Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Ecc.

1:1-11

N: Wait for MNM Video to play

Welcome

Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church family of Eastern Hills Baptist Church.

I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and that video we just watched was an explanation video about the theme for our State Convention Mission New Mexico Offering, which we collect every September and October to support the work of the Baptist Convention throughout the State.

As Steve Ballew just shared, the theme for this year is “There’s Still Room.”

There’s still room at the table of the Lord for the lost in New Mexico.

We’ve been asked to pray, give, and go so that the banquet may be full.

Our goal as a church is $10,000.

Please begin praying for this offering, asking the Lord how He would have you give to support the work of New Mexico Baptists throughout the State, and asking the Lord who you could invite through sharing the Gospel.

I’d like to welcome those of you who are visiting with us, whether you are in the room or online.

Whether you are here in the room or online, you can let us know that you’re joining us this morning by texting the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a link back that connects you to our digital communication card.

We would like to be able to drop you a note letting you know that we’re glad you’re here.

If you’re in the room and would rather do a physical card, you can grab the card that says WELCOME from the back of the pew in front of you, and you can fill that out during the service and drop it in the offering plates by the doors as you leave at the end, or you can bring them down front to me at the close of service so that I can welcome you personally and give you a welcome gift: a mug filled with chocolate.

I look forward to meeting you later this morning.

Opening

If I were to ask you which book of the Bible gives you the most joy, the most bounce in your step, the most hope and excitement, I would be almost willing to bet that your answer would not be Ecclesiastes.

It’s just not the book you’re going to be likely open to when you want to have your spirits lifted.

Throughout our six-week series on this surprising little book, we will consider what its author has to say about the reality of life in this fallen world, and what his final conclusion is on the matter.

Ecclesiastes is a decidedly real book, which neither hides from nor glamorizes the human condition, and which wrestles with many of the same questions that we wrestle with even today, probably almost 3000 years after it was written.

This morning, we will be looking at the first 11 verses of the book as our focal passage, so let’s stand as we’re able in honor of God’s Word as we turn in our Bibles and Bible apps to the first chapter of Ecclesiastes:

PRAYER (First Baptist Church of Mountainair, NM)

“What in the world can bring meaning to life?”

This is the overall question that the book of Ecclesiastes seeks to find the answer to.

It’s a great question—one that we still ask and seek to discover a resolution to today.

The author of Ecclesiastes is actually referenced in the name of the book itself.

In verse 1, where “the Teacher” is mentioned, the Hebrew word here is “Qoheleth.”

This word means literally “one who gathers” (a group together), for example, a teacher gathering students for a lecture.

The Greek word for a gathering is ecclesia, and so the name of the book has been given that name from the Greek.

The identity of Qoheleth is somewhat contested, but I believe that the book gives us the identity of Qoheleth fairly clearly:

Tradition ascribes the book to the hand of Solomon, as he would be the only “king over Israel in Jerusalem.”

After Solomon, the nation of Israel was split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which didn’t have Jerusalem in its territory, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which had Jerusalem as its capital.

This happened because of the foolishness of Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

Exactly one king fits the definitions given in verses 1 and 12 of chapter 1, and was an exceedingly wise man as referenced in chapter 12.

So why call himself Qoheleth?

Giving himself this name allows him to take the role of the sage giving wise sayings, instead of the ruler issuing decrees.

Given what the book tells us about what he tried, I believe it’s safe for us to see this book as an aged Solomon’s answer to the pursuit of power, wealth, pleasure, sex, and knowledge.

He sought to answer this ultimate question of meaning by trying everything he could try.

Essentially, Solomon went on an extended field trip so that we could learn in the classroom of his life.

Throughout this series, we’ll look at more of the specifics of that field trip, and seek to apply the lessons of Solomon to our lives today.

While we are starting at the beginning of the book, Qoheleth in a way did not.

Instead, he started at with the conclusion of his journey:

1) The Conclusion: “Futility!”

It’s not that Solomon started with an assumption that everything was futile and then worked his way back.

It’s that he’s starting his telling of his search for meaning in this life by letting us in on where he landed.

He says that everything that you can do in the world is futile for providing meaning for your life.

The word that is translated by the CSB as “futility,” or “futile,” is the Hebrew word hebel (heh-vel).

This word generally means “breath” or “vapor,” and so imparts the idea of being weightless, without form, and useless for anything, meaningless.

It can also be used to refer to idols, which are likewise worthless.

This Hebrew word is also used when comparing the length of the human life to eternity, especially in its meaning of “vapor.”

So the Teacher in Ecclesiastes has landed on the answer to the question of, “What in the world can bring meaning to life?”

What we will see throughout this series is that everything he considers, everything that he looks at and tries, everything that the world says will bring meaning or significance or worth to a person’s life are hebel.

Not that people themselves are worthless or insignificant, but that all of the pursuits that we have fall short.

Everything is transitory and therefore of no lasting value.

If we build our lives on the things of this world, the things that Qoheleth sees are hebel, we build our lives on lies.

“Wow, Bill… great message you’re preaching.

Really hopeful and positive.”

I know.

But Ecclesiastes wasn’t written to make us feel comfortable and peaceful.

In fact, quite the opposite.

It was written so that we would honestly look at what we place our hope and faith in, so that we would evaluate if its worthy of that hope and faith.

This is why the subtitle of this series is “the meaningless and the mundane of life.”

If we’re going to honestly consider those things, we’re going to have land on the fact that there are lots of things that we consider to be of vast importance right now that have essentially zero importance for eternity.

This is why Solomon asks the question in verse 3, which is kind of a rephrasing of the basic question of the entire book with a focus on profit and work:

2) The Basic Question: “What can we gain?”

I have always really enjoyed Winnie the Pooh.

I’m not sure that I was much into old Pooh-bear when I was young, but Maggie really was.

We enjoyed The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, both in book and film versions.

The characters are a fascinating mix.

Pooh is the simplest (and hungriest).

Piglet, the worrier.

Tigger, the positive one.

Kanga, the mom.

Roo, the child.

Owl, the intellectual.

Rabbit, the controller.

Gopher, the busiest.

And then there’s Eeyore: The cynic.

Ecclesiastes is an Eeyore kind of book.

And you can almost hear the deep voice of Eeyore as you read the question in verse 3:

The answer to this question has already been given, so we know this question is essentially rhetorical.

The answer is “nothing,” because everything is ultimately futile.

What Solomon means by this question is this: what is the net profit that a person can show from a life of hard labor?

When he speaks of things “under the sun,” he is referring to the things that happen in this world, because everything on earth happens “under the sun.”

This is why I posed the original question the way I did at the beginning of my message today.

Think of all the things that we chase in life.

We chase power and popularity and prestige and dead presidents.

We pour time and money into fun and fads and fortunes and favorites.

We dream that if we had this, that, or the other thing, then we’d be where we want to be, and we’d arrive at meaning or purpose or happiness.

Even most of the really important things in life: family and work and other relationships with people, won’t last forever in this life.

We can’t take any of those things with us into eternity.

In this, Job really had it right when he said:

I’m not saying that all of these things aren’t valuable in life.

Lots of them are, and even incredibly valuable.

I’m saying that they aren’t ultimately valuable—they aren’t of ultimate, eternal importance if we aren’t in a right relationship with God.

Ecclesiastes isn’t the only place in Scripture that we see this pessimism about the things of this world and their value after our lives end.

Jesus also had some strong things to say about what it means to chase worldly results:

Malcolm Forbes is credited with coining the proverb, “He who dies with the most toys wins,” in the 80’s.

But the reality is that he who dies with the most toys still dies and leaves his toys behind.