More | Week 2 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 18, 2018 · 69 min watch · 3 min read

More | Week 2

Big Idea

Seeking pleasure and more of the world's temporary gifts will never satisfy the eternal longing God placed in every human heart — only He can.

Drawing from Ecclesiastes 2, Pastor Solomon's own experiment with unlimited pleasure — alcohol, possessions, wealth, control, and sex — proves that chasing more of the world's temporary gifts always yields less meaning. Because God planted eternity in every human heart, only a real relationship with Him can satisfy that deep longing. When we make the gifts the goal instead of the Gift Giver, we become pleasure seekers rather than God seekers, acting religious while lacking the power of the gospel. But when we love God with everything and love others as ourselves, we are freed to genuinely enjoy the temporary blessings He gives — and less truly becomes more.

Key points

1
1Solomon tried every form of pleasure — alcohol, lavish homes, wealth, control over people, and sexual indulgence — and found it all meaningless.
2
2The reason pleasure never satisfies is that God planted eternity in the human heart, and only a relationship with Him can fulfill that eternal longing.
3
3When pleasure becomes the goal rather than God, we develop an 'eye problem' — self-centeredness that leads to using and controlling other people.
4
4Paul warns Timothy that in the last days people will act religious but reject the power that could make them godly — describing pleasure seekers inside the church, not just outside it.
5
5Solomon concludes that every pleasure is a gift from God's hand and can only be truly enjoyed through a relationship with Him and lived out His way.
6
6Jesus declares the two greatest commandments — love God with all of you, and love others as yourself — as equally important and inseparable, and this is what it means to please God.
7
7Going all in with God — giving, serving, loving others — feels like less but produces far more freedom, joy, and meaning than running after the world's pleasures ever could.

Application

The sermon's challenge is direct: identify which of Solomon's four patterns — medicating, accumulating, subjugating, or sexual indulgence — is quietly running your life, and be honest about whether your religious activity is driven by genuine love for God or simply by what feels good. The path forward is not guilt but trust. Because Jesus gave His all for us when we were completely in the wrong, we can believe that what He asks of us — loving Him with everything, loving others selflessly, giving generously, serving the church, and pursuing purity — is not deprivation but liberation. When you stop chasing more of the temporary and go all in with God, less becomes more: less anxiety about what you own, less emptiness after the next high, and more genuine joy in the everyday gifts He already placed in your hands.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“here we are in chapter two of Ecclesiastes and it says this, I said to myself, now whenever somebody talks about themselves in the third person, I don't think it's gonna end well”
From the transcript
“But then he goes on in verse four and says, I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself. So now he goes, the first thing is he's trying to use alcohol to feel happy”
From the transcript
“And then look at this verse six. I built reservoirs to collect water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. Reservoirs? How many of you have a reservoir”
From the transcript
“Well now, here's the problem. When you start to go after just pleasure, it gets even darker at times. Because verse seven says this, I bought slaves both men and women and others were born into my household”
From the transcript
“And look what he ends up saying. Verse nine, he says, so I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me and my wisdom never failed me”
From the transcript
“Now here's the thing you understand. Verse 10, if you have your Bibles underline this. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure”
From the transcript
“He created us. He put eternity, planted it in our hearts, it says in chapter three. And what he's learning, what the whole book is trying to say is, there is a longing and a thirst”
From the transcript
“I wanna turn to second Timothy. Timothy is this is a letter. This is the last thing Paul ever wrote before he was killed and he knew he was gonna die”
From the transcript
“here's what he says. He goes, you know this, you should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money”
From the transcript
“If you go back to Ecclesiastes in in verse, 24, he says this, so I decided there's nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction at work”
From the transcript
“And here's what he said in Matthew 22 verse 37. Jesus said this, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind”
From the transcript
“Now here's the thing, the reason a lot of us struggle with it is because of what it says in first John. The only way we can truly love God is because he loved us first”
From the transcript
“That's the the first and greatest. But then verse 39, he goes, a second. The second part, he goes, is equally important. Some of you've heard this verse a million times”

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Solomon was not a casual experimenter. He was the wisest, wealthiest, most powerful man of his era, and he ran the experiment of pleasure with everything he had. In Ecclesiastes 2, he describes turning to wine, laughter, and indulgence — not in ignorance, but with open eyes, testing whether any of it could answer the ache inside him. The verdict came back the same every time: meaningless. Not sinful in the moment, necessarily, but empty in the end. The pleasure would land, and then it would fade, and the ache would still be there, maybe louder than before. What strikes most people when they first sit with this passage is how honest it is. Solomon does not write from a distance. He went there. He tasted everything the world calls satisfying, and he tells us plainly what he found. That kind of honesty is a gift, because it names something most of us already feel but rarely say out loud — that the thing we thought would finally be enough never quite is. If that resonates with you today, you are not broken. You are simply human, and Solomon was there first. The good news is that his experiment did not end with despair. It ended with a discovery. But we need to sit with the honest diagnosis before we can appreciate the cure.

For reflection

Which area of your life right now — something you are pursuing, consuming, or holding onto — do you secretly hope will finally feel like enough?

Pray

Pray for the honesty to name the places where you have been running Solomon's experiment in your own life.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Solomon had unlimited access to wealth, pleasure, and power — and ran the full experiment. This message asks what he found on the other side, and what it means for us.

Discussion questions

1
In Ecclesiastes 2:1-10, Solomon works his way through alcohol, lavish building projects, wealth, control over people, and sexual relationships — and lands on the word 'meaningless.' What do you think he means by that word? What was he actually looking for that none of those things could give him?
2
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God 'has planted eternity in the human heart.' How does that idea help explain why the things Solomon tried always seemed to leave him wanting more?
3
The message described four patterns — medicating, accumulating, subjugating, and sexual indulgence — as ways people quietly try to fill that God-shaped longing. What makes these patterns so easy to miss or rationalize, especially inside a church community?
4
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul describes people who are 'lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God' — and places them inside religious life, not outside it. What does it look like, practically, when someone's religious activity is driven more by what feels good than by genuine love for God?
5
Solomon ends in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 by saying pleasure and everyday gifts can only be truly enjoyed through a relationship with God. How does that reframe the way we think about things like food, rest, friendship, or work — are they the problem, or is something else the issue?
6
The message pointed to Jesus' words in Matthew 22:37-39 — loving God with everything and loving others as yourself — as the path where 'less becomes more.' What might it look like for a community like ours to actually live that out together, rather than just agree with it?

Pray together

Thanking God that He is the Gift Giver behind every good thing, and asking Him to reorient our hearts toward Him rather than toward the gifts

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Where these passages are preached

Ecclesiastes 2 Ecclesiastes 3 2 Timothy 3 Matthew 22

Explore related topics

Contentment in Christ Empty Pursuits Materialism Pleasure Seeking vs. God True Satisfaction

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