1. Have you ever thought or wondered about the meaning of life?: Why do we live? What are we living for?

2. “Boys be ambitious!” by Dr. William Smith Clark

3. So then my next question is this! Once we become very successful, once we experience many pleasures, then are we going to be truly happy and satisfied?

4. You will not easily listen to me because: 1. We human beings are born to have these ambitions 2. You don’t want to hear advice from somebody who hasn’t actually experienced and achieved all these pleasures and successes! Right?

5. So who was this King Solomon? “Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom.” 1 Kings 10:20 “Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's days… King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.” 1 Kings 10:21&23

6. “The daily food requirements for Solomon’s palace were 150 bushels of choice flour and 300 bushels of meal, ten oxen from the fattening pens, twenty pasture-fed cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and choice fowl.” 1 Kings 4:22-23 “King Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines” 1 Kings 11:3

7. 1. Pleasure: “I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?”” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly – my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.” Ecclesiastes 2:1-3

8. “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.” Proverbs 14:13

9. 2. Success: “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. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slave and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well – the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.” Ecclesiastes 2:4-10

10. “Yet 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.” Ecclesiastes 2:11 “Meaningless! Meaningless!... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” Ecclesiastes 1:2

11. Conclusion: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

12. “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

13. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.” Psalm 23:1 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14