WEBVTT 00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:01.062 Good morning everybody. 00:00:01.062 --> 00:00:05.112 Sorry about that technical difficulty. 00:00:05.112 --> 00:00:14.932 This morning they upgraded our internet so it works really well now and nothing else does. 00:00:14.932 --> 00:00:19.986 So that's where we're at, our summer series. 00:00:19.986 --> 00:00:28.602 This morning is on favorite chapter of the Bible, which I felt like was kind of a loaded topic. 00:00:28.602 --> 00:00:33.133 I'd rather you just tell me, like you know, 1 John, 3, talk about that, you know. 00:00:33.133 --> 00:00:37.131 But when it's that broad and open-ended it made me really think for a minute. 00:00:37.131 --> 00:00:42.149 So my favorite chapter of Ecclesiastes is Ecclesiastes 1. 00:00:42.149 --> 00:00:47.161 And I say that I preface it because it is a pretty depressing chapter. 00:00:47.161 --> 00:00:55.567 The book of Ecclesiastes is pretty depressing, so it's kind of weird for me to say that's my favorite book, but it is. 00:00:55.567 --> 00:01:00.624 And so we're going to start at the very end because I don't want to start. 00:01:00.624 --> 00:01:04.402 We're going to try to sandwich that depression in between some positive right. 00:01:04.402 --> 00:01:10.721 We're going to try to start happier, end happier, and we're probably going to check off this entire list as we go. 00:01:11.081 --> 00:01:18.962 So when we approach the end of Ecclesiastes, it says things like ship your grain across the sea. 00:01:18.962 --> 00:01:21.528 After many days you may receive a return. 00:01:21.528 --> 00:01:22.772 Ecclesiastes 11. 00:01:22.772 --> 00:01:25.787 Invest in seven ventures, yes, and eight. 00:01:25.787 --> 00:01:28.463 You do not know what disaster may come upon the land. 00:01:28.463 --> 00:01:31.432 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. 00:01:31.432 --> 00:01:36.632 Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, In the place where it falls, there it will lie. 00:01:36.632 --> 00:01:40.141 Whoever watches the wind will not plant. 00:01:40.141 --> 00:01:42.103 Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. 00:01:42.103 --> 00:01:50.393 Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap, as you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb. 00:01:50.393 --> 00:01:59.361 So you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things. 00:01:59.361 --> 00:02:00.343 Sow your seed in the morning and at evening. 00:02:00.343 --> 00:02:04.733 Let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. 00:02:04.793 --> 00:02:17.725 So this seems kind of like a general statement, but when you put this in Ecclesiastes, in chapter 11, after you have 10 chapters of the author going back through really all of these different worldviews, that's what Ecclesiastes is right. 00:02:17.725 --> 00:02:27.463 It's the author with limitless resources, with all of the wealth, power, knowledge that you could imagine in this lifetime, trying out different worldviews. 00:02:27.463 --> 00:02:31.711 And how well does this help us succeed in life? 00:02:31.711 --> 00:02:34.764 How well does this help us live our life to the fullest? 00:02:34.764 --> 00:02:41.663 And so by the time you get to chapter 11, it gets back to the point where it's kind of simple. 00:02:41.663 --> 00:02:48.263 It's kind of like stop worrying about what the rain is going to do and go plant your field. 00:02:49.165 --> 00:02:56.271 You don't know if it's going to be a good season or a bad season, but you know that you're not going to get anything in return if you don't put anything out there. 00:02:56.271 --> 00:03:02.361 Stop worrying about which of your shipping routes are going to succeed or which venture is going to be success or which one. 00:03:02.361 --> 00:03:07.088 Take the risk, because if you don't take the risk you're going to get nothing in return. 00:03:07.088 --> 00:03:20.854 But the only way that you get to this world and that seems simple, right, that like we can reckon through that ourself, with no risk, no reward, like that as a simple statement on its own, we understand that. 00:03:20.854 --> 00:03:24.847 But what Ecclesiastes does is it walks you all the way there. 00:03:24.847 --> 00:03:33.164 It walks you all the way up into that point of how do you deeply believe that? 00:03:33.164 --> 00:03:33.786 How do you deeply believe? 00:03:33.786 --> 00:03:34.729 Because I can say you know, no risk, no reward. 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:38.643 I'm not going to worry about things I can't control, like the weather or the season. 00:03:38.643 --> 00:03:40.884 I'm not going to worry about that and I'm just going to do my best. 00:03:40.884 --> 00:03:49.115 I can say that on the surface, but how do I get to the point that I believe it so much that I shape my life that way, in accordance with that belief. 00:03:49.115 --> 00:04:03.393 And that's what Ecclesiastes does really, by trial and error, right, really by here's a lot of different things that I've tried, that I've tested in life, things that the average man doesn't get to the end of. 00:04:03.393 --> 00:04:09.508 I've had all of the women that I wanted, all of the success that I wanted, and I found it to be lacking. 00:04:09.508 --> 00:04:17.733 The average person doesn't have enough resources, time, money, servants, whatever to get to the end of that process. 00:04:17.733 --> 00:04:25.339 But somebody did, they tested it, they wrote about it and here's what they concluded it. 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:26.742 They wrote about it and here's what they concluded. 00:04:26.742 --> 00:04:28.425 And so I really like the book of Ecclesiastes for that reason. 00:04:28.446 --> 00:04:30.069 But I really like chapter one. 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:34.923 I really like chapter one, which might be one of the most depressing chapters. 00:04:34.923 --> 00:04:39.934 It might be, but it really meets you where you are. 00:04:39.934 --> 00:04:44.588 We've all experienced some kind of depression, some kind of sadness. 00:04:44.588 --> 00:04:46.793 Some of us might be experiencing it now. 00:04:46.793 --> 00:04:53.093 And Ecclesiastes 1 meets you there and starts to walk you through that process. 00:04:55.002 --> 00:04:59.951 So it begins the words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. 00:04:59.951 --> 00:05:02.892 Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher, utterly meaningless. 00:05:02.892 --> 00:05:06.524 Everything is meaningless, meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. 00:05:06.524 --> 00:05:10.771 Now, when it says teacher, that's really a teacher of like. 00:05:10.771 --> 00:05:12.574 It's almost like a philosophy teacher. 00:05:12.574 --> 00:05:20.024 It's not like a teacher who stands up and instructs you, tells you what's right and wrong. 00:05:20.024 --> 00:05:21.487 It's a teacher who's going to ask you questions. 00:05:21.487 --> 00:05:25.153 It's a teacher who's going to engage you in a little bit of a philosophical debate. 00:05:25.153 --> 00:05:30.867 And right from the beginning it says meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:41.012 Now, that might not appeal to everyone, right, we might not all feel that way in this moment, but we probably have had moments where we felt like things were meaningless. 00:05:41.012 --> 00:05:50.386 We probably have had moments in loss or in trial, where we were left questioning what is the point, what is the purpose? 00:05:50.386 --> 00:05:59.286 So when you find yourself there, misery loves what Company, right? 00:05:59.286 --> 00:06:06.406 So when you find yourself in that space of things are meaningless, things are pointless, what even is the point? 00:06:06.406 --> 00:06:08.612 Why should I even follow through with that? 00:06:08.612 --> 00:06:13.709 Then you're going to remember back to what else that sounded like. 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:15.552 You know. 00:06:15.552 --> 00:06:21.312 You probably have in mind the friend you could call and you know exactly what their story is going to be. 00:06:21.312 --> 00:06:30.783 It's going to be who died this week week and what was wrong in the news this week and if you're in a bad mood and you're wanting to talk about how bad your life is, you're probably going to call that friend, right? 00:06:30.783 --> 00:06:34.593 Ecclesiastes is that friend in the Bible. 00:06:34.593 --> 00:06:45.052 Ecclesiastes is the friend that's going to tell you, it's going to confirm for you just how pointless and miserable everything can be if you're living in that worldview. 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:48.569 And so meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. 00:06:48.569 --> 00:06:53.869 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 00:06:53.869 --> 00:06:57.605 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 00:06:57.605 --> 00:07:02.422 The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. 00:07:02.422 --> 00:07:05.331 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north. 00:07:05.331 --> 00:07:08.906 Round and round, it goes, ever returning on its course. 00:07:08.906 --> 00:07:16.519 So that very first verse in this section, verse 3, what do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:22.168 That's really the crux of not even just this chapter, but the whole book, the whole book of Ecclesiastes. 00:07:22.168 --> 00:07:22.870 What is the point? 00:07:22.870 --> 00:07:39.581 What is the purpose of life, which is a deep question, right, and I think the reason that's so deep is because if we find a purpose, if we find a durable purpose that provides meaning for our life, everything else kind of falls into place right. 00:07:40.543 --> 00:07:46.915 If my purpose is to be a good father, then I'm going to start orienting my life around that. 00:07:46.915 --> 00:07:51.552 I'm going to try to take in information that I think makes me a better father. 00:07:51.552 --> 00:07:59.293 I'm going to pay attention to people that I consider to be a good father and try to replicate that, try to be like them. 00:07:59.293 --> 00:08:01.947 I'm going to structure my whole life in that way. 00:08:01.947 --> 00:08:07.062 Going to structure my whole life in that way. 00:08:07.062 --> 00:08:11.012 If I think my purpose is to have a high-achieving career, then I'm going to position myself in a situation where I might be able to do that. 00:08:11.012 --> 00:08:14.454 I'm going to say yes to everything that comes across my plate. 00:08:14.454 --> 00:08:17.785 I'm not going to be worried about work-life balance. 00:08:17.785 --> 00:08:21.091 Maybe I'll have that later, when I already have that career. 00:08:21.091 --> 00:08:23.543 But whatever that purpose is, it doesn't really matter. 00:08:23.543 --> 00:08:28.694 I'm going to orient or structure my whole life around that purpose, and we all do that. 00:08:28.694 --> 00:08:33.350 We all have things that we have structured our life around that we think give us meaning. 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:41.105 And Ecclesiastes is saying what do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 00:08:41.105 --> 00:08:46.191 So what is it that people think they're getting out of what they're doing? 00:08:46.191 --> 00:08:57.013 Why do people do what they do Now, when it says that phrase under the sun, which it's going to use several times, that's where Ecclesiastes is really meeting the average person, where they are. 00:08:57.013 --> 00:09:14.729 That phrase under the sun is basically saying if we assume that this life is all there is, so that's what's going to be different about this book, because most of the Bible is pointing toward the larger story, the larger narrative of God and you see, that deeper meaning and that deeper purpose. 00:09:14.729 --> 00:09:21.027 Ecclesiastes, for the next 10 chapters, is going to make this assumption what if this is all there is? 00:09:21.027 --> 00:09:24.267 How are we going to find meaning? 00:09:24.267 --> 00:09:30.851 How are we going to find a structure that guides us through life if all we have is what we see in front of us under the sun? 00:09:30.851 --> 00:09:34.206 So it's going to take that worldview. 00:09:34.206 --> 00:09:35.129 Now, what we're going to see? 00:09:35.129 --> 00:09:42.624 Even in just chapter one of Ecclesiastes, we're going to see things that are we're seeing them everywhere around us. 00:09:42.664 --> 00:09:46.332 Today there's three main answers to this question. 00:09:46.332 --> 00:09:46.600 Right? 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:51.520 What is the purpose If all we have under the sun, all we have, is what this life has to offer? 00:09:51.520 --> 00:10:02.163 There's nothing after this life, we don't know or don't think there's anything kind of underpinning this life, then how do we reconcile that? 00:10:02.163 --> 00:10:02.803 How do we act? 00:10:02.803 --> 00:10:04.365 How do we behave if that's true? 00:10:04.365 --> 00:10:11.169 And so Ecclesiastes sort of acknowledges that and right away it starts to sort of chip away. 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:27.042 It's really kind of brilliant, because it's like using the sense of despair, using the sense of the heaviness, the weight of this possible worldview against itself. 00:10:27.062 --> 00:10:36.903 Because if there's nothing new under the sun, if there's no purpose to any of this, then what are we going to do with that? 00:10:36.903 --> 00:10:39.789 And so, right from the start it says what do we gain? 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:40.772 What's the purpose? 00:10:40.772 --> 00:10:49.485 And what it's going to lay out next is what the purpose could not be, and it's going to do that over and over again. 00:10:49.485 --> 00:10:55.894 So verse 4, one of the purposes can't be to life if there's only what is under the sun. 00:10:55.894 --> 00:10:57.134 That's what we have to keep in mind. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:01.427 Now we're going to say, like, helping people is good. 00:11:01.427 --> 00:11:08.426 Right, we believe in helping people, we believe in charity, because we have a system of values that exist not just under the sun. 00:11:08.426 --> 00:11:12.542 But we're going to suspend those for a minute, we're going to ignore those for a minute. 00:11:12.542 --> 00:11:18.822 If all we have is what is right here in front of us, then why should we care about helping people? 00:11:18.822 --> 00:11:23.668 Because that's humanism, right, that's secular humanism. 00:11:23.668 --> 00:11:27.154 Our purpose in life is to make the world a better place. 00:11:27.154 --> 00:11:31.389 If all we have is what's right here, why does that matter? 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:34.368 Why does it matter if we make the world a better place? 00:11:34.368 --> 00:11:36.381 And so, right away? 00:11:36.422 --> 00:11:38.889 Ecclesiastes starts kind of undercutting that argument. 00:11:38.889 --> 00:11:42.730 It says generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 00:11:42.730 --> 00:11:45.663 And it's going to go on to repeat that. 00:11:45.663 --> 00:11:48.981 The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises again. 00:11:48.981 --> 00:11:50.505 Everything is on this endless loop. 00:11:50.505 --> 00:11:57.231 There's no purpose, there's no meaning to it, it's repetitive and nobody is going to remember you after you're gone. 00:11:57.231 --> 00:12:05.215 If you have $4 million and can leave an endowment to your alma mater, then people might remember you for a couple generations until somebody finds that offensive. 00:12:05.215 --> 00:12:13.149 If you have $4 million and can leave an endowment to your alma mater, then people might remember you for a couple generations until somebody finds that offensive and tears it down, and then no one is going to remember you. 00:12:13.149 --> 00:12:20.413 Still, If all we have is what's in this life, no one is going to remember you or care about what you did here. 00:12:21.765 --> 00:12:26.566 So how does it make sense that our purpose would be to make the world a better place if that's true? 00:12:26.566 --> 00:12:29.974 It says the wind blows to the south and turns to the north. 00:12:29.974 --> 00:12:33.009 Round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 00:12:33.009 --> 00:12:34.615 It continues. 00:12:34.615 --> 00:12:40.053 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full To the place the streams come from. 00:12:40.053 --> 00:12:43.667 There, they return again, so it's repeating this endless loop. 00:12:43.667 --> 00:12:55.131 There's this endless course of life is already in motion, and if it was this random motion that was set by just absolute chance and happens to continue, then we can do very little to affect that. 00:12:55.131 --> 00:12:58.629 And if we did something to affect it, no one's going to remember it anyway. 00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:03.687 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. 00:13:03.687 --> 00:13:09.076 The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear full of hearing. 00:13:09.116 --> 00:13:13.188 So now we're getting into the second argument that people would make. 00:13:13.188 --> 00:13:22.870 If this life is all we have, if there's no deeper meaning to it, the first purpose that people have is they'll try to say, well, we're just here to make the world a better place. 00:13:22.870 --> 00:13:24.075 But they can't really say why? 00:13:24.075 --> 00:13:26.049 Right, because no one's going to remember what you do. 00:13:26.049 --> 00:13:28.546 The second thing is coming up right here in verse 8. 00:13:28.546 --> 00:13:33.432 It says if this life is all we have, then our purpose is just to feel good. 00:13:33.432 --> 00:13:34.514 Have, then our purpose is just to feel good. 00:13:34.514 --> 00:13:44.485 Our purpose is just to pursue pleasure, and that's modern hedonism. 00:13:44.485 --> 00:13:47.714 Hedonism has been around forever, but it's especially prevalent right now because we dress it up in a lot of different forms. 00:13:47.714 --> 00:13:49.096 But it's just the pursuit of pleasure. 00:13:49.096 --> 00:14:03.576 And so, ecclesiastes, again using the weight of that realization, the weight of that sort of loneliness, despair, isolation is undercutting that argument. 00:14:04.136 --> 00:14:06.028 From the beginning, everything is wearisome. 00:14:06.028 --> 00:14:08.336 Nothing provides pleasure. 00:14:08.336 --> 00:14:12.207 If you do it long enough, nothing is going to ever be enough for the lust of your eyes. 00:14:12.207 --> 00:14:17.359 Nothing is ever going to be enough to fill the hearing. 00:14:17.359 --> 00:14:19.788 What has been will be again. 00:14:19.788 --> 00:14:21.975 What has been done will be done again. 00:14:21.975 --> 00:14:23.626 There is nothing new under the sun. 00:14:23.687 --> 00:14:27.096 How many times do you need to repeat the same experience before it loses its value? 00:14:27.096 --> 00:14:33.889 You know, how many times can you pursue pleasure in the same way Before you're not actually pursuing pleasure anymore? 00:14:33.889 --> 00:14:35.514 You're just avoiding anymore. 00:14:35.514 --> 00:14:40.288 You're just avoiding something, you're just avoiding pain. 00:14:40.288 --> 00:14:43.793 Is there anything of which one can say look, this is something new. 00:14:43.793 --> 00:14:45.775 It was here already long ago. 00:14:45.775 --> 00:14:47.418 It was here before our time. 00:14:47.418 --> 00:14:54.613 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. 00:14:54.613 --> 00:14:59.134 So we're repeating that first point, right, no one's going to remember what you do. 00:14:59.134 --> 00:15:07.407 And out of that you would also naturally think if nobody cares about what I do, then why don't I just do what feels good, why don't I just do what makes me happy? 00:15:07.407 --> 00:15:09.691 Because it stops making you happy. 00:15:09.691 --> 00:15:13.197 It stops making you feel good Very quickly. 00:15:13.317 --> 00:15:23.134 Actually, one of the problems with the hedonistic argument is you really limit yourself to only feeling momentary pleasure. 00:15:23.134 --> 00:15:44.996 Because if you were to say, if a child, your grandchild, were to come up to you and hug you and you were to start to feel warmth and affection toward them, you would suddenly have to realize that they are just a cluster of random molecules that happen to be together and all that you're feeling is some sort of chemical infatuation in your brain and there's no deeper meaning to it. 00:15:44.996 --> 00:16:00.499 And so, rather than feel that I'm just going to go do what causes me pleasure in the moment, rather than realize that nothing matters, and these relationships that I sometimes tell myself are deep and meaningful are actually pointless in this worldview. 00:16:00.499 --> 00:16:04.965 I don't want to experience that, so I'm just going to avoid that and seek momentary pleasure. 00:16:04.965 --> 00:16:17.528 That's the ultimate end of hedonism, that's the ultimate end of pleasure seeking, as you can't actually let yourself feel anything deeper, because all it does is cause you to realize or remember that it's all meaningless. 00:16:17.528 --> 00:16:25.113 And so pleasure-seeking very, very quickly becomes pain avoidance and you get trapped in that cycle. 00:16:29.285 --> 00:16:33.092 Verse 12 says I the teacher was king over Israel and Jerusalem. 00:16:33.092 --> 00:16:39.250 I applied my mind to study and explore by wisdom all that was done under the heavens. 00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:41.995 What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind. 00:16:41.995 --> 00:16:45.168 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun. 00:16:45.168 --> 00:16:48.154 All of them are meaningless, a chasing after win. 00:16:48.154 --> 00:16:50.125 So sidebar real quick. 00:16:50.466 --> 00:16:55.017 I am not, as you might have guessed, I'm not a huge sports guy. 00:16:55.017 --> 00:16:58.524 I've not really gotten into sports that much. 00:16:58.524 --> 00:17:03.918 I played soccer for a long time, but even that I don't really watch a lot of professionally. 00:17:03.918 --> 00:17:09.786 So I don't have a favorite sports team, pretty much in any subject or sport or whatever you want to call it. 00:17:09.786 --> 00:17:16.699 Recently I was thinking about a game I played as a child and I was wondering if people still play it. 00:17:16.724 --> 00:17:27.167 So I got on YouTube and then, like you know, then you watch all of the people who are like so much better than you were ever going to be at that game, like doing these incredible things, and I don't know why? 00:17:27.167 --> 00:17:29.473 But I was like this is why people watch sports. 00:17:29.473 --> 00:17:39.132 You know, duh, because you're watching people perform at a level that you are just never going to achieve and you know enough about the game to be invested right, that's part of my problem. 00:17:39.132 --> 00:17:46.218 I don't know anything about offsides and all that stuff, but you know enough about the game to be invested in the rules. 00:17:46.218 --> 00:18:01.711 But they're achieving something that you're never going to dream of, and it's not just the $120 million contract, it is the level of physical ability, it is the level of teamwork, it's all that stuff. 00:18:01.711 --> 00:18:05.298 It's right on the edge of the cutting edge, the knife's edge. 00:18:05.298 --> 00:18:08.432 It's something that you aren't going to be capable of. 00:18:08.432 --> 00:18:18.998 But you can still experience part of that by watching other people perform it, and the more you know about that topic, the more you can appreciate how difficult that feat was. 00:18:18.998 --> 00:18:23.586 That's why we should all be fans of curling in the Olympics. 00:18:23.586 --> 00:18:28.371 That is one sport that I think is super interesting. 00:18:28.810 --> 00:18:36.397 People just brushing that's what Ecclesiastes is. 00:18:36.397 --> 00:18:46.334 Ecclesiastes is for the depressed, lonely, isolated sports fan who wants to see what it would be to take things to the extreme. 00:18:46.334 --> 00:18:48.659 That's what he's saying here. 00:18:48.659 --> 00:18:51.328 I the teacher was king over Israel. 00:18:51.328 --> 00:18:53.673 I was king over the prominent nation of Israel. 00:18:53.673 --> 00:18:55.355 I applied my mind to study. 00:18:55.355 --> 00:18:59.613 I was the top athlete at what I did. 00:18:59.613 --> 00:19:04.326 I was the top performer at what I did, by all the wisdom that is done under the sun. 00:19:05.289 --> 00:19:09.644 You know, if you listen to people commentate, I don't know what it is talk about. 00:19:09.644 --> 00:19:23.593 The commenters that talk about sports they are often talking about like that game awareness right, like the situational awareness, and they just marvel at the athletes who keep that mental image of the field right, who seem to know what's going to. 00:19:23.593 --> 00:19:31.037 They've played the game so much, they have so much embodied wisdom in that specific sport that they seem to know what's going to happen before it happens. 00:19:31.037 --> 00:19:40.013 And that's a lot of what sports is is professional athletes who both have that sense of embodied wisdom, who are competing against each other's wisdom. 00:19:40.013 --> 00:19:44.087 That's what the author of ecclesiastes has here. 00:19:44.087 --> 00:19:47.400 He said I've tried everything, I know where it leads to. 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:49.567 I don't even need to experience it anymore. 00:19:49.567 --> 00:19:53.036 I have no need to experience anything further because I already know. 00:19:53.036 --> 00:19:56.971 I've done enough to know what that's going to lead to, what's going going to be the outcome. 00:19:56.971 --> 00:19:59.496 So we get to be the sports fans. 00:19:59.496 --> 00:20:05.695 We get to sit back and watch what that wisdom looks like in practice, even if it's not pretty. 00:20:05.695 --> 00:20:10.931 It's like watching your favorite team, you know, go on the biggest losing streak they've ever been on. 00:20:10.931 --> 00:20:16.019 That's what the heavy burden is. 00:20:17.161 --> 00:20:25.192 Is that if you believe that worldview at the end of that worldview is nothing, that worldview is. 00:20:25.192 --> 00:20:28.978 It's incorrect, but its conclusion is correct. 00:20:28.978 --> 00:20:36.076 The conclusion of that worldview is correct meaningless, meaningless, everything, meaningless, everything is meaningless. 00:20:36.076 --> 00:20:37.878 It's the worldview itself that's wrong. 00:20:37.878 --> 00:20:41.468 So we continue. 00:20:41.468 --> 00:20:45.877 What is crooked cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted. 00:20:46.625 --> 00:20:54.563 And so this points to this starts to point out another problem with the idea that, even if this life is all I have, I want to go make the world a better place. 00:20:54.563 --> 00:20:55.045 This life is all I have. 00:20:55.045 --> 00:20:57.505 I want to go make the world a better place. 00:20:57.505 --> 00:21:00.537 By what standard? 00:21:00.537 --> 00:21:04.951 By what standard are you going to make the world a better place? 00:21:04.951 --> 00:21:17.686 Your own, yeah, whatever's important to you that day, or whatever you believe should be important to you, because you've heard some professional experts say it what is crooked cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted. 00:21:17.686 --> 00:21:26.375 If you don't believe in an overarching good, if you don't believe in the good of creation and you're off to make the world a better place. 00:21:26.375 --> 00:21:34.992 It's going to be better for you and you might be able to make that look altruistic for a while. 00:21:34.992 --> 00:21:42.755 That's the only outcome, because there's nothing underneath that, there's nothing to put that back into. 00:21:42.755 --> 00:21:49.096 I said to myself look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me. 00:21:49.096 --> 00:21:52.413 I have experienced much wisdom and knowledge. 00:21:53.938 --> 00:22:03.878 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly, and this was really interesting to me also of madness and folly. 00:22:03.878 --> 00:22:29.751 There is a school of thought that emerged well, probably re-emerged, I think around the 50s or 70s, and this idea was there is no point to the world, there's no purpose to life, and so we should be insane and pretend like there's a purpose anyway Because that's what's best for us. 00:22:29.751 --> 00:22:36.330 That sounds like madness and folly to me. 00:22:36.330 --> 00:22:50.493 That sounds like I am going to believe that there's nothing bigger than what's here, but I'm going to try to live every day as if I do believe there's something bigger than this, and it leads to despair. 00:22:50.493 --> 00:22:53.179 It leads to feeling empty. 00:22:53.179 --> 00:23:00.415 You feel just as empty doing that as you do, going from day to day seeing how I can feel pleasurable from moment to moment, only to avoid the pain. 00:23:00.415 --> 00:23:09.336 Both of those things have a sense of emptiness to them, because it's that underneath structure that we're missing. 00:23:09.336 --> 00:23:16.390 It's that getting connected to the source of all things, to the source of what actually provides meaning and purpose, that we're missing. 00:23:16.390 --> 00:23:22.398 But I learned that this too is chasing after wind. 00:23:22.398 --> 00:23:29.008 So even pretending like there's a purpose when you don't actually believe there is a purpose turns out to be chasing after wind. 00:23:29.449 --> 00:23:31.653 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow. 00:23:31.653 --> 00:23:33.877 The more knowledge, the more grief. 00:23:33.877 --> 00:23:46.645 What happens inevitably as you get older and you have more life experience, more wisdom, lived wisdom is that you know just exactly how painful life can be. 00:23:46.645 --> 00:23:59.166 And so while you're 10, 12, 15, you might be able to not think that deeply about things and just do your chores and be a good student or whatever it is. 00:23:59.166 --> 00:24:02.252 You can be more immersed in the here and now. 00:24:02.252 --> 00:24:25.619 But as you continue to age and as you continue to experience the depth of sorrow that people can feel because, funny enough, if you ask people to tell you about their mountaintop experiences, their most memorable, meaningful experiences, they almost always do that in the context of the valley, of how difficult that was. 00:24:25.619 --> 00:24:28.709 They almost always go hand in hand. 00:24:30.673 --> 00:24:34.709 And so the Bible, and the author here doesn't ignore that part of the human condition. 00:24:34.709 --> 00:24:40.491 It says that depth of pain, that depth of sorrow that we all experienced, that we can't ignore. 00:24:40.491 --> 00:24:43.152 There's something else to that. 00:24:43.152 --> 00:24:46.652 There's a reason that we feel that. 00:24:46.652 --> 00:24:57.990 There's a reason we feel like things are broken Because there is the potential for them to be fixed Maybe not in this lifetime, but there is a potential for full and complete healing. 00:24:57.990 --> 00:25:02.789 And but that worldview doesn't give you that. 00:25:02.789 --> 00:25:14.105 That worldview gives you under the sun, and so life has to be pointless and meaningless, because if it's not, it's immense suffering, and that seems worse. 00:25:17.201 --> 00:25:22.527 So flash forward Ecclesiastes 12, nearing the end of the book. 00:25:22.527 --> 00:25:32.511 I don't even want to say that it ends on like a good note, but it's not that it's not that bad, so it's at least better than that. 00:25:32.511 --> 00:25:36.951 It says not only was the teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. 00:25:36.951 --> 00:25:41.626 He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 00:25:41.626 --> 00:25:48.888 The teacher searched to find just the right words that he wrote, and what he wrote was upright and true. 00:25:48.888 --> 00:25:51.207 The words of the wise are like goads. 00:25:51.207 --> 00:25:55.546 They're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd. 00:25:55.546 --> 00:26:00.203 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them, of making many books. 00:26:00.203 --> 00:26:04.428 There is no end, and much study wearies the body. 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:05.625 That's the self-help section. 00:26:05.625 --> 00:26:08.086 Now, all has been heard. 00:26:08.086 --> 00:26:13.710 Here is the conclusion of the matter Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. 00:26:13.710 --> 00:26:20.228 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. 00:26:20.228 --> 00:26:37.712 Now, I was raised in a very kind of conservative, sort of legalistically-minded church, and so that section at the end fear God and keep his commandment is the duty of all mankind was used to say you better behave right, you better do what you're supposed to do. 00:26:37.712 --> 00:26:38.701 You better do what you're told. 00:26:38.701 --> 00:26:42.268 That's not really what that verse is saying. 00:26:42.268 --> 00:26:44.070 That's not really what that verse is saying. 00:26:44.090 --> 00:26:56.094 Fear God and keep his commandment is saying understand and have all at the fact that God is the very being that gives purpose and meaning to this life. 00:26:56.094 --> 00:26:57.500 That's what this whole book is about purpose and meaning in life. 00:26:57.500 --> 00:27:03.151 And you're not going to understand all of the ways in which God does that. 00:27:03.151 --> 00:27:04.113 It is beyond you. 00:27:04.113 --> 00:27:05.819 It is beyond any of us to understand all of the ways that which God does. 00:27:05.819 --> 00:27:05.940 That it is beyond you. 00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:08.826 It is beyond any of us to understand all of the ways that God is going to bring meaning into our life. 00:27:08.826 --> 00:27:18.020 And so, instead of trying to figure it out, instead of spending all your time chasing after wisdom, start chasing after God. 00:27:18.020 --> 00:27:25.815 Start letting him bring that into your life, because you are not the author and source of creation. 00:27:25.815 --> 00:27:29.670 You are the created, having a created experience. 00:27:29.670 --> 00:27:38.913 So don't make the same mistake he did of spending all your time trying to figure out just exactly what it is God is doing in my life. 00:27:38.913 --> 00:27:39.874 Go live it. 00:27:39.874 --> 00:27:43.527 Fear God and keep his commandments. 00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:45.788 This is saying there is a better worldview. 00:27:45.788 --> 00:27:51.891 There is a worldview that doesn't just say that everything is meaningless. 00:27:51.891 --> 00:28:00.713 It says everything is everything, everything has importance, everything has value, every decision that you make. 00:28:00.713 --> 00:28:13.403 Not to be overwhelmed by that, but just to try to bring those decisions in line to the God that cares about you, that provides meaning to your life, that reveals meaning in your life. 00:28:13.403 --> 00:28:17.212 Why wouldn't we want to be lined up with that? 00:28:18.998 --> 00:28:25.104 And this idea is carried throughout the Bible, especially if you think about John, chapter 1, where it talks about the Word becoming flesh. 00:28:25.104 --> 00:28:35.762 And in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word there is logos, and that's like the Greek philosophers would all sit around and debate what was the structure of reality? 00:28:35.762 --> 00:28:52.346 Because if we could figure out what the structure of reality was, if we could figure out the way the world actually worked not how you thought it worked or how I thought it worked, but how it actually worked and we could bring ourself in line with that, then we would have the most successful, most prosperous, most meaningful lives. 00:28:52.346 --> 00:28:56.104 That just kind of flows naturally out of that thinking. 00:28:56.104 --> 00:29:10.470 And then Jesus shows up and in John, chapter 1, it's revealed that the way the world works isn't just a system of thought, it's an actual person that you can relate to. 00:29:10.470 --> 00:29:26.967 And so it's kind of like this Ecclesiastes kind of ends in this way it's like if I'm over there and I've burnt several things in that kitchen already over there, by the way, but I also pay the fire insurance, so I know that we're covered, I can keep cooking. 00:29:27.608 --> 00:29:55.089 But if I'm here telling you about you know, I was making popcorn the other day and my popcorn was just super soggy and really kind of nasty and I don't know what's going on, like maybe there's something wrong with the machine, and then you were to walk with me over there and see that I was using the Keurig to make my popcorn, you would be like, yeah, there's something wrong with you, not the machine, it's user error, because that's not what that machine is used for. 00:29:56.540 --> 00:29:58.268 I'm never going to get popcorn out of that machine. 00:29:58.268 --> 00:30:17.622 And so Ecclesiastes walks you through all of the ways that you weren't created for and it meets you right where you were in the beginning, which is probably in despair, probably feeling alone, probably feeling depressed, and it meets you in a voice that you can hear, which sounds like that. 00:30:17.622 --> 00:30:20.048 It uses that voice to walk you through. 00:30:20.048 --> 00:30:22.113 Yes, but it can't be this. 00:30:22.113 --> 00:30:26.803 Still, you're feeling alone, you're feeling isolated, but this isn't the answer. 00:30:27.765 --> 00:30:30.311 The answer isn't just to see everything as numb and meaningless. 00:30:30.311 --> 00:30:49.583 And it walks you through that process and it ends up at aligning yourself with God is what you were created for, that is your purpose, and the more you bring that to life in this world under the sun, the more other people will start to see their purpose too. 00:30:49.583 --> 00:31:07.354 So that really is kind of the message of Ecclesiastes, and it is heavy and it is depressing and it's also liberating, because there is nothing more hopeful when you're feeling hopeless than the possibility of a hope that can't be taken away. 00:31:07.354 --> 00:31:15.729 I've talked with a lot of people who are feeling hopeless and helpless in their circumstances, and those are the kind of things that can't be taken away. 00:31:15.729 --> 00:31:24.339 So, based on what I do and who I meet with, that's why this is my favorite chapter, ecclesiastes 1.