Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Welcome and Greeting
Introduction to Ecc.
This is the benefit of being a church that is committed to the authority of the totality of the word of God is that it keeps us accountable to all the words of God. I am generally an idealist, happy-go-lucky, person and I’ve never decidedly preached through Ecclesiasties before. But this is the word of God. and it is given for our benefit.
So I want to give us an introduction to this book so that as we go through it, we have an encouraging point to hold on to.
Like the beginning music in a play. if we pay attention at the beginning, we’ll be able to recognize the themes later on.
Ecclesiastes is a member of a division of the old testament known as the writings, or the wisdom literature. And the reason we want to explore the wisdom literature is because Wisdom helps us to understand the complicated parts or life. For example: Proverbs is wisdom literature. and the author of Proverbs takes a very causal and effectual relationship with wisdom. Although it doesn't promise anything, it reasons that If you do “A” because of “B” you’ll get “C”.
But what happens when it isn’t that simple? What happens when life turns awry?
I once had a student. He loved Jesus, and was very intelligent. he was also extremely athletically talented. And because of his talent, His schedule stayed filled with games, events, travel ball, etc. I would beg him to lessen his load so that we could make more time to be discipled but it fell on deaf ears.
understandably! He was the kind of athlete that instead of dodging a tackle, he would just front flip over the other players. He tore is ACL in the 4th quarter of his last game as a senior, on a punt in front of scouts from 3 different universities.
But what if life turns out great?
The Oscars had a touching moment recently. Ke Huy Quan who I knew by his role of “Short round” in The Temple of Doom won the Oscar for best supporting actor. Quan accepted the trophy Sunday night presented by Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford, for his role in the “Everything Everywhere All at Once,”becoming just the second Asian winner ever in the supporting actor category, joining Haing S. Ngor for “The Killing Fields” in 1984. During his speech, he recalled his time in a refugee camp, and shouted to the TV, Hi mom! I just one an Oscar! this is the American dream.
For what an amazing honor it is to win an Oscar, does it stop the march of time? does it keep you from death?
I have things like that that are valuable to me but when I look to them for anything other than what they are, what are they worth?
Transition Statement
That is why the wisdom of Ecclesiastes is so important.
It is a gift From God that helps us make sense of the complicated parts of life, and to avoid the pitfalls of both of those examples. because our lives are messy…We have moments where our dreams are dashed. and moments where we succeed. moments where we expereicne great recognition.
but at the end of the day do any of these things save us?
What would you do, if you had something/someone to help you navagate the messy parts of life that the rest of the world does not have access to?
The Holy Spirit, in Ecclesiastes will help us, if we are humble, to have ability to live well, in a broken world.
That’s what I want…to not waste my life pursuing something only to have to taken away from me, or to find out that it’s not worth much. I want my tragedies to have meaning and my joys to not overcome reality..
So we’re going to start strong, start at the beginning, but also look to the end: Our main point for this text, is the same as what we’ll hear later in the series.

Until Jesus is the focus of our pursuits, our lives will be spent in vain.

Body

Vs. 1 - Introduction - case for multiple characters in the book of Ecclesiastes - for the sake of time, we’ll focus on the main one:
1. The Preacher
‘Preacher” in Hebrew means gatherer - someone who would gather people together for a message.
a majority point to the identity of Solomon
king , wisdom, wives, failure
fulfill the role of a cynic, or critic.
Picture the food critic from the Disney movie Ratatouille - an older man, who has presumably tasted the best food in the world, yet nothing has ever lived up to his expectations - which in turn has turned him into this constant foreboding figure.
Solomon had free reign to pursue anything he wanted. and he is sharing with us the wisdom in which he has learned.
Potentially a dialogue, or just switching back and forth between first and third person: Throughout the book, will build up the reader: What about pleasure? That’s worth living for! Only for the preacher to bring us back to reality with the truth he has come to learn.
Vs. 2 - Vanity
Hebrew Hevel. That’s the word the preacher uses the most to describe life -
Hevel - smoke, vapor, mist.
not quite “meaningless”
Have you ever stared at a fire? and seen the smoke billow up from the flames and got lost in your thoughts?
Have you ever lit an incense stick and watch the smoke dance from the tip?
what happens when you reach out to touch
fog on the mountain how do you drive?
Vs. 3 - Gain for the work?
Rhetorical question
What is gained by all the work that is done while on this earth?
We live in a farming community - One of our elder candidates is a generational farmer - after you plow the field, till the ground, plant tour crops, water, harvest, preserve, and eat the food that grows. is that it? No. Because you start over again the next year.
After every victory that you experience, the next challenge comes.
Vs. 4-8 - When do you feel rest?
Matthew Henry would say
All things change, and never rest. Man, after all his labour, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. His soul will find no rest, if he has it not from God. The senses are soon tired, yet still craving what is untried.
Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ec 1:4.
The preacher now knows that everything of this world, even the natural world confesses the same truth:
The sun never rests. As soon as it sets, it hurries back to rise again. The river never rests. It’s always going in the same direction to the sea, as fast as it can, but the sea never fills up. The wind always blows. sometimes one way, sometimes another, but it always resets and never takes a break.
A good example is the Drinking bird desk toy. It’s a toy heat engines that mimic the motion of a bird drinking from a water source. It drinks but is never satisfied. once it sits back, to goes again to the cup.
which is exactly the point of the next few verses.
Vs. 9-10 - Our attempt to self soothe
The preacher asks another rhetorical question
“ is there anything brand new, flashy, interesting that no one has ever heard before that could possibly bring relief to the reality of the march of time?”
His answer is no. Everything that is new, is something that has been tried before, and just forgotten about.
Do you know what the movies The bad sleep well - made in 1960, Strange Brew - made in 1983, and the Lion King, made in 1994 all have in common? They are all retellings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The only difference is one of them tells it with lions.
False religions
One of the uses and applications of this verse is how religion is used as an escape. After all, if we are given an eternal reward that makes this life worth it, then things might not be so bad. There have been countless times throughout the life of the earth that someone has said look! There’s a new religion, theres a new way to God, there’s a new way to think about a verse that completely changes everything
What would the preacher say? There is nothing new under the sun, except that which is false.
An example:
A supposedly illiterate prophet goes into the wilderness to pray about the religious unrest in his day, this prophet is then visited by an angel that tells him the one true religion has been lost and he has to help reclaim it. Shortly after, and in a way that completely unverifiable, “God’ reveals a new holy book to the prophet for this religion. This holy book says that the Bible use to be true, but over time was changed and corrupted by man. It will also shockingly reveal that the Trinity and the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus is a lie invented by the Church, and if you really want to be saved, then your good works will be enough to get you into one of the multi-levels of heaven, and you can even achieve the highest level of heaven just as long as you have given perfect obedience to the prophet and his new holy book. This holy book is also pro-polygamy. But that will come under question along with many of this faith’s teachings when it becomes politically expedient. But when the original prophet dies, causing a split between the people who want to follow after relative of the prophet, or someone else in the religion.
Now…Did i just describe to you, 19th century Mormonism, or 7th century Islam?
Vs. 11 - future generations
Maybe it has to be worth it for the future generations?
How many remember the names, just the names of their Great Grand parents?
that’s only 4 generations removed from us today. How about their parents? 5 generations…Their parents.
If you don’t know, do you expect to be any different?
Jerome said, “what a vanity it is that the earth, which was made for humans, stays while humans dissolve into the dust. The reign of death is strong, and it claimed Adam and Abel and David and Solomon and Rehoboam, and one day it will claim you.

Conclusion

The march of time is not stopped by families, false faiths, fun, freedom, or any force of nature.

Is there anything that will add sustance to the things we’ve just discovered are smoke?
Yes! There is!
Have you ever walked in a kitchen that someone was cooking in? You smelled the seasonings, spice, and the steam the hevel coming from the food? that experience immediately arouses your hunger, but that smell is meaningless and your not satisfied until you've eaten the things you’ve smelled.
Ecclesiastes, as dark as the summary is, is the smell coming from God’s kitchen. it’s suppose to frustrate you to and point you to something good.
The frustration you feel, that fight or flight feeling you have after being given this kind of news can only be navigated in one way.
Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 ESV
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
The work that you do, is given substance when it’s done for the glory of God!
The things that you find joy in, are given substance when you appreciate that they are gifts from God
how are we to see clearly through the smoke of this life? it is a life that pursues Jesus.
There is no third way when it comes to following Jesus…there is no third way.
In order to convict you, The Holy Spirit has given us this book to reveal the truth that this life, is nothing more than a puff of smoke, and the pursuit of that life is empty. And when it ends, you will be judged and then either vindicated or punished.
There is no third way...
Application
But in a world full of grave plots, one grave is empty, and there is one man that time and dust cannot claim because God would not allow the Holy One to see decay.
What is it that you have found comfort it other than Christ? How have you blinded yourself to the march of time?
In the revelation of a life of emptiness, and hollow promises, and facing a judgement of your pursuits, will you fear the Lord?
will you Cry out to Him in confession that you have tried to find meaning in something or someone other than Him, and then find your meaning in Him alone.
Because until Jesus is the focus of our pursuits, and find our peace only in Him, our lives will be lived in vain.
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