Bible Recap Week 25

Join Pastor Eric for Episode 25 of the Bible Recap as we explore the book of Ecclesiastes. Written by Solomon, "the Teacher," Ecclesiastes takes us on a journey in search of life's true meaning. Solomon examines wisdom, pleasure, work, wealth, and achievement, asking a timeless question: Can anything in this life truly satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart?

Together, we'll unpack Solomon's observations about the emptiness of pursuing fulfillment apart from God and discover the hope found in living with an eternal perspective. If you've ever wrestled with questions about purpose, satisfaction, or the meaning of life, this conversation is for you.

Join us as we take a closer look at Ecclesiastes and uncover the truth that only God can fill the deepest desires of the human soul.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I don't love spending time in the world with you like this, so let's get started. Can you believe it? This is episode 25 of the Bible recap podcast for Waters Ed's Church. We are exploring today one of the most fascinating and honest books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes. If you've ever asked questions like, what's the point of all my work, or why do bad things happen to good people? Why does life seem unfair? Is there anything in life that can truly satisfy? Then Ecclesiastes is the book for you. This is actually the second book that we're tackling. Last week we talked about Proverbs. Today we'll talk about the book of Ecclesiastes written by Solomon, also known as The Teacher, as you read through this. Ecclesiastes takes a hard look at life under the sun. It wrestles with the realities of work, pleasures of life, wisdom, aging, finances, death, and just the idea of the search for meaning in life. The teacher, Solomon, examines every avenue people pursue for fulfillment and asks the question can anything in this life truly satisfy the deepest longing of a human heart? So I want to walk through several of these themes of Ecclesiastes and chapters and just kind of look at how we apply these things today. The book opens with a shocking statement. It says, Meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless. That's verse 2 of chapter 1. The Hebrew word that translated meaningless literally means it's like a vapor. Everything's like a vapor or a mist or our breath. The teacher isn't saying life has no value. Solomon is saying life is elusive, it's temporary, it's impossible to fully grasp and control. Everything we build in life eventually fades away. Careers will end, wealth changes hands, achievements are forgotten, even great civilizations disappear. There is a cycle to all of life. Generations come, generations go, but as Solomon says, the earth remains forever. Life often feels repetitive. We work, we sleep, eat, and we repeat. There was a guy in the church years ago, his name was Chet, and I remember him saying to me as and he was probably, oh I don't know, probably he was probably in his early 40s at the time. And he he came into my office one time and he says, Eric, there has to be something more to life than buying a house, having a couple of kids, buying a couple of Buicks, and then dying. And I'll never forget that because I mean I was much younger at the time, and I thought, man, buying a couple of Buick's kind of sounds nice. But it does, life can feel sort of repetitive. The point is not despair when I say that. The point is just being realistic. When we try to find ultimate meaning and temporary things, it we will always be left disappointed. So we cannot build our identity of who we are on things that will not last. So many people define themselves by their job, their accomplishments, their possessions, their reputation, their children. But all these things are temporary. For instance, what I mean by children, let me kind of define that a little bit because that can kind of sound crazy. Um the idea with children is if you wrap your identity into your children as as a husband and wife, one of those, one day those kids are going to walk down an aisle and get married or they're gonna move out. And if your identity is only in them and you forget to to work on your marriage, it can it can leave you empty when those kids, well, it's called the empty nest. It can uh it can be it can be uh difficult. So uh what I'm saying is every season of life, that's better, that sounds much healthier and better. Every season of life is temporary. So the true meaning of life has to come from something eternal. In chapter two, Solomon conducts an experiment, and he decides to pursue pleasure on a grand scale, and he certainly had the money and the wherewithal to do it. So he tries entertainment and laughter and projects and buildings and houses and wealth and music and relationships, and essentially he ends up saying, I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. But after obtaining everything he wanted, he says again, everything was meaningless. Everything I did was like chasing after the wind. Pleasure brought temporary enjoyment, pleasure brought just for a moment this fulfillment, but it didn't last. We we live in a culture, friends, that constantly tell us if you can just have this one thing, you'll be happy. But satisfaction will never last. There's always something else. You've noticed that, right? There's always something else. There's always there's always a place that you haven't seen, or um maybe a promotion or a job that you want or another achievement to grasp. The soul, there's something in our soul that craves for more. And what I want to say to you today is we've got to learn to enjoy God's gifts, but don't let them become your God. As I inch towards retirement, people will ask me, What are you gonna do in retirement? What are you gonna do when you're not a pastor? Won't you be miserable? Won't you be bored? And my answer is no, because being in ministry is not my God. Last night I was practicing with the worship team at Water's Edge, and I thought while I was playing the piano, maybe maybe when I retire I'll I'll play in the worship band. I mean, I don't want to be in charge of the worship band. I don't want to be responsible for unlocking the door and locking the door and getting the music ready and making sure sound systems work. But I am not going to curl up in a hole and die because I'm not a pastor. I enjoy my life. I I enjoy being a pastor, but and I enjoy teaching and preaching and all the things. But friends, the those things are not my God. My my job, my career, it's a gift. My friends are gifts. Uh family is a gift, my wife is a precious gift, my grandchildren are the best gift forever gift ever. Um my kids, uh, who they married, all of all of it's all a gift. Um vacations and Sabbath, those are gifts. But none of them carry the weight of being our ultimate source of purpose. Grandchildren come close. If and when I am not serving as a pastor, that will not change my purpose. Last week last week we talked a lot about wisdom, and uh we're and Solomon uh once again talks about wisdom in Ecclesiastes, and he pursues wisdom. He becomes wiser than anyone before him. He's known as as wise Solomon. And he discovers he discovers that wisdom is valuable. Uh wisdom helps us, um, wisdom helps us make better decisions, um, avoid necessary pain. Uh wisdom um helps us to live uh skillfully and and with knowledge, but yet wisdom cannot solve every problem. Every because even wise people die, even wise people suffer, even wise people experience injustice. And Solomon says the same destiny, even if you're wise, the same destiny overtakes both of us. In other words, wisdom helps, but wisdom, wisdom doesn't conquer death. You know, for me, for me, it's it's perspective in life. Wise people die just like unwise people. Uh you cannot escape coming to the end of your life. Wisdom cannot conquer death. Um, if you want to live forever, look to the cross, follow Jesus, live for him, because eternal life comes to those who believe in Jesus Christ, who receive him as their Lord and Savior. There are moments in life when no amount of knowledge or wisdom will ever be able to answer our question. Um, questions like, why did this tragedy happen? Um, why wasn't this prayer answered? Why is this season of life, why is it so difficult? I'm a I'm accused often of being a realist, and and it's true. When when my prayers are not answered, or if life doesn't go the way that I wished it would, I don't ask God a lot of questions. I don't say, you know, why me, God, or why does this happen? Um, and it's by the way, it's not wrong to ask questions of God. I just, as a realist, I just know that, yes, stuff happens. Life happens. Um, people get sick, stocks, stocks crash, um, uh people leave churches, uh, churches close, people die. I'm not trying to be negative, it just happens. No amount, no amount of faith or spiritual language can change the life cycle of seasons of life. Even even the people that Jesus personally touched while he was here on earth eventually died. So it but it brings us to this uh this famous passage in chapter three of Ecclesiastes when Solomon says there is a time for everything, and there is a season for every activity under heaven. You know this. It's been it's in songs. Um I think even the Beatles uh recorded recorded. A time there is a time to be born, a time to die, there is a time to plant, and a time to uproot, there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, there's a time to dance, and there's a time to mourn. Friends, life moves through seasons. It just does. And and as much as we want our youth to last forever, or as much as we want success forever, or we want good health forever, um God has designed life with seasons. And Solomon reminds us that God is sovereign over all and is to be praised. This is a this is kind of an easy podcast for me because it it sort of communicates how I how I live from day to day, I think. Um my wife might disagree with with that. But in in fairness though, even as I as I sit here and think uh particularly about how my wife would respond, um there may come a day, there may come a day that I have to listen to this podcast again and again and over and over. Because I don't know how for sure I'll handle things as I continue to get older. I don't know how I'll face death and what I'll be like. Um or or what if what if tragedy strikes in my life? I have to tell you, this past week, um kind of walked with the Shoal family after uh Lamar found out that he had a brain tumor, and I hope oh my goodness, I hope I can approach uh health situations as gracefully and with the joy that Lamar had and demonstrated. Um he just demonstrated such a faith and uh acceptance um to to what to what was just so unexpected and I'm so proud to know him and to and to watch how he he responded. I mean he made me laugh more this week um while he while he was awaiting brain surgery. Can you believe that? I I'm just so I I don't know. I I'm just I'm just honored to have witnessed it. Um someone someone this past week uh said uh I overheard them say, oh, praise God. And and because the news was positive, they were rightfully so saying, praise God. But the person that heard it said, would we still praise God if the news wasn't positive? That's a I mean deep breath, wise question, thoughtful question. Can we praise him in the storm? I can honestly say sometimes I've done okay with that. I faced some things that that have been unfair and and have not been uh pleasurable to go through, and I've done okay, but then there are other times that I've gone through some things and I've asked way too long, you know, why me? Uh why am I going through this while everybody else seems to, you know, not have to deal with this, which which I know is not true. You know, as a pastor, I'm mindful when I w whether I do a podcast or whether I'm writing a sermon or teaching a lesson or coaching uh pastor. Um I'm always mindful that some of the people listening are in seasons of growth, and it's exciting. Some people that are listening are in new chapters, they're beginning a new chapter. Um but I'm also I also realize that some people are closing chapters, and um things aren't going well for them. And I try to I try to balance my words carefully, knowing that if everyone is in a different season of life, we just have to trust that God is present in every season because sometimes life just isn't fair. As a matter of fact, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, when he sees that you know there are wicked people prospering and there are uh good godly people that are suffering and um people are being oppressed and nobody is worried about it, um, or hard work is not being rewarded. And um I mean it's just so realistic. The Bible never pretends that life is fair. Ecclesiastes is acknowledges what many people experience but they're afraid to say out loud, but yet Solomon repeatedly points towards a future where all things will be made right. He believes that while justice may seem delayed in life, and while life may not seem fair, it will be someday. God sees God knows. God will ultimately set things right. If you ever listen to the words of a negro spiritual, all of all of those are they're filled with the mourning and the and the heaviness of slavery, but there is a there is a uh a hope that springs eternal in in Negro spirituals. Uh even the song which would not be would not be an old uh spiritual song, but um uh but famous in the black church is soon and very soon we are going to see the sing uh the king. There's no more crying there, no more death, no more pain there, soon and very soon. I think I look forward to heaven more um for this kind of idea. Um one of the things that's so is attractive to me about being thinking about heaven and being in heaven is to be in a place with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords where just truth is known and everything will be made right. No disappointment in today's headlines, no disappointments in a stock market, no disappointments in relationships, no more tumors, no more strokes, no more cancer, no more death, no more injustice, no more people ripping off the system. It will all be made right. So, uh our time is coming to an end. How do we wrap this up? Well, Bible recap readers, um, here's what I would say to you enjoy your work, enjoy your food, enjoy your family, receive life as God's gift. Be grateful. The ability to enjoy simple blessings is itself a gift from God. Don't don't get destination disease. Like this, if only I could, or I would sure be happy if or when. Ecclesiastes reminds us that life is happening right now. The climax of Ecclesiastes comes in chapter 12, where Solomon poetically describes aging and mortality. Here's what he says your strength will fade, your vision will weaken, your body will slow down, death will approach, and then he says this challenge. Remember your creator in the days of your youth. Don't wait until the end of life to seek God. Seek him now, walk with him now, trust him now, serve him now. Life, oh my, life moves quickly. The years pass faster than we'd ever imagine. So live, live with eternity in view. God bless you, friends. Thanks so much for listening to the Water's Edge Bible recap. I look forward every week to walking in the Word with you. You can find more information about Water's Edge Church at www.watersedge.faith. And you can listen to our weekly message on any platform under the Water's Edge website or by downloading the Water's Edge app.