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Introduction

Genesis - Creation Account / Completed with man. And it was all good.

Genesis 2:18 ESV

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Loneliness is not good.

A theme Solomon picks up on in Ecclesiastes - The very word indicates he is leading a group.

Here in the fourth chapter he is emphasizing the need for community.

This stands in stark contrast to the individualism of today’s culture. What can I get?

Instead, the questions should be:

“How can I be blessed by others?” coupled with “How can I be a blessing to others?”

Solomon is uniquely positioned to answer these questions on community and individuality.

Wealthy + Wise = Witness

He was wealthy and he was wise, which made him the perfect witness to the struggles of humanity.

Time and time again his conclusion is that what people are chasing after is “vanity, a chasing after the wind.”

He points to a better way throughout the book.

He had addressed some of the dangers of individuality earlier in this chapter.

As Warren Wendell Wiersbe points out about this wealthy and wise witness: it is beneficial for people to work together, walk together, warm together, and watch together.

Work Together

4:9

“A good reward for their toil.” Again, this idea contradicts our modern thinking of individualism, which says do it yourself and keep all the profits!

So, how does this give you a good reward? Three ways - Wind storm and I offer to pay Johnny $20 to clean it up. Do it himself and spend two hours cleaning limbs by himself. Or…hire Shawn...

Do things faster (two hours of work split makes it one hour each).

Accomplish more difficult tasks (a heavy limb that he couldn’t move himself).

Enjoy the work environment (have someone to talk to and joke around with making the time go faster).

Working with Alec and Melissa in the office this summer. Enjoy that social environment.

We were created as social beings!

Life is better together.

Walk Together

4:10

Connected to the work idea in v. 9, but also transitions to a travel motif for vv. 10-12.

Rough roads in Judea. Rocky roads. Something we know something about in Oklahoma!

As dusk comes, it makes it harder to see the cracks and holes and pits along the road.

If you trip, you’re probably okay. But, what if you sprain an ankle. Simply can’t walk (basketball injury),

What if you fall into a pit and can’t get out? What if the fall is tremendous enough that you break something?

The reality is that we stumble! We are all struggling against sin and avoiding the pitfalls that sin creates.

The adage that “The only army that shoots its wounded is the Church.”

Instead we should...

Walk with the wounded.

When we see that someone has stumbled or fallen, we walk with them in restoration and recovery?

Isn’t that what Jesus did? The woman at the well, the woman caught in the act of adultery, Simon Peter’s denial of Jesus.

Jesus as in the business of walking with the wounded and bringing healing to them.

Warm Together

4:11

Again, continuing with a traveling motif. Travelers would use their cloak as a blanket.

In this instance, if you and your wife are traveling together, there is the advantage of using both your cloaks and then the natural warmth of your bodies.

This was important in these desert climates. Cold nights, especially once you get outside of the summer months.

The cold could be deadly at night.

Picture of cold survival

James and Christina in Nevada as their Jeep spun off the road and overturned in a crevice. -21 degrees.

They, with their two children and a nephew and a niece, all between 3 and 10 years old.

For 48 hours they huddled together in their car until they were found by emergency responders safe and frost-bite free.

The key to their survival was that they stayed put inside the car, allowing their own body heat to give them that chance to survive.

Community can be a life saver.

The reality is that there are people all around us who struggle with loneliness. This causes many to lose hope.

We need to be better at identifying and incorporating those who are lonely or disconnected.

Incorporated means to become part of a body (in corpus).

Too many people have created what Tommy Nelson calls “lonely by design.”

This too often has disastrous effects for people - when they struggle and have no one to reach out to.

Who can you reach out to today and seek to incorporate them into your life?

Watch Together

4:12

Another danger on the road was thieves, waiting for unsuspecting travelers that they could attack and rob (like the traveler in the story of the good Samaritan).

If you are attacked by a thief, maybe you’ll be okay, maybe not. But, if you’ve got someone with you, your chances of surviving goes up!

Who watches out for you?

Before you get yourself into trouble, who is there to warn you?

Have vigilant friends.

Conclusion

The need for others is a common theme in wisdom literature.

Proverbs 27:17 ESV

17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Here we see the intensification from the 1 in v. 8 to the 2 in v. 9 and now in v. 11 there is 3.

But, notice the specific way that Solomon talks about the three strands.

It is a cord of three strands, which indicates that it is braided.

Braided rope is stronger than the same bundle of fibers that are straight because it has an increased capacity to stretch and the increased diameter.

A cord is stronger because of the proximity and interaction to the other threads.

Community requires interaction.

One of the reasons we have a small group ministry we call Sunday school.

Find connections.

Reach out and reach in.