WEBVTT 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:16.500 Pray with me. 00:00:21.219 --> 00:00:28.899 Father, what a joy it is to sing the gospel to you, Lord, and to each other. 00:00:29.380 --> 00:00:36.659 What a wonder that we can read from your word in Psalm 144 that man is but a breath. 00:00:37.299 --> 00:00:50.019 And to feel that, Lord, to feel how fleeting life is and how short it is, and yet, Lord, declare the truth that for all of eternity we will sing your praise. 00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:55.700 God, that is the gospel and what your son Jesus Christ has done for us. 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:57.620 And it changes everything. 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:10.820 And we pray this morning, Lord, that as we open your word, as we stand here in the presence of your Holy Spirit, God, that your word would change us. 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:13.700 God, we humble ourselves before you. 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:37.380 I pray right now for the armor of God to be equipped that we might discern the way that our enemy is seeking our destruction and find in Jesus the hope, the life, the joy that he came from heaven to earth to deliver through his death and resurrection. 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:38.820 God, would you do it? 00:01:39.620 --> 00:01:40.660 We need you, God. 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:44.500 We pray this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ. 00:01:44.660 --> 00:01:47.060 And all God's people said, Amen. 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:47.540 Amen. 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:50.900 Hey, would you take a moment before you grab your feet and to greet those that are around you? 00:02:29.539 --> 00:02:31.539 We are starting a new book this morning. 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:32.739 We are in the Old Testament. 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:34.259 You'll find Ecclesiastes. 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:35.459 You split your Bible in half. 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:37.780 You're gonna likely find the Psalms. 00:02:38.899 --> 00:02:41.139 Is there music playing, or are we in heaven or something? 00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:42.419 Do you guys hear that? 00:02:42.739 --> 00:02:43.780 Is there music playing? 00:02:43.859 --> 00:02:45.379 We might be, we might all be in heaven right now. 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:48.899 Or I'm going crazy, and this is gonna be a really interesting sermon. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:51.379 Okay, we're not in heaven. 00:02:51.459 --> 00:02:52.579 We're back to earth now, okay? 00:02:52.739 --> 00:02:54.340 Welcome back, everybody. 00:02:54.819 --> 00:02:56.979 You flip your Bible to the middle, you're gonna find Psalms. 00:02:57.060 --> 00:02:59.139 You go one chapter at the end, you're gonna find Proverbs. 00:02:59.219 --> 00:03:04.739 You go another chapter towards the end, you are gonna find Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter one. 00:03:04.899 --> 00:03:08.500 If you don't have a copy of God's word, the ushers are making their way to the front right now. 00:03:08.579 --> 00:03:09.699 You can flag one of them down. 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:15.539 They would love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you. 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:17.459 My name is Pastor Miles. 00:03:17.619 --> 00:03:20.419 If you're new with us, I just want to welcome you here this morning. 00:03:20.659 --> 00:03:23.139 So excited to open up God's word with you. 00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:26.019 And I want to let you know about something that happened to me this week. 00:03:26.179 --> 00:03:29.219 It probably happens to you every once in a while. 00:03:29.379 --> 00:03:38.579 I was going about my day when completely out of nowhere, an album I had listened to on repeat when I was a teenager just came into my mind. 00:03:38.739 --> 00:03:40.899 I have no idea where it came from. 00:03:41.299 --> 00:03:43.859 But I had to do what we all do when that moment comes. 00:03:44.019 --> 00:03:58.979 I had to go to Spotify and see if this person still exists, and if anybody's still listening to this person, and there was like seven monthly listeners, and I was the eighth, and I got there and I listened to it, and I immediately was not in this decade anymore. 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:01.299 I was 16. 00:04:02.179 --> 00:04:03.699 I was working at camp. 00:04:03.859 --> 00:04:06.659 I could smell the freshly cut grass. 00:04:06.819 --> 00:04:21.139 I could taste the particular freedom I had that summer, the first summer away from home, where the whole world felt like mine, and I was working 60 hours a week for$500 a summer. 00:04:23.379 --> 00:04:26.019 You have moments like that, I'm sure. 00:04:26.340 --> 00:04:29.540 Where you are pulled into the glory days. 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:30.819 I know you do. 00:04:31.460 --> 00:04:42.100 In fact, there's a philosopher who said what all of us have felt but never quite put into the words, and the philosopher I'm quoting is actually the character Ed from The Office. 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:44.660 Which, if you don't like that show, I don't watch it at all. 00:04:44.740 --> 00:04:55.300 I saw this online somewhere, I don't I don't know where, but he once said this, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you actually left them. 00:04:56.500 --> 00:05:00.819 A sentimental moment and a bit of a goofy show. 00:05:01.060 --> 00:05:06.500 Now I think back to those days, and I want you to know they certainly, in many ways, were not my good old days. 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:14.740 And I would just have to show you a picture of myself from 2007 in order to prove that this morning. 00:05:15.140 --> 00:05:33.460 But that feeling, that sense that the best moments are always somehow slipping through our fingers without us even being aware, that in many days the glory days, the good old days are behind us, and we weren't even aware that we were in them. 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:36.259 We know that. 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:38.580 We felt that. 00:05:39.460 --> 00:05:41.460 And that feeling has a name. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:46.420 It's a name that's 3,000 years old, and it is the book that we're opening this morning. 00:05:46.580 --> 00:05:48.340 It is Ecclesiastes. 00:05:49.379 --> 00:06:00.980 As we work through this book chapter by chapter, verse by verse, you will find that it is one of the strangest, most uncomfortable books in the Bible. 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:11.140 In fact, there will be verses we read where you will say, Is he really reading from the Bible or is he reading the philosophy of some nihilist, maybe? 00:06:11.780 --> 00:06:22.020 And yet, though it is strange at times, it's also one of the surprisingly most hopeful books in the Bible. 00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:31.460 As we get into Ecclesiastes, one of the ways that you can think about what the writer, in fact, the preacher will discover is doing, is to think about it like this. 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.819 Imagine you were on a historical tour. 00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:37.220 For some of you, that's like the best thing in the world. 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:38.819 For some of you, you're like, all right, this is great. 00:06:39.460 --> 00:06:42.500 I needed a nap this morning, so this is a great time for me to have a nap. 00:06:42.660 --> 00:06:58.740 Imagine you were on a tour, and the tour guide was telling you all these fascinating details about the place that you're at, about maybe the war that had happened, and they know every date, they know every detail, and you leave and you say, that was fascinating to discover all of these things. 00:06:59.220 --> 00:07:06.340 You take the same tour again with a different tour guide who knows all the dates, who knows all the details, but there's something different as he talks. 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:09.220 There's a real weight behind what he says. 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:11.540 It's much more fascinating. 00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:23.379 You lean in as he talks, and you discover in the middle of the tour that he actually was a part of the horror of what happened, that he knew it not as a historian, but he knew it personally. 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:29.379 That's who's taking us through Ecclesiastes. 00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:44.420 As we work through this book, we discover that the preacher is a man who had everything, who had wealth, who had wisdom, who had women, who had work, who had pleasure, power. 00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:54.900 He had all of these things, and he lived long enough and fought honestly enough with enough wisdom to tell you what it was on the other side of it. 00:07:56.100 --> 00:08:03.540 Anything that you could chase in life, he had found and he comes to tell you what's on the other side of that thing you're chasing. 00:08:03.700 --> 00:08:09.060 Now, now, as we read this, there will be times where he seems like a cynic, he's not. 00:08:09.780 --> 00:08:12.500 There will be times where you say, Preacher, cheer up. 00:08:12.819 --> 00:08:13.460 I mean, cheer up. 00:08:13.540 --> 00:08:15.700 There are some things in the world to be happy about. 00:08:16.020 --> 00:08:18.819 He is not depressed, he is a doctor. 00:08:19.140 --> 00:08:25.700 And the greatest doctors are unwilling to let you leave the room without a real diagnosis. 00:08:25.939 --> 00:08:33.700 And over the next several weeks, as we dig into this book, God, I believe, is going to do something to you. 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:44.580 He is going to press on the places where you have been accepting what the world offers instead of what God gives. 00:08:46.659 --> 00:08:48.340 It will be uncomfortable. 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:53.379 And we will face uncomfortable realities together. 00:08:54.420 --> 00:08:55.940 But I'm expectant. 00:08:56.420 --> 00:09:04.899 I am incredibly expectant that it will be one of the most merciful things that God could do for us. 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:16.019 And I have that expectation because I I know myself, I know you have more in common with Solomon than you think. 00:09:17.139 --> 00:09:23.139 The wealth he accumulated, it may be the wealth that you are currently working for. 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:31.940 The power that he held may be what you dream about that would finally change your life. 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:37.379 The pleasure that he chased may be the pleasure that you keep returning to. 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:44.820 He lived long enough to get to the other side, and he wants to show us this morning this reality. 00:09:44.899 --> 00:09:46.340 It's gonna come up on the screen. 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:47.940 The gifts are good. 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:51.860 The gifts are good, but they are not enough. 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:56.259 And only the misery of learning that will drive you to him. 00:09:58.180 --> 00:10:03.139 Solomon wants to take you on a tour, and it starts here in Ecclesiastes chapter 1. 00:10:03.300 --> 00:10:06.659 And as we read it, would you stand with me as we honor God's word? 00:10:07.060 --> 00:10:10.820 Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 1 to 11. 00:10:17.539 --> 00:10:23.220 The words of the preacher, the son of David, the king in Jerusalem. 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:27.460 Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:29.779 Vanity of vanities. 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:32.100 All is vanity. 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:37.139 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:44.580 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:49.620 The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. 00:10:50.180 --> 00:10:58.019 The wind blows to the south and it goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:02.180 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. 00:11:02.659 --> 00:11:06.019 To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 00:11:06.580 --> 00:11:10.340 All things are full of weariness. 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:12.980 A man cannot utter it. 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:18.340 The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 00:11:19.060 --> 00:11:24.340 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. 00:11:24.659 --> 00:11:26.500 There is nothing new under the sun. 00:11:27.139 --> 00:11:29.779 Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new? 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:31.220 It has already been. 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:33.060 In the ages before us. 00:11:33.940 --> 00:11:42.899 There's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. 00:11:44.019 --> 00:11:46.420 This is the word of the Lord. 00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:48.740 You can grab your seat. 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:55.379 It is the word of the Lord. 00:11:55.700 --> 00:11:56.340 Right? 00:11:56.659 --> 00:11:58.740 I mean, it certainly doesn't sound like it. 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:00.659 And yet it is the word of the Lord. 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:06.980 And Solomon wants you to know that the things that you are chasing in your life are gifts, but there is more to it. 00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:09.700 Here's the first thing I want you to see from this text. 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:13.060 I want you to see that good gifts make terrible gods. 00:12:14.740 --> 00:12:20.100 If you're writing, that's a good thing to write down and to get in the muscle memory not only of your hand, but of your soul. 00:12:20.340 --> 00:12:22.820 Good gifts make terrible gods. 00:12:23.139 --> 00:12:24.899 Look with me then at verse one. 00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:32.740 The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 00:12:33.220 --> 00:12:34.740 Introductions are important. 00:12:35.060 --> 00:12:40.259 The writer here does not give us his name first, he gives us his title. 00:12:40.580 --> 00:12:41.860 He is the preacher. 00:12:42.019 --> 00:12:43.860 The Hebrew word is koelet. 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:58.500 The ESV renders it preacher, and at its root meaning, it means gatherer, the one who assembles God's people and has a word for them. 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:04.340 Before we know who the author is, we know what he is doing. 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:10.100 He is assembling God's people and he has something to say. 00:13:11.060 --> 00:13:14.659 Loved one, this is what God has always done with his people. 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:16.659 This is what God does this morning. 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:26.740 I am never shocked at thankfully, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit happens so often that people come up to me on a Sunday and they say, I feel like I came this morning. 00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:28.899 That message was just for me. 00:13:29.060 --> 00:13:30.019 What is happening? 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:35.379 God is gathering his people, and the Holy Spirit has a word. 00:13:35.700 --> 00:13:36.740 What you know what that means? 00:13:36.820 --> 00:13:37.620 It means perk up. 00:13:37.779 --> 00:13:38.180 Are you ready? 00:13:38.340 --> 00:13:40.340 That the shoulders are straightened. 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:48.980 That if your faith is in Jesus Christ, if you believe in God, if you believe in the Holy Spirit, who we just sang this morning is in us, God has a word for you. 00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:52.340 He gathers his people with a word. 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:54.740 He's always been this way. 00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:57.700 He's been a gatherer. 00:13:57.860 --> 00:13:59.940 He gathered Adam and Eve in the garden. 00:14:00.019 --> 00:14:10.580 And then when sin does what sin always does, it scatters, it separates, it destroys, it drove humanity further from God and further from each other. 00:14:10.659 --> 00:14:20.500 And the story of Scripture, page after page, is the story of a God who resentlessly pursues his people. 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:26.580 And he resentlessly gathers his people with a merciful word. 00:14:26.740 --> 00:14:28.259 It's the story all throughout scripture. 00:14:28.340 --> 00:14:35.860 It's the story that we're continuing this morning on the Lord's Day when we gather together as his church. 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:38.740 This is who God is. 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:46.100 He is a God who is like a father who is unwilling to watch his child walk towards something that will not satisfy. 00:14:46.340 --> 00:14:47.779 He must call them back. 00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:50.659 And when he does, he has a word for them. 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:53.779 That is what the preacher, the gatherer, is doing. 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:57.860 He's gathered us here because he has a word we need to hear. 00:14:58.019 --> 00:15:02.100 And so listen again, loved one, can we just apply God's word right off the bat this morning? 00:15:02.259 --> 00:15:09.460 When you walked in, God knew the burdens that you carried, and he has a word for you. 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:13.139 He has gathered you here on purpose. 00:15:14.899 --> 00:15:16.899 Now, who is the writer? 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:23.460 There is genuine debate about the authorship of Ecclesiastes. 00:15:24.659 --> 00:15:30.420 But verse 1, I believe, gives us some very real credentials about who this man is. 00:15:30.659 --> 00:15:32.500 He is the son of David. 00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:35.779 He is the king in Jerusalem. 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:55.779 And as we read on further in Ecclesiastes, we'll discover that he that by the scale of his building projects, by the breadth of the wisdom that he had, by the extent of the wealth that was accessible to him and the pleasure he pursued, that it could be no one other than Solomon. 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:06.019 Now, if anyone on earth had earned the right to speak about what life actually delivers, it was King Solomon. 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:11.860 Solomon, when he preached the sermon, did not have to theorize about wealth. 00:16:12.259 --> 00:16:13.940 He had wealth. 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:17.060 He did not have to wonder about pleasure. 00:16:17.220 --> 00:16:18.899 He had pursued it all. 00:16:19.060 --> 00:16:21.300 He had tried everything. 00:16:22.180 --> 00:16:24.100 He didn't speculate about wisdom. 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:28.820 Solomon was the wisest person, we are told. 00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:32.659 This book, then, you know what Ecclesiastes is. 00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:36.420 It's sitting down with a cup of coffee. 00:16:37.300 --> 00:16:41.460 And it's ancient Hebrew coffee, so it probably doesn't taste very good, but you're there. 00:16:41.940 --> 00:16:48.740 And it's a cup of coffee with the man who had exactly what you are looking for right now in your life. 00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:50.980 It really is that. 00:16:51.220 --> 00:17:01.460 It's a conversation with the preacher who had tried it all, and that is exactly what makes him worth listening to, so that you and I should lean in in verse 2 when he speaks. 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:03.460 Look down then at verse 2 with me. 00:17:03.539 --> 00:17:04.980 Look at your copy of God's word. 00:17:05.299 --> 00:17:07.220 Notice what he says. 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:12.980 Vanity of vanity, says the preacher. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:17.940 Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:27.140 Some translations say meaningless, meaningless, futility, futility, empty, empty. 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:33.299 And you sit down with your cup of coffee and you look to the brista and you say, I'll take it to go, please. 00:17:33.620 --> 00:17:41.539 As we discover what the message of the preacher is, the word vanity is the Hebrew word havel. 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:45.380 Havel, so important it will come up time and time again. 00:17:45.539 --> 00:17:47.059 The preacher is obsessed with it. 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.620 Here he says it five times. 00:17:49.940 --> 00:17:54.819 Havel, Havel, it's all Havel, Havel, Havel. 00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:56.579 In other words, do you get it? 00:17:56.740 --> 00:17:58.259 Do you get what my message is about? 00:17:58.339 --> 00:17:59.539 It's one word. 00:17:59.620 --> 00:18:05.140 I have so much to learn from the preacher because my main idea was like three sentences. 00:18:05.220 --> 00:18:06.500 Did you see it this morning up there? 00:18:06.579 --> 00:18:07.460 There is a period in it. 00:18:07.539 --> 00:18:08.019 I hate that. 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:10.900 I just cannot stand when there's a period in the main sentence. 00:18:10.980 --> 00:18:12.259 And you guys don't care about that. 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:18.900 But here the preacher has one word in his main sentence: Havel, meaningless, empty, futility. 00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:25.299 Now your translators worked hard to carry the meaning across. 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:37.299 Each one of these words, grasping at an interpretation of what Havel means, vanity, meaninglessness, futility, but the word at its root is more element than elemental than any of them. 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:38.819 It means breath. 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:41.220 It means vapor. 00:18:44.420 --> 00:18:46.980 Havel, we are doing right now. 00:18:47.220 --> 00:18:48.660 In fact, let's all do it together. 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:50.019 Can we all do it at the same time? 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:51.620 Everyone just breathe in for me. 00:18:51.860 --> 00:18:52.259 Ready? 00:18:53.860 --> 00:18:54.819 Breathe out. 00:18:57.059 --> 00:19:00.579 Nothing but the fact that this next breath is gonna be the breath of the person beside you. 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:01.299 Okay, kind of. 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:02.980 Yeah, there we go. 00:19:04.180 --> 00:19:06.259 That was Havel. 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:08.819 It just happened. 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:11.539 And in one sense, Havel is good. 00:19:11.700 --> 00:19:14.180 Are you not thankful for Havel, right? 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:16.259 We're thankful for breath. 00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:20.900 That breath oxygenated, what is the word, Adam? 00:19:21.140 --> 00:19:22.980 Oxygenated your blood. 00:19:23.539 --> 00:19:26.900 It kept you alive, it kept your heart beating. 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:35.220 It was a necessary thing, but the emphasis of Havel is not the presence of the breath, it is the passing of it. 00:19:35.779 --> 00:19:39.460 It is the fleeting nature of that breath. 00:19:39.620 --> 00:19:44.819 In fact, let me ask, that breath that you just took with us, where is it now? 00:19:46.019 --> 00:19:47.539 Can you catch it? 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:49.380 Can you get it back? 00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:52.180 Will you ever think about it again? 00:19:52.579 --> 00:19:54.420 Very likely not. 00:19:54.579 --> 00:19:55.380 It is gone. 00:19:55.539 --> 00:19:56.579 It is out of your mind. 00:19:56.740 --> 00:19:57.620 It is fleeting. 00:19:57.779 --> 00:20:01.059 It came, it gave you life, now it is gone. 00:20:04.259 --> 00:20:06.420 You cannot go back and retrieve it. 00:20:06.740 --> 00:20:08.819 The moment you try to grasp it, it's gone. 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:12.019 This is what we read, by the way, in Psalm 144 this morning. 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:14.500 This exact same verse, the word. 00:20:14.980 --> 00:20:18.019 Man is like a breath, David says, like a havel. 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:21.299 His days are a passing shadow. 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:26.740 That is Solomon's word for everything under the sun. 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:35.940 Not that it is worthless, not that it is fake, but that it is by nature unable to be held. 00:20:36.099 --> 00:20:40.259 It is that you are not able to put any weight on it. 00:20:41.539 --> 00:20:51.299 And so it's good to just take a break, take a moment, and say the gifts that God gives us, the things that we often pursue, are good. 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:55.779 They are gifts, they are life. 00:20:56.339 --> 00:21:04.180 Listen, the work that you do, your career, it is a real and necessary thing. 00:21:05.380 --> 00:21:11.299 The relationships that you build and care about, they likewise are good things. 00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:21.140 The moment that you felt, when it just felt like everything was coming together, that was real, every single bit of it. 00:21:21.380 --> 00:21:27.140 The problem is, is that at the end of the day, it was nothing more than a breath. 00:21:27.460 --> 00:21:31.059 Here one moment, gone the next. 00:21:31.460 --> 00:21:32.660 It's Havel. 00:21:33.940 --> 00:21:38.099 Now, here's what I don't want you to get from this. 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:48.500 Solomon is not telling you that Havel is useless, that breathing is useless, that work, relationships, whatever it is, are useless. 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:58.740 He's telling you what happens when you spend your life chasing a breath like it could do something more than it was designed to do. 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:07.620 He is telling you what happens when you live for what the world offers rather than what God gifts. 00:22:07.860 --> 00:22:14.180 He is telling you that good gods, good gifts make terrible gods. 00:22:17.460 --> 00:22:19.860 This is what Ecclesiastes is, then. 00:22:20.420 --> 00:22:31.860 It is a sermon to convince us by way of a testimony that good gifts make terrible gods. 00:22:33.059 --> 00:22:34.900 Now, Solomon is a preacher. 00:22:35.140 --> 00:22:37.940 I find then verse two is incredible. 00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:42.740 I don't know how you can make a single sentence accomplish so much. 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:45.059 Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. 00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:46.420 Vanity of vanities. 00:22:46.740 --> 00:22:51.779 All is vanity, meaningless, futile. 00:22:52.660 --> 00:22:55.700 Now, can we do some logical work here? 00:22:56.099 --> 00:22:58.819 Can we just logically think about the argument? 00:22:59.380 --> 00:23:12.819 If everything is vanity, if everything is meaningless, what is the very statement that everything is meaningless? 00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:16.740 Meaningless, right? 00:23:17.380 --> 00:23:25.860 That worldview that everything is meaningless, that everything is vanity, it kind of destroys itself by its very existence. 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:31.539 As soon as you say everything is meaningless, then the response to that is, well, why are you saying it then? 00:23:31.700 --> 00:23:34.420 And that is what we need to then say to Solomon. 00:23:34.579 --> 00:23:36.500 Solomon, why are you saying it then? 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:40.180 Why have you gathered us all here to say everything is meaningless? 00:23:40.339 --> 00:23:49.620 If you truly are a nihilist, if you carry that worldview to the very end, even that statement is meaningless. 00:23:50.579 --> 00:24:05.940 And yet the very fact that he has gathered us this morning and he gathered the people of Israel means that he had something to say, means that the vanity was pointing somewhere, the havel was pointing somewhere, the breath was pointing you somewhere. 00:24:07.460 --> 00:24:10.099 The sentence then is not meaningless. 00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:14.099 The sentence is loaded with meaning. 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:17.940 It's precisely the point. 00:24:19.140 --> 00:24:28.660 The preacher is gathering God's people and he's speaking into the emptiness, telling us that it is pointing us somewhere. 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:40.019 That in a world where everything under the sun disappoints, there is something, there is someone above the sun who does not disappoint. 00:24:40.740 --> 00:24:46.819 What Ecclesiastes does then, it invites us into the misery of everything under the sun. 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:51.700 It's the diagnosis. 00:24:52.579 --> 00:24:56.420 And Solomon is the good doctor, unwilling to soften the diagnosis. 00:24:56.500 --> 00:25:01.779 He gives it to you straight because you cannot treat what you will not face. 00:25:03.460 --> 00:25:05.140 Now I want you to hear then. 00:25:05.299 --> 00:25:08.740 You know, we are gonna face some uncomfortable realities in just a moment. 00:25:08.900 --> 00:25:17.299 And, you know, the summer is coming, it's gonna be bright and sunny, but many Sunday mornings in here it is gonna be dark and gloomy as we face the vanity of life. 00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:19.779 Would this have been a better series for the winter? 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:20.660 Maybe so. 00:25:20.819 --> 00:25:21.299 I don't know. 00:25:21.380 --> 00:25:24.740 We're here right now and we are gonna get into it. 00:25:29.700 --> 00:25:31.539 But to be in it is a gift. 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:35.460 There's a reason why life keeps disappointing you. 00:25:36.099 --> 00:25:40.099 There's a reason why the best things feel empty. 00:25:40.339 --> 00:25:45.620 There's a reason why the thing you wanted didn't satisfy you the way you thought it would. 00:25:46.019 --> 00:25:49.539 Because the emptiness is pointing you somewhere. 00:25:49.779 --> 00:26:04.099 And God, if you feel that emptiness this morning, if you feel the vanity of life, if you feel the end, the weariness of the endless pursuit for more, God is here to say, listen, that is a signal for something greater. 00:26:04.259 --> 00:26:07.380 And I want to bring you to rock bottom this morning. 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:15.460 I want to bring you to rock bottom this this year this summer so that when you get to rock bottom, you can look up and look for more. 00:26:16.740 --> 00:26:26.980 He wants you to feel the emptiness of the world so fully that you stop trying to fill yourself with things that just will not nourish your soul. 00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:34.740 Solomon experienced this. 00:26:35.380 --> 00:26:38.500 And as a preacher, he is unwilling just to let us sit with a definition. 00:26:38.740 --> 00:26:44.819 What he does is he takes us outside and he makes us feel the weight of what he's talking about, and that's what I want you to see secondly. 00:26:44.980 --> 00:26:47.779 I want you to see secondly that everything is not enough. 00:26:48.259 --> 00:26:50.500 Everything is not enough. 00:26:50.740 --> 00:26:53.940 I love Solomon because he doesn't argue his point, he just illustrates it. 00:26:54.099 --> 00:26:58.660 And what Solomon does in verse three, he says this listen, redemption church, come outside with me, okay? 00:26:58.740 --> 00:26:59.620 Come outside with me. 00:26:59.700 --> 00:27:03.620 And we go outside with Solomon and he says, Look, look. 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:06.180 Look at verse 3. 00:27:06.339 --> 00:27:11.940 What does man gain from all his toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:27:12.819 --> 00:27:14.900 We know that word toil, don't we? 00:27:15.140 --> 00:27:18.019 I don't have to preach the meaning for you to know the experience. 00:27:18.180 --> 00:27:21.620 We know what it means to be busy, all of us. 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:29.779 Constantly doing, constantly producing, constantly achieving, spinning plates. 00:27:30.019 --> 00:27:31.620 You will leave here today. 00:27:31.779 --> 00:27:36.019 The to-do list has lengthened while you sat in your chair. 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:39.299 It just keeps getting longer. 00:27:41.700 --> 00:27:43.539 We are good at the toiling. 00:27:43.779 --> 00:27:47.059 We almost never stop to ask the question that Solomon here asks. 00:27:47.220 --> 00:27:49.620 What does any of it actually gain? 00:27:50.099 --> 00:27:53.220 Have you ever stopped long enough to ask that question? 00:27:53.380 --> 00:27:54.900 What's the point of it all? 00:27:55.059 --> 00:27:57.700 And this is what I love about Ecclesiastes. 00:27:57.860 --> 00:28:00.339 It is unwilling to get to the answer too quickly. 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:06.579 It will take Solomon in many ways 12 whole chapters to get to the answer. 00:28:06.900 --> 00:28:11.860 We will end this book September 6th, that is the last Sunday of the summer. 00:28:12.019 --> 00:28:13.940 We will get to the answer then. 00:28:14.819 --> 00:28:21.140 Until then, we will sit with the question and ask, what is the meaning of it all? 00:28:21.620 --> 00:28:24.980 What does all the toil actually gain? 00:28:27.779 --> 00:28:34.660 He wants you to sit in the emptiness long enough to believe, to really believe that even everything would not be enough. 00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:36.660 Look then at verse 4 with me. 00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:38.019 Look at verse 4. 00:28:38.180 --> 00:28:46.500 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 00:28:47.140 --> 00:28:50.180 Here is the problem with everything. 00:28:50.740 --> 00:28:53.620 The problem is that everything fades. 00:28:54.099 --> 00:28:56.420 And so Solomon starts right here to prove it. 00:28:56.579 --> 00:28:57.940 Look at the generations. 00:28:58.900 --> 00:29:10.259 One generation comes, and one generation goes, and the earth keeps spinning without so much as a pause. 00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:14.900 I think about this with my own kids. 00:29:15.059 --> 00:29:17.700 I have four daughters, pray for me. 00:29:18.019 --> 00:29:21.220 Eight, six, four, and seven months. 00:29:21.620 --> 00:29:26.339 And in almost every way, my generation is nothing like theirs. 00:29:26.500 --> 00:29:28.180 In fact, I can prove it this morning. 00:29:28.339 --> 00:29:30.579 I want you to hold up a hand. 00:29:30.660 --> 00:29:32.579 I'm gonna tell you how to hold it up in a moment. 00:29:32.740 --> 00:29:34.980 When you played phone as a kid, right? 00:29:35.059 --> 00:29:37.860 You know, you're playing imaginary phone, you're you don't have a phone yet. 00:29:38.019 --> 00:29:40.660 I mean, smartphones aren't invented yet for most of us. 00:29:40.819 --> 00:29:42.740 When you played phone, how did you play phone? 00:29:42.819 --> 00:29:44.819 Can you show me your imaginary phone this morning? 00:29:44.900 --> 00:29:45.779 Can you show it to me? 00:29:45.940 --> 00:29:46.819 There we go. 00:29:47.059 --> 00:29:47.620 There we go. 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:49.380 Okay, that's the imaginary phone. 00:29:49.539 --> 00:29:52.420 Can I tell you how my kids play phone? 00:29:52.660 --> 00:29:56.180 They've always grown up with a smartphone, and so their phone is like this. 00:29:56.819 --> 00:29:58.500 That's their new phone. 00:29:58.740 --> 00:30:01.940 A generation has come, a generation has gone. 00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:06.099 Some of you are here scratching your head because when you played phone, it was like this, right? 00:30:06.259 --> 00:30:13.220 Like a generation comes, a generation goes. 00:30:13.460 --> 00:30:16.420 Do you know today is a good day at Redemption Church. 00:30:16.500 --> 00:30:17.779 It is membership Sunday. 00:30:17.940 --> 00:30:21.860 We are bringing some members into the family at Redemption Church. 00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:27.299 Do you know that there are members in this church who were not born on 9-11? 00:30:28.180 --> 00:30:28.980 911. 00:30:29.059 --> 00:30:30.980 I mean, I can remember where I was. 00:30:31.220 --> 00:30:33.620 You can likely remember where you were. 00:30:33.779 --> 00:30:37.779 For them, 9-11 was a chapter in their history book. 00:30:38.099 --> 00:30:40.740 It was their Thursday quiz. 00:30:42.099 --> 00:30:43.700 Feels criminal, doesn't it? 00:30:43.940 --> 00:30:45.299 You feel old? 00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:49.779 Generation goes, a generation comes. 00:30:50.819 --> 00:30:52.660 Compress this even further. 00:30:52.900 --> 00:31:01.620 What about the reality that you and I have never heard of almost everyone who has ever lived? 00:31:02.740 --> 00:31:14.420 People who have loved as fiercely as you love, who have worked as hard as you have worked, who have been as anxious about bigger things than you have been anxious about. 00:31:14.579 --> 00:31:19.460 They have come and they have gone and they have been forgotten. 00:31:19.779 --> 00:31:28.099 All of them, all of their achievements forgotten, all of their anxieties forgotten, all their names forgotten. 00:31:28.259 --> 00:31:32.900 And loved one, you will be too. 00:31:40.900 --> 00:31:43.779 But listen, there is so much hope here. 00:31:44.259 --> 00:31:45.940 There is so much hope here. 00:31:46.099 --> 00:31:54.900 Let Solomon bring you down to the bottom of what you are chasing so that you can look up and see the one who actually gives you life. 00:31:55.059 --> 00:31:57.059 You will be forgotten. 00:31:57.380 --> 00:32:01.700 And Solomon here is showing us what is counterfeit. 00:32:01.779 --> 00:32:06.180 He's holding it up to the light and saying, listen, what you thought it was, it isn't. 00:32:06.259 --> 00:32:09.059 It's counterfeit money, it's counterfeit value. 00:32:09.220 --> 00:32:18.099 And I want you to see how worthless, how meaningless, how much vanity it is, so that you will let go of what is worthless and hold on to what is good. 00:32:18.339 --> 00:32:24.819 And so we continue to ride down to the bottom because Solomon is not finished redemption church. 00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:30.339 He wants us to see not only that everything fades, but that everything is tired. 00:32:30.500 --> 00:32:31.860