Ecclesiastes 2:1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 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.

Consider the words of King Solomon, the wisest of all Kings. In verse 2.1 he recognized that testing pleasure resulted in vanity which is defined as “emptiness of results”. It did not accomplish what he set out to achieve, lasting pleasure.

Then he went on to achieve pleasure by another means, doing other things. What he did to achieve pleasure changed. What he did to achieve pleasure was successful in limited terms.

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.

And in the end: 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.

At the end of this chapter his conclusion is;  26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Joy is found in pleasing God, not self.

Think about what is fun in specific details. Does it last? Can we sustain enjoyment?

It is like going to an amusement park and riding the rides. One ends so we go on to the next ride, and then the next and eventually we ride every ride but then the park closes and we have to go home. Then we are left with nothing but the memory and an empty wallet.

The root of recreation is re-create, always trying to recapture fun that does not last.

The joy of the Lord does not leave us empty and longing for more like sin does.

“whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” John 4:14

Galatians 5:16-26 English Standard Version

Keep in Step with the Spirit

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

At the end of a long list of bad behavior is a generalization, “things like these.” That means that there are sinful behaviors that are not listed. Verse 26 tells us not to become conceited which looks like this; “At least I am not like that!” We tend to ignore those “other things” that are still a hindrance in walking hand in hand with the Spirit.

Remember how it feels to walk hand in hand with someone you love. In taking hands and walking together the hands will move in rhythm with your steps. When you are not in step with the Spirit the hands will tend to move against one another. If we are being led by the Spirit, our hands, those things we do, will not resist being led.

• Romans 6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

When we walk in step with the Spirit we do not tell the Spirit “Let’s do this!” He leads us, we do not get to choose where we go and what we do. When we do, we fall out of step and go our own way. That is how we got in trouble in the first place and needed to be saved from sin.

When we believe sin is fun we have forgotten what it felt like to be a slave to sin. Stay there and we will forget before too long what it feels like to walk in step with the Spirit. Love will let us do what we want, but we will feel alone once again. He didn’t let go, we did.