Ecclesiastes: Chasing the Wind

INTRO:

What is wind?

The movement of air

Can’t bottle it up

Can’t catch it

Ever elusive

The illustration that the Teacher is making about the things of this life

Read

Vanity of Vanities

Vanity - Hebel (hevel)

Mist or vapor

Everything is like a mist or a vapor

fog machine

Intro to the book - everything is like trying to catch vapor

James 4:14 ESV

14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

The things you strive for is like chasing the wind

Life Goes On

Read

vs. 5-7

after we are gone the world keeps spinning

a new day will come and go

seasons will continue

Rain will happen again and again

vs. 8

always something new to see and hear

Movies, acts, sporting events, inventions

vs. 9

nothing new just packaged differently

nothing new

communication, sin, money, etc.

sin is ever present

maybe packaged differently

vs. 4&11

we all get forgotten

even if you are a major person in the history books

Bill Bowerman - co-founder of Nike

None of us know who he is

Is There Purpose to Life?

Genesis 3:19 ESV

19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:

Our sin leads us to death

Is there hope then?

Matthew 6:19–20 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Our hope, joy, and life found in Christ

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John

Philippians 3:7–9 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Philippians 3:7-

worth, value, and life found in Christ

1 Timothy 4:10 ESV

10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

1 Timothy 4:

This world is not our hope, Christ is