Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
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Recap
Recap
We've spent our last 7 sessions together looking at Ephesians and what it means to find our identity in Christ. Who we are in Christ or who we could be if we were to trust Him.
As we begin our next book we aren't heading in a new direction as much as we are taking a slight shift.
I want us to shift from looking at who we are or can be in Christ, to what meaning life offers either with or without Christ.
What is the point of it all? What is the point of my life?
Pray
Doctrinal Depth Tour
Doctrinal Depth Tour
Purpose:
the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Who do you think the author of this book is?
Solomon (probably).
What do you know about Solomon?
God made him the wisest man to ever exist. God also gave him wealth and popularity and a long life.
He had riches galore.
He had all the toys he wanted.
He was honored/important/popular.
He had a long life.
He had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Early in life Solomon walked in faith but Eventually Solomon strayed from God.
Solomon drifted from God and chased after everything his heart desired. He had anything and everything He wanted.
Solomon chased his dreams and reached them.
He married women who worshipped false Gods so he worshiped several false Gods.
He had all he could ask for so he loved the gifts and not the giver.
He was powerful so who needs God’s strength...
He was important, he was wise so he didn't seek God for wisdom.
Sure he walked away from God but he had everything!
He wrote this book near the end of his luxurious life…What
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
What is vanity?
The quality of being worthless or futile.
Hebel - Vapor or smoke. Grasping for smoke.
He looks back over his life and says it’s all useless!
This isn't your youth pastor saying this with no money, a house that ain't his, driving a 13 year old car, one wife, nobody knows his name. This is King Solomon!
One of the richest, most famous, most powerful kings in history! He had more money more girls and more brains than all the rest!
He looks back and says it was all a waste...
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
Solomon is asking us to answer this question:
What does all your hard work or striving get you?
“Under the Sun” means from an earthly point of view.
All the world around is busy, busy, busy. Our schedules are slammed full. We work, work, work, and practice, practice practice. We dream and chase dreams.
What is the point of what you are doing? What does it get you?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
He uses imagery from nature to illustrate this endless monotonous cycle we are stuck in.
The sun rises and sets and rises and sets.
The wind blows this way then that way, then it does it again.
Rivers flow into the ocean but the ocean is never full and the rivers never finis their job.
Human life does the same thing. You’re born you grow you die.
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
It’s exhausting!
We never reach contentment.
We are never satisfied.
We’re always running and never arriving.
The grass is always greener somewhere else.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.
He isn’t saying that no one ever goes down in history or nothing new is ever invented. But even in spite of all the “important people” and “important discoveries” the cycle still remains. We are broken, empty, and unsatisfied so we keep grabbing but never grasping.
Never to be at the point of Contentment but always longing for it and hoping its in our next dream or goal.
No matter what you achieve or do the importance will fade.
What is your great grandpas name? His grandpa?
Even the “most important of us will be forgotten eventually, given enough time.
But they weren't important...
Who is the CEO of Tesla?
Elon Musk
Who started building cars on assembly lines?
Henry Ford
Who invented the engine?
Etienne Lenoir
Who invented the wheel?
Some nameless Mesopotamian dude....
The BlackBerry was the phone to have when I was in HighSchool....
Who wants one now?
Solomon’s aim with this book is to show us just how miserably meaningless and purposeless life is if lived for anything other than Jesus.
Over the next few weeks we are going to look at several “seeminling important” life goals or achievements that the whole world chases after but spoiler alert: IT’S ALL HEBEL!
My prayer is that through the truths of Ecclesiastes you would not be content with a wasted and useless life, no matter how beautifully the world paints it.
Tonights passage isn't very encouraging, its actually depressing. It's supposed to be that way. Ecclesiates is designed to make you so unsatisfied with pointless pleasures that you desire to look for real and meaningful purpose. That’s only found in knowing and loving God through faith in Jesus.
Pray
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