The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: If you are looking for the meaning of life in life, you won't find life. You will never get it because as soon as you think you have it, you lose it.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. The Declaration of Independence says we have the right to pursue happiness. What it doesn't say is that we will never find happiness unless we pursue something completely different. Dr. Evans will tell us what that something else is as he begins a powerful series on the Book of Ecclesiastes. Let’s join him.

Dr. Tony Evans: A man was asked about his life and where his life was going. He said he was going to finish high school so that he could go to college. After that, he planned to finish college so he could start his career. Then he planned to get married and have a family.

He was going to raise his kids and get rid of them when they became 18. Then he was going to look forward to retirement when he didn't have to work anymore and could travel and see the world. Finally, he said he was going to die.

The question of life, what it is, how it works, what it means, and if it is worth it, is something God knew we would ask. He knew he would have to provide an answer for that question. The Book of Ecclesiastes is a book about life and how not to waste it.

Solomon is the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes. At the core of what he is going to tell you and me as we work our way through the book is simply that a philosophical perspective on life disconnected from God means you don't get to live. You have to establish a saccharine existence, which is a sugar substitute.

You have to keep finding things to make life feel like life because the life you want is empty. It becomes a placebo. There is no real content in it except the temporary things you fill it with to make you forget that you don't have it.

He starts off his book after identifying who the author is in Ecclesiastes with the summary of the book. Verse two of chapter one says, "Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." He starts off the book telling you he doesn't have anything to talk about.

Translated, it means empty, empty. Says the preacher, empty, empty, all is empty. Let me give you another synonym: meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless. Vanity means meaningless, purposeless, without real value, fleeting, or transitory.

He says all in life is empty. He is going to go into how you look at life from a human perspective. That is why you will see throughout the book this word vanity. As in verse three, he does it under the sun. Under the sun means on earth.

He is talking about man's view of life from earth's perspective. He is being real earthy and nitty-gritty here. He's being real. He's not talking about pie in the sky. He's talking about the nasty here and now under the sun. That is where people live, work, play, raise families, and all the other stuff in life.

He is highly qualified to be the author. He is qualified because he has experienced everything that life could throw at you for you to find the meaning of life in life. In today's dollars, Solomon would be a mega-billionaire. He would probably be the richest man on the planet if you were using today's dollars from when he lived.

If you could buy life, he could afford it. When he became king, he made a request recorded for us in 1 Kings chapter three. Solomon is being anointed king and he makes a prayer. He says to the Lord, "Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours?"

It is a prayer for wisdom and an understanding heart. He says he needs to know how to make good decisions because this thing is too big for him. This responsibility on his shoulders is too big for him, and he won't know how to make the right choices.

God tells him that because he asked this thing and not for long life, riches for himself, or the life of his enemies, but for discernment and understanding justice, he did according to his word. God gave him a wise and discerning heart so that there has been no one like him before, nor shall one like him arise after.

God also gave him what he did not ask for, both riches and honor. Solomon got what he asked for and what he didn't ask for. Maybe we should change what we are asking for so we can really get what we want. He asked for the more important thing, not for what people think is important. If most of us learned to make better decisions, then we wouldn't be dealing with some of the things we are dealing with.

1 Kings chapter 11 says King Solomon loved many foreign women. From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods."

Solomon held fast to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. His wives turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away from other gods. His heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been.

His relationships drew him away spiritually from God. He accepted idolatry. When you are reading the Book of Ecclesiastes, you are reading a man between the answer to his prayer in chapter three and the result of his departure in chapter 11.

He has departed from God. In Ecclesiastes, you are reading about his return and the experiences in between. You are looking at where he started, where he departed, the experiences within his departure, and the lessons he is sharing with you and me upon his return. That gives you a framework for understanding his thinking.

He is going to let you know through this book that he has tried it all in his departure from God. He doesn't want you and me to waste any more of our lives than we have already wasted and to remove ourselves from the word he uses, vanity or emptiness.

Guest (Male): When Dr. Evans returns to continue our message in just a moment, he will tell us more about why all the new problems we face in our culture today are not really new at all. The lesson we are listening to is the first in Tony's series, "How to Avoid a Wasted Life." In this powerful collection, Dr. Evans takes a deep dive into the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, helping us understand the fleeting nature of our time on earth while making sure our existence counts for something of everlasting value.

Through these lessons, you will learn how to find joy in life's simple pleasures and discover new ways to cultivate meaningful relationships that can enrich your life and the lives of those around you. There is a lot packed into this powerful series, and all nine messages are yours as our gift when you make a contribution to help support our work here on this station and others like it around the world. As an added bonus, we will also include a copy of Tony's insightful book, "Experience God Together."

In it, he shows how loving and serving others is a powerful way to experience God more deeply in our everyday lives. To take advantage of this limited-time offer, visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to speak with a member of our resource team. On the Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans brings honest stories to light. Guests bring thoughtful insights on topics like love, marriage, and how they relate to faith.

Listen and subscribe to the Unbound Podcast on Dr. Evans’ YouTube channel or on your favorite podcast platform. Right now, let’s get back to today's lesson from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes.

Dr. Tony Evans: Verse three asks, "What advantage does man have in all of his work which he has under the sun?" A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains the same. He asks about the lasting benefit to what he does.

Have you ever felt like you were just wasting your time and spinning your wheels, just going over the same thing over and over again? You might wish you could do something different or go someplace different. Your cry is that you wish you could break the routine.

People go to things to help them escape. They go to places, people, and circumstances to help them forget the routine of life. Verse eight says all things are wearisome to me. Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.

You hear his frustration and his mood. He is frustrated because he is in this place where with all the stuff he has, it is not working. Verse nine says that which has been is that which will be. There is nothing new under the sun.

The preacher is telling you that it is not new, but reconfigured. Is there anything of which one might say, "See, this is new"? It has already existed for ages which were before us. Anything new is only new because people have found a way to present it differently or get it to do things differently, but the raw material for it has always been around.

There is nothing new in terms of its core. It may be new in how it looks or it may get a new paint job, but it has been here before. Verse 11 says there is no remembrance of earlier things, and also of the later things which will occur. There will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.

One of the bad thoughts about life is the idea of being forgotten. The reason rich people will make big donations to projects is so they can get their name on them. One of the great fundraising tools is to get people who have resources to give to something so it can be named after them because they do not want to be forgotten.

They want to be remembered. Verse 11 asks where the remembrance is among those who will come later. How much do you remember about your grandfather, your great-grandfather, or your great-uncle? There is a snippet here and a picture there.

There are vague scenarios that you may remember, but in terms of the details, they dissipate and they disappear. That is reality. This is life under the sun. If you are trying to find life under the sun, you are going to be disappointed.

He doesn't expect you to run into a cave or go into Never Never Land. He just wants you to look at life for what it is under the sun. Then you won't expect from it what it can never give you. If you are looking for the meaning of life in life, you won't find life.

Verse 12 says, "I the preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I have set my mind to seek and explore wisdom concerning all that has been done under the sun." I have searched this thing out and studied it. Not only did I study it, I explored it and tried it out.

I'm not just talking from what someone told me, but from what I tried. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. God has given you a task that drives you nuts under the sun. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun.

Behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind. To understand this principle, he has given you a practical test. If you want to understand my point, I want you to strive after the wind. When you go outside tonight and the wind comes by, I want you to plan this thing right.

Decide which piece of it you want to grab. The next piece that blows my way, I'm going to get you and own you. Then whatever piece of wind that blows by that you want, I want you to grab it and hold tight to it. You will discover that the piece you grab, you lose when you grab it.

He uses that to define life. I have seen the works which men have done under the sun. I have seen men at their best and at their worst, and it is striving after something they can't keep. What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be counted.

Verse 16 says, "I said to myself, behold, I have magnified and increased with wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me." I am the wisest man ever made or created, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge. I have got the info.

I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I have looked at the best way to do it and the worst way to do it. I have done the whole range of decision-making and made bad and good choices. I realized even this was striving after the wind.

In much wisdom, there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain. Aren't there some things in your life you wish you didn't know about? You look at a child and they don't have information. When they get the info, then they become dangerous. He looked at his empire and his experiences, and he said there has got to be more than this.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans, beginning his look at what Solomon learned during his search for meaning in life. Today's lesson is the first installment in a sermon series called "How to Avoid a Wasted Life." Don't forget, for a limited time, we are offering the full-length version of all nine lessons in this series on digital download, as well as on either CD or USB flash drive.

We are also including a copy of Tony's book, "Experience God Together," a look at how our connection with others can deepen our relationship with God. It is a powerful reminder that when we give his love away through everyday acts of kindness, forgiveness, and hospitality, we encourage his presence in new and meaningful ways.

Call us to make the arrangements at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center never closes, so you can reach out anytime of the day or night. That is 1-800-800-3222. Or visit TonyEvans.org to take advantage of this special package. You will find the details right on the homepage. Again, that is TonyEvans.org.

The world says work hard enough and you can have everything life has to offer. Dr. Evans says there is a catch. The one thing life can't offer is a real life itself. Be sure to join us next time when we will hear about a man who learned that lesson the hard way.