's got to be something else more satisfying out there. You don't understand. I really need this thing and you need to give this to me. Discontentment asks this world to give you something that it will never be able to give you. Discontentment misses the giver for the gifts. Maybe it's at your job and you're gunning for a promotion. And when you get it, it seems like there's still not enough money to go around, right? Or maybe you're in the throes of motherhood and it seems like no matter how much you clean the house, diaper the kids, do the laundry, do dinner prep, You're still just not a place for that peace and the rest and the sanity that you so long for. Or maybe you're retired. Your kids have moved away. The grandchildren seem like they stay in touch less and less. Your friends are starting to pass away and you're left in loneliness. Really? This is what retirement was about? Or kids. Things don't go the way you want. Your brother or sister takes your stuff. Your mom and dad tell you things you don't want to do. You don't get the birthday gift that you really asked for. We're left with this dissatisfaction in our hearts. So what do we do with it? I just want to leave you with some practical steps here. First, recognize it. See, a lot of times we like to stuff this away and be like, I'm just going to get through it. Being a mother is actually satisfying. I'm just going to actually just enjoy the diapering here. I'm actually just gonna grin and bear it and pull up my boots and be happy. Recognize the dissatisfaction. Solomon here is calling us to wake up to that. Don't stuff it. And there's a proper place for lament here as we remember the sin that brought the cyclic futility into the world in the first place. It wasn't just Adam and Eve's problem, it's our problem too because that same sin is in our hearts trying to convince you to look anywhere for that goodness but God. So confess that, repent of it, and ask for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see the goodness of God. See, this is why we read Philippians 4 this morning. This is what Paul experienced. Paul had a rough life. You know, sometimes we think of contentment and we think of, okay, I need to be content in my job because I'm making this amount of dollars, not this amount of dollars per hour. Listen to the needs that Paul had. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. And what were the states that he went through? I know how to be abased. I don't think many of us like that. People beat him and mock him and leave him outside the city for dead after stoning him. I know how to abound. Everywhere in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry. I don't know about you, I don't be hungry very well. I get hangry, just ask my wife. both to abound and to suffer need. We often suffer wants. Paul suffered needs. And yet, what did he do? How could he get through all that? How could he in all things and everywhere be content? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. See, he could go through all these things because he had Christ. He had the goodness of God. It didn't matter how much he was abased, how much he suffered need, how much he was hungry. He had Christ. And see, God gives us reminders of his goodness all around us. Just look around in creation. The next time you see a beautiful sunset, praise God for his goodness and his artistry and painting the sky different every night. When you see your kids laughing, praise God that he's given them joy and something to laugh about. As you enjoy a good friendship, thank God for His goodness in giving you friends and not leaving you alone in this world. As you enjoy the work you do, praise God that He skilled you and equipped you with the ability to even do that work and to give you a job. As you fill the cart up with groceries week after week after week, instead of complaining about the budget not going as far as you thought it was, praise God that you have food to eat to fill your pantry. As you enjoy music, praise God that he's opened your ears and you can hear. And he's created beauty. See, there's glimmers of God's goodness thumbprinted throughout all of creation. Don't miss the giver for the gifts. As you enjoy the glimmers of his goodness, enjoy God. And let these gifts serve as reminders of the all-satisfying, beautiful goodness of God. And as if that wasn't enough, God's given us his word. His word calls us back to see the goodness that we lost in Eden. It reminds us of who God is, what He's done for us in the gospel. Remind yourself of the gospel. Be in awe that though you wanted nothing to do with Him, He chased after you in His electing grace. He gave you Himself, the best gift, the Holy Spirit. He opened the eyes of your dull heart to see Him for who He is, and that He didn't just tell you He was good. He displayed His goodness towards you, and that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. And He rose again to give you an eternity of dwelling forever in His presence, enjoying His goodness forever and ever. So church, I hope you hear, there's reality of life. Life without satisfying goodness is evil. It's not the way things are to be. We all know it, and we can't fix it. But God has provided a solution in Jesus Christ. So wake up to the dissatisfaction of this life by finding your true satisfaction in the goodness of God. And could you join with David, that old saint who said in Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy will follow me. It's going to chase after me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Lord, you are good. You're beautiful. All that you are is good. All that you do is good. All that you are named by is good. We come to worship you for that. We thank you, Lord, for not just telling us you are good, but displaying it in the pinnacle of your goodness through the cross of Jesus Christ and giving us your son. to be our Savior and giving us your Holy Spirit to indwell our hearts and giving us you as our good and heavenly Father. Lord, forgive us for chasing after what we think is good and missing you. Forgive us for putting ourselves in the place of God and thinking we know better than you. And Lord, would you help us to open our eyes to the goodness of God all around us and in the gospel of Jesus Christ to enjoy you Forever and ever we pray in Jesus name. Amen

• Why is “goodness” so hard to define apart from God’s Word?

• How do Solomon’s three examples of unsatisfied men (wealthy, long-lived, laboring) expose our own pursuits?

• In what ways do you see your heart “wandering” for satisfaction in created things?

• How does Christ’s life, death, and resurrection reveal the pinnacle of God’s goodness?

• What practices help you recognize and rest in God’s goodness daily?

• Vanity (Hebrew: hebel) – Vapor, breath; fleeting, elusive, not meaningless.

• Goodness (tov) – That which aligns with God’s character and creation design.

• Contentment – Resting in God’s provision through Christ regardless of circumstances.

• Discontentment – A heart posture that doubts God’s sufficiency.

• Nephesh – Soul, inner being, source of desire and longing.