what's the use of these cars and clothes?

Cause when the casket’s closed, 
I'm like really 
what's the use of these cars and clothes?
Skepta, Konnichiwa

As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
(Ecclesiastes 5:15 ESV)

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
(Luke 12:16-21 ESV)

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The spiritual equivalent of eating spinach

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. 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.

(Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 ESV)

The end result of pursuing every kind of pleasure to the greatest possible lengths is that the writer of ecclesiastes did experience pleasure ('my heart found pleasure')! But the pleasure was fleeting it was there and gone, like chasing after the wind he had nothing to show for it.

The conclusion is that nothing was gained from pursuing pleasure 'under the sun' (v11). That is because real, lasting, eternal joy is found beyond the sun, in God.

The preconception is that Christianity is anti-pleasure, the antithesis of joy. You turn up to church and expect to hear that you should enjoy yourself less and do the spiritual equivalent of eating spinach - it’s supposedly good for you but you’re not going to enjoy it!

Begrudging obedience is not biblical Christianity, The Westminster shorter catechism says that The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. John Piper points out that we glorify God by enjoying Him forever. God is glorified by our enjoyment of him. How would he be glorified by our begrudging obedience?!

The desire for pleasure is not wrong, we should aim for as much joy as possible and that is found in Jesus.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” CS Lewis

#yolo

I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
Ecclesiastes 2:3b

You only live once so do what you want to do, live your life, don't waste it. The book of Ecclesiastes explores the #yolo mindset to the extreme. All types of pleasure are explored to the greatest possible lengths, he 'denies himself nothing' (v10a). This is pure hedonism - the pursuit of pleasure.

We are all hedonists. We associate the word 'hedonism' with certain things that we may or may not be interested in but, ultimately, we do what we think will bring us most pleasure. Everyone goes about that in different ways - some forget about tomorrow and blow everything today, others deny themselves certain ‘pleasures’ today because of some event tomorrow that they believe will bring more pleasure - but we're all doing it.

With food, you might stuff yourself (for pleasure) today, or diet today because you think losing weight or being healthier will be more pleasurable than eating no.

With money, you might spend all your money this weekend (for pleasure) or save it so you can afford a holiday which you believe will be more pleasurable.

Whatever we do, we are pursuing pleasure, usually without thinking too much about what we are doing. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 offers us a chance to stop and think about why we do what we do.