Good afternoon. Certainly a pleasure to be here,
to be your speaker this evening. Although it was not originally
planned, it's a great opportunity.
I'm glad to be here to worship with you.
I'm thankful for the safe travels that Kendra and I have
had to be here, and I'm excited to share with you something that
I've been studying recently. If you have your Bibles, please
open to Ecclesiastes, the first chapter.
We're going to be staying there for the vast majority of our
study, and we're going to kind of go through this as an
expository study through the 1st chapter of Ecclesiastes.
And before I begin, a quick disclaimer.
We can't go through the whole book.
Ecclesiastes is a meaty book. It's a powerful book and I would
encourage you maybe take the liberty to assign some homework,
read the rest of it on your own, read the rest of it on your own.
We can't go through all of it, but hopefully this serves as
motivation for you and your own personal study to go through
this book, and maybe it will be as helpful to you as it has been
to me in my own life. So Ecclesiastes, many people
have really never read Ecclesiastes, but they've heard
things about it. Some would say it's the problem
child of the Bible. And their reaction usually goes
something like this. Isn't that the depressing book
that says life is meaningless? The short answer to that
question is yes, it is the depressing book that says life
is meaningless. But it's not just that.
I argue there's a flip side to that coin.
The idea of meaninglessness is a huge theme throughout the text.
However, that's not the ultimate goal of the rider.
The goal of the rider, I would argue, is not to make us feel
meaningless, not to make us feel insignificant, but to weed out
those things that are meaningless, that are
insignificant, so that we can find those things that are truly
meaningful, that are truly significant.
If you picture life as a garden, we have flowers and we have
weeds. Flowers are those things that
are beautiful, They're meaningful, we like them and
they satisfy us. And we know weeds get in the way
of flowers. Weeds grow a whole lot faster
than flowers do. They could still sunlight from
those flowers make it hard for flowers to grow.
And even if there are flowers, sometimes they get blocked by
the weeds because the weeds are bigger.
And So what I would argue the preacher, as we go through this
first chapter of Ecclesiastes, is advocating that we need to
pull those weeds out of our lives to nurture those flowers
that need to be growing. And so we can see those flowers
that are already there, and we need to be paying a little more
attention too, because they are truly more important.
In the same way, in order to find meaning, just like in order
to find those flowers, you have to weed out the meaningless.
Throughout the book, the idea of vanity is repeated over and over
again constantly. This phrase again, this is
vanity and grasping for the wind.
I saw that this was vanity and grasping for the wind.
You'll hear it repeated over and over again throughout the text,
but the author does this to bring focus to that which does
matter. It is a book not really of
doctrinal teaching, but a perspective building.
There's some doctrine and Ecclesiastes, but really this is
a book that helps Christians and it would have been the children
of Israel at the time, but to foster a perspective about God
that will help them to live fulfilling lives and really what
we should be valuing in our lives that will bring us
fulfilment. And I'll say that this book can
be depressing. It can be hard to read about the
things that you care about. They don't mean anything.
But I would advocate that sometimes God has to break down
before he can build up. Things that which we think are
important, this book reveals, are usually worthless.
And that can be a painful realization that can create a
void. Sometimes God needs to clear out
some of space in our hearts so that he has room to occupy.
He has to tear down that love for material things in order to
cultivate a love for him. And ultimately, as we'll find,
freeing ourself of that reliance, that dependence on
material things is the only way to achieve true contentment and
peace in life. So let's jump right in verse.
Verse one, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king
in Jerusalem. This raises 2 questions for me.
Just as the beginning of the book and from this verse in
general #1 who's the author? That's important when we're
studying any biblical text. The author of the book can give
us insight onto the teachings, the time it was written, what he
truly means, why he's writing it.
There are two main schools of thought on the authorship of
Ecclesiastes. You see here that the the
preacher is a introduced character.
One group believes that the author is someone other than the
preacher who was recording the words of the preacher after the
fact and reflecting on them. We'll find in chapter 12 that
there's some reflection that happens on all the teachings of
the preacher. Another one says, another school
of thought says that the author and the preacher, they're just
the same person. So it would be like if I was
about to to tell something to you, I would say these are the
words of Cohen. And then after the fact, I said
this is what Cohen said in the third person.
And that's not something that's out of the blue.
It does happen in the Bible. Bible writers sometimes refer to
themselves in the third person. So it's not something that's
totally unheard of. But I would argue that the
authorship is not the primary concern.
Whether or not the author is the preacher or the author was
simply recording the words of the preacher, the teaching is
largely the same. I don't think there's any
differences in interpretation based on the either of those
views. What is of importance is who the
preacher is because the preacher is who's given us the meat of
the text. The preacher is the one who's
preaching. And based on the clues given to
us in the first verse, and we'll find even in verse 16 of this
chapter, I believe it is the primary subject or suspect for
who the preacher is. I guess you could say is
Solomon, King Solomon. And we see here it says that the
the preacher is the son of David.
Solomon was the literal son of David and he was literally the
king in Jerusalem. Later on, it will talk about the
wisdom that this preacher has gained, and we know that Solomon
was blessed by God with unparalleled wisdom, so it makes
sense that Solomon is the most obvious candidate for who the
preacher is. Solomon had more than any of us
could ever dream of, which makes his perspective so powerful and
insightful as we read this book. So these are the words of the
preacher. Vanity of vanity, says the
preacher. Vanity of vanities.
All is vanity, verse 2. Think of this as the thesis
statement for the rest of the book.
This idea of vanity is one that will be hammered into you by the
end of reading Ecclesiastes, and it's a major concept.
So we need to know what this word vanity means.
I think it's easy to have a baseline understanding of
vanity, but the Hebrew word is Havel, and that is literally
translated vapor or breath. Think about walking outside on a
cold morning and you breathe out and you see your breath there
for a second, but then it's gone.
Basically what this means, anything that's vanity is that
which is pointless without profit, futile, fleeting, or
worthless. It's not lasting.
It's not going to matter at the end of the day.
So Solomon is saying that the things in this life are just
like that. They're vanity, they're
worthless, they're fleeting, they're futile.
They're vanity because they will ultimately be worthless and they
will ultimately profit us nothing of lasting value.
And Solomon, I believe, is saying this is kind of a
hyperbole. He's kind of exasperated.
All is vanity. It'd be like if I got cut off in
traffic and I said everything's going wrong today.
Everything's not going wrong in the strictest sense of that
phrase, but I'm so overwhelmed in that moment that I'm saying
everything is going wrong. Solomon was likely overwhelmed
by the things in his life that he found to be vanity, that he
says everything is vanity, all is vanity, and much of life is.
It's not that much of an exaggeration, but the things in
his life especially were vanity, and he was probably worn down by
that. He'd probably grown weary.
Not everything is vanity, but those things in Solomon's life
had caused him to cry out in this way at the beginning of
this discourse. Verse 3 says this.
What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils
under the sun? Under the sun.
What does Solomon mean when he says that?
That's another major theme. Under the sun is a phrase that's
repeated over and over again. This is the first time that it's
used essentially under the sun and above the sun.
You won't find the phrase above the sun used in the book, but
there are two different perspectives.
Under the sun is this physical life as we experience it, devoid
of God. It is the non spiritual things
that we experience in life. And so Solomon says, what
prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under
the sun? It's a rhetorical question.
Solomon asks what prophet? There's no prophet in what we
toil under the sun. And I want to make it clear that
by saying these things, Solomon is not condemning or devaluing
hard work. In fact, later in the book he's
going to emphasize we do need to work hard in things in our life.
Ecclesiastes 910 says whatever you your hands find to do, do it
with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or
wisdom in the grave where you are going.
This is really similar to what Paul wrote in Colossians 322
through 24. He says they're bond servants.
Obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with
eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart fearing
God. And whatever you do, do it
heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the
Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you
serve the Lord Christ. When we work, we're supposed to
work as though we're doing the job for God, not man.
And studying that was kind of a painful realization for me
because that hasn't always been the case in my life.
And maybe it's a crude example, but when my my mom or my dad
asks me to mow the lawn, I have to mow the lawn.
You know, like kind of grudgingly.
Would I act that same way if God had asked me to mow his lawn?
I hope not. Would I have cut corners, left
some weeds there when you couldn't, couldn't really see
them, you know, if you just checked out the window?
Would I have done that if I was mowing God's lawn?
It's a small example, but even those small things, those small
things that we put effort into in our lives are practice for
those bigger things, right? And even though maybe my lawn
isn't God's lawn, I am working for God because God has given
that individual authority over me.
And he said you work for them like you're working for me.
So that should inspire an attitude of being hard working,
having a good work ethic. And the difference is found in
our hearts. Many worldly people are
incredibly hard workers, but they set their their their goals
after something that's vain. And that's a goal that Solomon
knew all too well was ultimately worthless and fleeting.
Like Colossians said, we need to have sincerity of heart when we
work, not striving to build up wealth for ourselves, but to
glorify God in the work that we do.
Service to God can bring contentment that money never
can. The action is is the same, but
our heart, what we're after, determines our reward.
This is beautifully exemplified in Matthew chapter 6.
Jesus taught there in verses 5 through 7.
And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of
the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Here's the purpose. Jesus says, I know their hearts,
I know why they're doing it. And then he says, assuredly, I
say to you, they have their reward.
They have their reward. They're doing it to be seen by
men. Guess what, they will, they will
be seen by men, but that's all they're going to be seen by.
Then he says, But you and you pray, go into your room, and
when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who was in
the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret, will
reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use
vain repetitions. Even in Jesus's teaching, this
idea of vanity, those repetitions, they're worthless,
they don't mean anything. They're after man's attention,
not God's. Do not use vain repetitions as
the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for
their many words. Just like the example Jesus gave
about prayer. Our reward is what we make it.
Our reward is what we make. Both men were praying, but their
heart determined two things. It determined the way that they
prayed, and it determined who heard them.
The man who had his heart, after being seen by men, he went out
and prayed in front of man and he was seen by men, but he did
not glorify God in that. The man who wanted to seek after
God, he was seen by God. And it said when he went to his
father, who sees in secret, he will be rewarded openly.
The action can be similar, but the heart determines the reward.
And what this might look like in our lives, maybe in the context
of the labor which we do, is that someone who's greedy?
They want money, right? Maybe they have some unethical
work habits. They're cheating people out of
money. They're not working with
integrity. This person is after a material
goal and is sacrificing ethics in order to obtain it, and
they're going to get what they're after.
They might make a lot of money, but that's all they're going to
make. Whereas the Christian in their
work for maintaining our ethics, we're still working hard.
Maybe our paycheck is not going to be as big, but guess what?
We're getting something a whole lot better than a big paycheck.
We are glorifying God and pleasing Him in our lives.
If we work hard for temporary things like riches and pleasure,
we're going to get them. We're going to get them.
But if we work hard for God's glory, we're going to get that
too. So the question is, what are we
after? One is vanity, the other is
vital. So what are we working hard for
and what reward are we after? Ultimately, our desire to serve
God in our hearts should manifest itself in hard work and
will cause the reward from that work to be greater and more
lasting than these vain rewards that will die with us.
Moving on to verse four, one generation passes away and
another generation comes, but the earth abides forever.
Time is fleeting. Solomon makes that abundantly
clear. You and I, we're not going to be
here together just this generations before us have gone
on. We're going to go on too.
And in a lot of ways, that makes our work vanity because our
labor often dies with us. We can't continue it after we
die. And the fact is, much of the
work that we do will likely have no effect on anyone who lives
after us. But that's our labor under the
sun. I think that raises the
question, what can I do in my life?
Solomon talks about this generational passing of time.
What can I do in my life that will affect generations after
me? I think there's a simple answer
to that. Sometimes we make it more
complicated than we need to. I simply need to live a
Christian life. Living a Christian life is
something that can be felt by the children of that person, the
grandchildren of that person, and so on.
Being an example of a faithful Christian is so powerful because
future generations can look toward that set example and
learn to follow it. My mom and dad were the first
examples of Christians that I had in my lives, and I thank God
that I had good examples like them because I don't know where
I would be without them. I have them to thank for the
example that they set for me, and I know that I am who I am
today largely because of that. The future generations probably
won't know about how much money my parents made.
They won't know what they were good at, what they were bad at.
But through their example, and I pray through my example and
through my kids example, one day that Christian life will not be
in vain. It can be felt through
generations. And that's just one small way.
Maybe it's a small way, but it's also probably the biggest way
that we in our lives can labor so that generations long after
us will feel the fruit of our labor.
Solomon continues by giving examples from nature about this
vanity of Labor. Verses 5 through 7 says this.
The sun also rises, and the sun goes down and hastens to the
place where it arose. The wind goes towards the South
and turns around to the north. The wind whirls about
continually and comes again on its circuit.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
To the place where from which the rivers come, there they
return again. Even an observable nature.
There is no end to toil. It is constant.
The work is constant. The sun goes down just to rise
again. The wind goes around in circles,
seemingly endlessly, and the rivers run into the sea.
But they can never accomplish their goal of filling it up.
In fact, as soon as they pour that water into the sea, the
water gets taken right back to where it starts.
The end of one labour is merely the beginning of another.
It's this endless cycle of trying to accomplish a physical
goal, but it never being enough. It never satisfies.
The work is undone and fleeting. And if even the work of nature
is unsatisfying and burdensome, how is our tireless labour any
different? If our end goal is physical, We
can learn from nature that it will not last, will not be
permanent. It can never satisfy.
I think as a side note, it's also worth mentioning that this
is a very clear picture of the water cycle, and this is in my
mind. I'm interested in apologetics.
This is the water cycle that's outlined.
The water cycle was not something that was
scientifically accepted until the early 1800s.
And here's Solomon writing about the water going into the sea and
coming back to the place that had started.
This was not the the popular belief at the time about how all
of this worked. And so I say that to say that
the wisdom found in this book, though sometimes it can seem sad
and focused on that which is pointless.
It's not just from some sad guy who was unhappy with his life.
This is wisdom that God has given us so that we can learn
from it. So we don't.
We don't have to make the same mistakes that Solomon did in his
life. The Bible and the wisdom therein
is from God. Verse 8 says this.
All things are full of Labor. Man cannot express it.
The eyes not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with
hearing. Even though the eye was designed
to see, seeing is not enough. Even though the ear was designed
to hear, hearing is not enough. The point is, the physical will
never be enough. There will always be a higher
salary, a more significant achievement, you name it.
Fill in the blank, however it applies to you.
A life that depends on physical things to give it purpose is a
life wasted. A life that depends on physical
things to give a purpose is a life wasted.
But why is that? Verses 9 through 11 say that
which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will
be done. And there is nothing new under
the sun. Is there anything of which it
may be said? See, this is new.
It is already been in ancient times before us.
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be
any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will
come after. The reason we can't be
permanently satisfied by physical things is because
there's nothing new about them. People back back then weren't
satisfied by them. What makes us think we can be
satisfied by them now? There's nothing new about them.
And this phrase, There's nothing new under the sun, is again
another major theme in Ecclesiastes.
Basically, the idea is nothing we experience is unique to us.
In other words, I'm not special. I'm not special, I'm not the
centre of the universe, I'm not living my own unique narrative.
Sure, I have my own unique experiences, but these are
things that have been experienced by other people.
I am not special. And that can be hard to swallow.
And as people, we like to think that we're completely unique.
We're the centers of our own universes.
But that viewpoint at its root is inherently prideful.
And Solomon is taking a shot at that pride, a pride that he
probably experienced in his life.
I mean, you get you're the wisest man in the world.
God miraculously blesses you with wisdom, says there's
nothing new under the sun. We don't remember the things
done before us and no one will remember the things done by us.
Our problems, our pursuits and our preferences will be vanish
and will vanish away and ultimately be remembered by
knowing. And that can make you feel
insignificant. That's not a good feeling, that
advocate. There's a flip side to that
coin. We talked a lot about how a lot
of the book talks about what's meaningless, to reveal what is
meaningful. The point that I want to bring
out is that we are not defined by our physical accomplishments,
Solomon says. They're not even going to be
remembered. Nobody cares.
In other words, we are not defined by our physical
accomplishments. So much of life is out of
control, and losing control can be viewed in two ways.
Can be either incredibly stressful or it can be
relieving. Can be stressful or relieving.
And when we detach ourselves from earthly expectations, we
can be far more at peace. Things are out of my control,
but I know whose control they are in is far more powerful than
me, and he knows far better than me.
They're out of my control. They're in God's control.
When I read this, this rung in my mind a similarity between 1st
Corinthians 1013 where Paul says no temptation is overtaking you
except such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not
allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able, but with the
temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able
to bear it. We are not special in our
laborers, just like we're not special in our temptations.
No temptation is overtaking you except just as common to man.
This is a common problem. Lots of people deal with this,
but ultimately a godly perspective on each of these
issues can lead provide us with peace and comfort where we would
otherwise be hopeless and isolated.
Verses 12 through 15 say this. I, the preacher, was king over
Israel and Jerusalem, and I set my heart to seek and search out
by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven, this
burdensome task God has given to the sons of man by which they
may be exercised. I have seen all the works that
are done under the sun, and indeed all is vanity and
grasping for the wind. What is crooked cannot be made
straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
As the King of Israel, Solomon had a very unique perspective.
He could sit back and look at things from the bigger picture a
whole lot easier than maybe the common person could have.
He had a higher kingly perspective.
And I believe also too, he was speaking from years of his own
experience. Those things that are done under
the sun, part of those things were things that Solomon had
done. He was probably tired from years
of idolatry, meaningless pursuits, and regret.
He sought to see the works done under the sun and was met with
vanity. It was worthless at the end of
the day. And from this kingly vantage
point, he saw how small the works of man, not only the works
of man in general in the terms of the Kingdom of Israel, but in
the terms of his own life, how small they truly were.
And if that was from an earthly king perspective, how much
smaller do our pursuits, our vain pursuits seem to God, who
has an eternally greater kingly perspective?
How much more vanity does he find in our lives with his
kingly perspective? God knows all and sees all.
So what does he see in my life? What does he see in your life?
Is there vanity there? I don't think any of us can
confidently answer no, there's vanity in all of our lives.
But is that vanity? Are those weeds getting in the
way of the flowers? Solomon described this vanity as
grasping for the wind. This is another thing that's
talked about over and over and over again, and you think about
trying to grab the wind. You can't.
You can grasp for the wind all you want.
You're not going to catch it If you do.
It's pretty impressive. But of course not.
You can't grasp the wind. What is there to hold onto?
We talk about vanity. This idea of vapor.
It's like trying to catch that breath only for it to disappear,
only for it to slip through your fingers and be gone forever.
Grasping for the wind is this idea of working for something
you can never obtain. No matter how hard you grab, you
can't obtain it. And no matter how hard you work,
you can't be permanently satisfied with the physical
fruit of your laborers. But listen to Proverbs chapter
30 and verse 4. Who has ascended into heaven or
descended? Who has gathered the wind in his
fists? What does that sound like
grasping for the wind? Who has gathered the wind in his
first? Who has bound the waters in a
garment? Who's established all that the
ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his
Son's name? If you know we can't grasp the
wind, someone can. What is his name and what is his
son's name? It's God.
God can grasp the wind. And not that God pursues these
meaningless things, but where we try so hard to find meaning in
our lives and work so hard to reach out and grab it.
God says I've already grabbed meaning and I'm the only one who
can give it to you. We can't grasp for the wind.
God can. God can accomplish the things we
cannot, which is why we trust Him to reward ourselves, to
reward us rather with something lasting.
And this leads right into Solomon's next statement, verse
15. What is crooked cannot be made
straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
This was confusing to me the first time I read it, but
Solomon says something very similar in Chapter 7 verse 13
that I think adds some clarity. He says there, consider the work
of God for who can make straight what he has made crooked.
The point is, God is more powerful than us.
He's more powerful than me. He's more powerful than you.
He's more powerful than all of us combined.
He can provide us with the things we can't provide
ourselves. No one can undo what God has
done, and no one can accomplish what God has made impossible.
God is greater. Verse 16 I commune with my
heart, saying, look, I have attained greatness and it gained
more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem.
My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.
I don't have anything on this section, but the one thing I
want to draw from this is another clue, another piece of
evidence that supports that Solomon is very, very likely the
preacher. He has attained more wisdom than
all who are before me in Jerusalem.
Again, just pointing back to when God miraculously gave him
wisdom that surpassed anyone before him.
Then he says in verse 17 and 18, and I set my heart to know
wisdom and to know madness and folly.
I perceive that this also is grasping for the wind, for in
much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge
increases sorrow. I have two questions after
reading this. The first one is this.
Why was Solomon's pursuit of wisdom vanity?
We know from other places in the Bible that wisdom is not a bad
thing, but what did Solomon's wisdom result in?
We find our answer in First Kings Chapter 11.
It's talked about in verses one through 8.
We won't read the whole thing, but I'll briefly summarize.
Says there, but King Solomon loved many foreign women.
When the Lord had said you shall not intermarry with them, nor
they with you. Surely they will turn away your
hearts after their God. Solomon clung to these in love.
He disobeyed God, and what was the result?
He has 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines.
And his wives turned away his heart.
His wives turned away his heart, for it was so when Solomon was
old that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his
heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his
father David. So what was the result of
Solomon's wisdom? It was vanity because it did not
result in wisdom, in wise living and righteous living.
Wisdom itself is not vain, but it will be if it's not correctly
applied. Wisdom applied though is vital
in the life of a Christian. Solomon himself talked about the
the preciousness of wisdom. Proverbs 1616.
How much better to get wisdom than gold?
And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
Proverbs 26 For the Lord gives wisdom, the Lord gives wisdom
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
So two things need to be true from my study.
For wisdom to not be vanity #1 needs to come from the right
source. Proverbs 26 says the Lord gives
wisdom. First Corinthians chapter 1
talks a lot about the difference between God's wisdom and man's
wisdom. He says they're the foolishness
of God is wiser than man. It's not to say God is foolish.
It's just saying that even the wisest decision man has ever
made doesn't even compare to if God made a foolish one.
God is that much wiser. So #1 wisdom needs to come from
God, needs to be from the right source.
And two, as we see in Solomon's life, wisdom needs to be
correctly applied. Solomon had wisdom from God.
That wasn't his issue. His issue was that although he
had received this wisdom, he had not applied it to his life.
It had not resulted in wise living.
In fact, it had resulted in quite the opposite.
He had turned his heart away from God, therefore his wisdom
was vanity. And number two, maybe in a more
general sense, not solemn and specific.
Why do wisdom and knowledge lead to sorrow?
The fact is, wisdom and knowledge expose evil.
They expose evil, and exposure to evil, especially in the eyes
of one who seeks after God, should naturally produce sorrow.
Whether that's godly sorrow leading to repentance in the
life of the individual, or whether it's seeing people that
you love with a Christian love living lives of sin that
produces sorrow. It's not a happy feeling that
you feel when you see that. And I would, I would argue that
Solomon, both in his own life and in the lives of those who he
had witnessed, felt that sorrow. He could see the vain pursuits
of others, and he knew they weren't worth anything.
That's a helpless feeling. There's nothing really that I
could do about that. I can't control how people live
their lives. I can try my best to influence,
but I can't control it. But then I think even more so
when Solomon looked in his own heart.
Wow, that wisdom. I don't think Solomon was blind
to the mistakes that he was making.
He was the he was the wisest man to ever live besides Jesus.
How much sorrow do you think it produced within him?
I mean, he's writing this probably towards the end of his
life now, expressing that sorrow.
All of this was worthless. I don't know why I've spent all
my time doing this. That wisdom and that knowledge
exposed evil in his own life, leading him to be sorrowful and
see that he was burdened by sin. Surely this filled him with
sorrow. If you're following along, you
know that that's the end of the chapter.
That's kind of a downer note to leave on, right?
So again, I would encourage you continue to read through this
book. It's a powerful book and it will
serve you well. But I don't want to end there.
I want to end in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes in verse
13. We talked a little bit about the
reflection that happens at the end of the book.
This is a part of that reflection, and in a book where
it's often easy to read and to feel kind of down after reading
it, this is the conclusion. The author says, let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter. So everything that the preacher
just talked about, all this talk of vanity and worthlessness and
meaninglessness, this is the conclusion.
This is the bottom line. Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is man's all.
After 12 chapters of teaching about vanity, the one thing that
truly matters is brought into focus.
And it's so simple. It's so simple.
Ecclesiastes can be a philosophical book.
It can be easy to get bogged down in the the different
examples given in all this philosophical language.
But it all boils down to this, and this is not hard to
understand. Fear God and keep his
commandments. This is man's all.
In a book so full of unsatisfaction and emptiness, we
find man's all the thing that can truly complete man and
fulfill him, fearing God and keeping his commandments.
Everybody has a God sized hole in their heart and different
people try to fill it with different things.
And the fact is nothing's big enough to fill a God sized hole.
That's why so often these physical pursuits leave us
feeling worthless and tier than we were before because we're
trying to shovel things in and all we're realizing is, wow,
that holds a whole lot deeper than I thought it was.
I can't fill it up with these things in my own life.
I like to rock climb and my goal for the end of this year was to
climb AV 8. Those of you not familiar,
that's just a grade of how difficult the climb is.
And I accomplished it a while back and I was super, super
happy for about 3 seconds and then I sat there and it was kind
of like, is this it? That was it.
I worked like a year and a half for that.
It's because I was trying to fill a God sized toll with
something that was so much smaller than God.
Maybe I didn't realize it at the time, but I put so much time and
effort and training into doing this, and when I had finally
accomplished it, the only thing I could think of was that
doesn't matter. What did I gain from that?
That I can say that I climbed to be 8?
It's insignificant, it's fleeting, and it meant nothing,
but a life of service to God will never leave you
unsatisfied. When you go to funerals and you
hear what people talk about, maybe the regrets that they had,
the regret that you never hear is, man, I spent way too much
time trying to serve God. You never hear that.
In fact, it's almost always the inverse.
I regret not giving God the time He deserved, because when you
sit back and look at your life from that perspective, that's
what truly matters. And it's so clear in that
moment. It's so clear in that moment.
But the goal of the preacher is to cultivate that perspective in
every moment. Not just the deathbed
realization, but the in the moment realization that maybe I
shouldn't be spending all this time at the climbing gym because
it doesn't matter that much. Maybe I shouldn't be taking all
these extra hours because it's not letting me spend time with
other Christians or do this or that, whatever it may be.
The point is, we try so hard to fill ourselves, our hearts with
things that do not matter and neglect the only thing that
does. But a life of service to God
will never leave you wanting. It will never leave you empty.
So I have one question to finish it off.
Are you living under the sun or under the sun You can't see the
board probably doesn't make very much sense under the sun SUN the
physical life devoid of God or am I living under the sun SON
Jesus Christ John 4 verse 13 through 14 says this.
Jesus answered and said to her, talking to the woman at the
well. Whoever drinks of this water
will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I shall give
him will never thirst. Wow, That's a parallel that's
very closely connected to what Solomon's saying.
My drinking the water that the light that life is giving me
because it's just going to leave me to want more.
It's not going to quench my thirst for very long.
It might for a moment that that 3 seconds that I felt good about
my accomplishment, but after I'm just going to need more.
I'm not going to be satisfied. But Jesus says I shall give him
water that will make him never thirst.
It will never leave you unsatisfied.
But the water I shall give him will breed, becoming him a
fountain of water. All it's going to do is produce
more water springing up into everlasting life.
The water from the wells, just like the satisfaction we get
from life, will be enough for a while.
We will always find ourselves wanting more.
Jesus is the only one who can offer us something better than
that. The only one is the only place
you're going to find it, and that's something.
That water is the gospel, the good news that Jesus died for
our sins, was raised from the dead, and ascended to reign in
heaven at the right hand of God. So while we close our study, we
never want to close our worship service without extending the
invitation that Jesus died so that you could accept.
This is not my invitation. It's not the congregation's
invitation, it's Jesus's. It's that water that will never
leave you thirsty again. And the plan of salvation is so
clearly laid out in Scripture, hearing the Word of God, that
faith comes by hearing. So we need faith.
Faith in what? Faith in Jesus, that he's the
Son of God, that he is, who he says he was is, and that he did
what he said he did. And faithfulness, faithfulness,
that allegiance to Him. We need to repent of our sins.
That repentance is walking One Direction, realizing that
there's error in my way, and turning the other direction and
walking toward God. I was once walking away.
I am now walking toward Him. Repentance is not this idea of
drawing the line of sin on the ground and inching your way as
close as you possibly can to it without technically sinning.
That's not repentance. Repentance is turning your back
on the line and leaving it so far behind you that you don't
even know where it is anymore. It's in the dust, it's in the
past. That is repentance.
Then comes confession, confession that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, and then baptism for the remission of sins.
And maybe you have taken those steps, but maybe you have looked
into your life. You've realized that so much of
it is vanity, just like Solomon, so much of life is vanity.
And we consume ourselves with that vanity.
But maybe you're here. And if there's any way that I
can help you or the congregation here can help you, we would love
to. We're a family.
I'm not from here, but we're all brothers and sisters in Christ,
so if I can help you, or if anyone here can help you in any
way, please come while we stand and sing a song.