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Central Papua Conference

Taj Pacleb

Who Will Take the Son

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you so much for your great love and your mercy.

We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful week of revival we've been experiencing.

We thank you, Lord, for the privilege that You've given us the freedom to study your word.

You've given us a mind that can understand it, and a heart, Lord, that is open to follow.

Now, dear Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would continue to be not only in this place, but that you'd come into our hearts, that you'd convict us afresh of our need of Jesus, that we would see our wretchedness at the same time see our need for your righteousness.

Father, I pray that you bless us now as we open the Scriptures.

I invite you to take your Bible and open with me to the book of Mark.

Actually, let's start with the book of Ecclesiastes.

And as you're turning there, we're going to Ecclesiastes written by the wise men.

I want to begin by sharing with you a story about a very prosperous farmer by the name of Ali Hafez.

He was a prosperous Persian farmer that lived in India.

And Ali was very happy and content with his life.

He owned a large, beautiful estate, decorated with orchids and streams and fertile fields.

1 day, there was a Buddhist monk that came to visit Ali in his beautiful property, and this Buddhist monk came to tell Ali great tales and stories about other ordinary farmers just like him who became extremely wealthy from selling their farm and going out into the diamond mining industry.

And for months after Ali had that visit with the Buddhist monk, for months After that, Ali became captivated with the thought that perhaps he could do the same thing, that he could become extremely rich and wealthy by selling his farm and going into the diamond mining industry.

He became obsessed with the thoughts of luxury and riches.

And he thought to himself, why am I working so hard when I can have a much easier and more comfortable life?

If I can just find some of these jewels, I can be rich and thus I will be happy.

After these thoughts continued to dwell in his mind, finally he acted upon those impulses and he ended up selling his farm and leaving his family behind.

And he launched out on an expedition that would leave him eventually friendless, penniless, and hopeless.

Ali, after he sold his farm, he would spend the rest of his life wandering the different continents of Asia and Africa and Europe searching for these diamonds, but unfortunately, he never found any.

And finally, after years of frustrating and fruitless searching, worn out and penniless, and in a fit of despondency, Ali Hafez threw himself in the Bay of Barcelona and drowned.

He felt so foolish in giving up everything for absolutely nothing that he lost desire to live on and so he committed suicide.

Well 1 day, the man that had purchased the farm from Ali was walking through his property, just admiring the beautiful investment he made and he was passing along 1 of the streams in his backyard When all of a sudden his vision caught a bright sparkle from the peripheral The light was reflecting off of something that was lying on the bottom of 1 of those shallow streams.

And so this individual went to the stream and he picked up a good-sized crystalline stone.

And he said, Wow, this is a beautiful rock.

He admired its beauty and then he brought it into his house and he put it on the shelf to display to others.

Well, not long after that, that same Buddhist monk that told Ali about all the stories about farmers selling their farms and becoming diamond miners, that same Buddhist monk ended up visiting the man that had purchased the farm from Ali.

And as he went into the house, he saw that stone sitting on the shelf and that Buddhist monk picked up that stone and he nearly fainted and he said, wow where did you get this from?

And the owner didn't think much of it he said I got it from 1 of my streams in my backyard and and the Buddhist monk said do you realize what this is?

And the Buddhist monk said, this is probably the biggest diamond I've ever seen in my life.

And the skeptical owner said, are you sure?

Because in my backyard, the stream is full of those kinds of stones, not as big as that 1, but there's so many of these stones in the stream in my backyard.

And friends, it so happened that the farm that Ali Hafez had sowed to look for diamonds in faraway lands, that farm, that property, ended up becoming the Golconda Mines of India that produced some of the rarest and biggest diamonds that our world has ever seen.

Some of those diamonds are in the crown jewels there in England.

While Ali looked for riches in faraway places, he didn't realize that riches was just within his reach.

Because he did not realize what he had, listen, listen, listen, because Ali did not realize what he had, he cheaply gave it away and sold it for that which he never attained.

But friends, in the same way, many times we are just like that.

Many times our lives are an endless pursuit of happiness that ends in disappointment and death.

Because, not because we're not searching, we are searching, but unfortunately we're searching in the wrong places for the wrong things.

We're looking into the world, the things that sin offers for happiness.

We are searching, but in the wrong places, for the wrong things.

Lewis was a famous Christian philosopher, and I want you to notice what he says as I quote, If I find in myself desires with which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

Lewis said, if I find in myself desires, yearnings, longings, and nothing in the world can satisfy those longings, then the only logical explanation for the existence of those longings and desires is that I was not made for this world, I was made for another world.

We were made for more than what this world has to offer.

And friends, riches are within your reach, right outside of the door of your heart as you hear Jesus knocking, seeking to come in.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, written by the wise man Solomon, the richest king of Israel.

And I want you to notice at the end of his life he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.

This is his summary on the vanity of life in the world.

And I want you to notice what this rich man had to say.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, beginning with verse 4.

If you're there, would you please say amen.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 4, the wise men's King Solomon said, I made me great works.

I built me houses and planted me vineyards.

I made me gardens and orchards and I planted trees in them all kinds of fruit.

I made me pools of water, to water therefore the wood that bringeth forth trees.

I got me servants and maidens and hand servants born in my house also had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.

Verse 8, I gathered me also silver and gold and all the peculiar treasures of kings and of the provinces.

I got me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments, and that of all sorts.

I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem.

Here Solomon is going through a list of all of his accomplishments and all of his success.

He had houses, he had all the luxuries of life, He had lots, he had food in abundance.

Not only that, but he had the finest entertainment, musicians and men singers and women singers.

He had money and not only that, friends, he had thousands, He had hundreds of wives and concubines.

In the eyes of the world, Solomon had it all.

But I want you to notice what he said concerning this in verse 10.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them.

I withheld not my heart from any joy, and my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor." Verse 11, Then I looked on all the works which my hands had wrought, and all the labor that I had labored to do, and all this was what?

Vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Another translation says it like this, I had toiled and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind And there was no profit under the sun.

Solomon, in summarizing all of the riches and all of the wealth and all of the fame and fortune and success and popularity that he had attained in his life, he said all of that, when he come down to it, it's all vanity.

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Who Will Take the Son

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