All right. Good morning, everyone. We are going to go ahead and get started this morning. So let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Sunday, for a day we can set aside. We can worship you. We are thankful that we can gather before our worship service and talk about wisdom literature. I pray this morning that you would give us wisdom as we explore this part of scripture. Be with all those speaking this morning for clear, clear thoughts, Lord, and that you would be glorified above all else. We pray for all this. In your name, amen. Well, good morning again and welcome. We are in week number four of a six-week series looking at wisdom literature, looking at the wisdom books in our scriptures. And last week, last couple of weeks, we have looked at the book of Proverbs and what I would hope we saw was that Proverbs reveals patterns, that Proverbs really shows us how the world works and emphasizes this idea that we've got a couple of choices to make. We can walk in wisdom or we can walk in foolishness. We talked about chokmah. This Hebrew word for wisdom has a broad meaning and we defined wisdom as godliness in action. Clayton did a really good job of kind of hammering that that home. And as we read Proverbs, you kind of come to terms with this deed-consequence relationship that if you work hard, probably be able to provide for your family. If you operate with a life of integrity, people are going to like working with you. People are going to respect you. If you're kind to others, they'll be kind to you. These are the kind of experiences we can expect, the patterns that we see in Proverbs. And so this morning, we are going to turn from Proverbs to Ecclesiastes. And Ecclesiastes is also one of the wisdom books, part of wisdom literature. But it differs from Proverbs in one major way. While Proverbs reveals patterns, reveals how the world should work, Ecclesiastes gives us paradox. It gives us a little bit of chaos. And so the word I want us to think of when we think of Ecclesiastes is paradox, that things don't always make sense. Proverbs tells us what should happen, what makes sense. Ecclesiastes is kind of that exception to the rule. When you look around and you say, I have worked hard. I am operating with integrity. I am being kind to others, but that's not what I experience. I'm experiencing maybe financial troubles. Things aren't working out how I thought they would. It can be frustrating and paradoxical. That is Ecclesiastes. And so, If we're gonna look at this book, a few things that we want to keep in mind, we want to be familiar with the Kohelet. This is the Hebrew word kind of behind Ecclesiastes. We get Ecclesiastes from the Greek Septuagint. But if you read the commentaries, a lot of them will simply refer to the speaker, the main speaker in the book, with this title, the Kohelet. It's often translated preacher or teacher in our English Bibles. It really refers to one who gathers or who convenes or who assembles. A little bit of disagreement on whether this person is assembling people or maybe he's collecting wise sayings in his book, but often we see him as the preacher and the teacher. And what's unique about this voice, something you don't want to miss, is that there are really two voices we kind of hear. We hear a narrator that introduces the speaker, introduces his main theme talking in the third person about the Kohelet, and then at the very end the narrator comes back in and really critiques and evaluates the Kohelet's message. Then right in the middle, for the majority of the book, We have this teacher, this preacher, this Kohelet speaking to us, seeking and exploring everything in life and trying to give us answers. And if we were to take an in-depth study of Ecclesiastes, we probably would look at a lot of these phrases, maybe even take a week or two to go through a couple of these on each different phrase. This is a really broad overview. We can't get to all of them. We're going to focus on this first one, because this is really a key to understanding this book, and it's the word hevel. If you know anything about Ecclesiastes, you probably know this word. This is the Hebrew word that gets translated a variety of different ways in our English translations, and it literally means mist or vapor or smoke. And this word's going to pop up 38 times in the span of 12 relatively short chapters. It's going to, you know, the second verse of Ecclesiastes talks about Hebel, the Kohelet's last words. talk about Hevel and everything in between. So if we miss the meaning and really the broadness of this word, I think we miss a lot of what the author's trying to communicate. Because the narrator's going to tell us that the Kohelet, he's a wise man. He's a wordsmith. He's going to use words to his advantage and tease out these different maybe shades and nuances of meaning. So we're looking at our English translations. This is how we have translated this word, Hebel. The KJV, NASV, ESV, they all talk about it as vanity of vanities. That all is vanity. We look to the NIV, it's going to go with meaningless. That everything is meaningless. And the last one we'll look at is the CSV says absolute futility. Everything is futile. And I think these are pretty good translations. What we want to see this morning, briefly, is maybe different contexts that Hebel can be used in to capture its full range of meaning. And so the first meaning we see in Ecclesiastes is probably the idea that you think of. It's the idea that I think of when I think of mist or vapor. I think of James, that life is short, that it's transient, that life is fleeting. In Ecclesiastes 6, The Kohelet writes, for who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow. You can see this emphasis on life being brief, short, passing quickly. He's not really saying life is meaningless, maybe in a way. He's really saying life is short here. Ecclesiastes 7 says, or 11 says, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. That youth is here today, it's gone tomorrow. We see this in Ecclesiastes. This is not the most common way he uses Hebel, but definitely what we see a little bit. The second way is what these translations are trying to capture, that there's empty effort. It's vain. It's futile when we work and we don't get the expected outcome, that it can seem meaningless. Ecclesiastes 2 says, then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it. And behold, all was vanity. and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. And when vanity or Hebel is translated as vanity in this kind of instance, we often see it right next to this phrase, chasing after wind or striving after the wind, that you're trying to catch something. That really you can't catch. Ecclesiastes 4 will say, then I saw that all toil and all skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and striving after the wind, that trying to keep up with your neighbors, working really hard just to have all these material possessions. That's empty. That's vain. That's futile. And then the last way that I think we see it used is to refer to this kind of paradox that I alluded to at the top. That things are absurd, things are an enigma, and on top of that, it's a little bit frustrating. You look at the world and you say, this doesn't make sense. It really rubs me the wrong way. This is actually, it seems evil. Ecclesiastes 8 gives us a good example of this. He writes, there is a vanity that takes place on earth that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I think we probably can relate to this. When you look out and you see that that person loves God, how could that happen to them? Or the opposite, someone is not living right, but it seems like they are prospering. Seems like things are going really good for them. That is a paradox. That's not just a paradox, but it's frustrating. Ecclesiastes 6 even refers to this as an evil. There is an evil that I've seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires. Yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. It's a grievous evil. that he looks around and you can work really hard. Proverbs says if you work hard, you will likely be able to support yourself and you can make some wealth that way. And Ecclesiastes is saying, I know people who have worked hard, but they can't enjoy all that. Actually, a stranger who didn't work hard can swoop in and reap all of that benefit. It goes against reason. And one recent example that I've just been reminded over and over this past week on my social media news feeds are of this American Airlines crash with this helicopter. And it's everywhere. And I grew up, I went to a really small school, a school kind of like Northside Christian. 30 kids in a class, K through 12, all on one campus. And one of those individuals on that flight, we were at the same school. And so I'm just seeing it everywhere. He was four or five years older than me. But he was someone, when he played varsity sports, he would come and coach the middle school or the elementary school a little bit. He went to my church. We were in the same youth group. We went to the same college. He was ahead of me a little bit. So I wasn't best friends with him or anything like that. You look online, I've been keeping up with him over the last 10, 15 years, and it seems like he's living life how he probably should live life. He's taking care of a family, he's getting a job to support his family, and you look at this and you're like, man, that is heavily, that is frustrating that that would happen to someone who's involved in his church, trying to do the right thing, And it's like man just leaving three three boys and a wife And I think that's what the author is saying. He's saying there are things in this world that don't make sense There's a lot of paradox frustration and what really what the Kohelet tries to do is how do I solve this problem? How do I you know? figure out this dilemma. And he explores everything under the sun. And we get to the end of the book, you read through Ecclesiastes, and there's really not a theological solution in Kohelet's mind. That there's just going to be heaviness in this fallen world, at least under the sun. That when we look in this world, we can't find any gain or profit on our own. And that's a cold, hard reality. So a lot of people look at this book and say, man, it is depressing. It is a tough, a tough read. So that is a really brief introduction to Ecclesiastes. We yet again, not just have one guest speaker, we have two guest speakers that I'm excited that can share with us today, people. A couple that I would consider very, very wise. And so I'll ask John and Jess Petters, if y'all want to come up, I will pass off this mic and, or I guess John will kick us off. And we'll figure that out. So I'm not sure why Zach asked me to cover this book in the older age category. I don't feel like I've really grasped what it is to be wise. I am not old as you can see in the picture. And I pretty much misspelled Ecclesiastes every time I wrote it in my notes. So I'm not sure why, but I got this new headset for Christmas. And it's a VR headset. And I found out you could watch videos on YouTube. And I was like, this is perfect. I'm my first use of this. I'm going to immerse myself in Ecclesiastes. And I put it on. and I had this screen that was as big as that kitchen, and I was reading along with Alexander Scorby word by word, and just absorbing every minute of it with all the distractions. I had 360 degrees of Solomonic wisdom just being piped straight into my brain. And I got done, and I had nothing. I mean, nothing meaningful to say. It was like, that point, Zach texted me and was like, hey, so what are you gonna talk about? I was like, I think I'm gonna get up and say, vanity, vanity, it's all vanity, vexation of spirit, and nothing new under the sun, and sit down. Because that literally sums up the whole book. I mean, it's full of, that was what the screen with Alexander Scorby looked like. It's full of stuff like, a wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart is at his left. I mean, like, what am I supposed to get out of this? I mean, there are these tidbits of common sense wisdom throughout the book, but in general, none of it really made sense or had meaning. I was like, no wonder Zach thought it was a good idea to hear from someone else. I was clearly in over my head. So, and then I realized that Zach was really the wise one because he got everyone else to teach us really difficult Sunday school topics. So then I went and got my Believer's Bible commentary, as Jack would recommend, and then I went back and made another trip and picked up my reading glasses because I realized that I had indeed gotten a little older. figured out there was probably a reason why Zach thought I could explain the ramblings of a cynical old man. So the commentary said, the key under the sun forms the most important single key to understanding Ecclesiastes. The fact that it occurs 29 times indicates the general perspectives of the author. His search is confined to this earth. He ransacks the world to solve the riddle of life, and the whole quest is carried on in his own mind, unaided by God. It is a view from under the sun, and not the view from God. It is framed by a teacher who puts the whole book in a biblical perspective, but the bulk of the book is about human reasoning. It appears to be this intellectual search without any divine revelation, at least in the center. So, as Zach mentioned when we started this study, we keep thinking that the more knowledge we have and the education and internet and everything at our fingertips that will make better decisions and it's not really looking like it turns out that way. Solomon was in search for the greatest good under the sun and he came to the conclusion that life is vanity and grasping at the wind. So it's just fleeting and you can't grab a hold of it. So he starts out in verse 118 and he talks about the vanity of intellectual wisdom. And it says, for in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. So when you're young, there's a lot to explore. I mean, I'd say like 25 is like my favorite age. I don't know how many people are 25 here, but if I could stay 25 forever, that'd be it. But if you took 125-year-olds, every one of them believes that they're gonna be a success. I mean, the whole world is waiting for him. Walt Disney has been telling him, if you can dream it, it can happen. And every age of life turns over this new leaf and a new set of firsts. I know in my own life, I tend to overlearn, which is kind of why I became a professional student for 10 years. But I often emphasis on acquiring knowledge, but I fall short in the application. Sometimes knowing all the mechanics of how things work and everything takes away the ability to enjoy this finished product that you're viewing for the first time, where you just see the exterior. It's kind of like you're happier seeing the view out of an airplane window than sitting in a traffic jam is kind of how I like to phrase it. But when you're young, Jessica brought this because it reminded me of my sister, but the best is yet to come. I mean you have, your whole life is ahead of you and the possibilities are endless. It's great. The earth doesn't seem as broken, sin's not as intrusive, and you're surrounded by people that care about you. The sky's the limit, and everybody's not gonna put limits on you, because they want you to reach your full potential. So, you know, it's not really good to hold you down. But by the age 65, most of those 100 people will be unsuccessful at achieving their dreams. So, few people have the focus and perseverance to attain their goals, and even fewer choose the right goals. It's good to learn, because you have to learn to avoid making mistakes. But it was more important, as Clayton put it, to put the action into wisdom and to pursue the correct goals and make sure you have what's correct. I often think of the world's most wealthiest men, and almost every one of them is on their third marriage. And so it's like, you can set your goal to achieve success, but at what cost is that going to conflict with another goal that might be more important in your life? So it's really tricky to like when you transition out your first phase of life because you're trying so hard to separate from those that you're dependent on, you know, you're trying to get become independent and everything. Then when you finally get separated where you're independent, you realize that those are the people that gave your life a whole lot of meaning. So I know, like, especially for, you know, it kind of transitions to your kids, too. About four years ago, my nephew invited me. He got me VIP seating at Trump's last rally. And I thought, well, this is going to be great. It's going to be epic, Trump says. So I went, and there were so many people there, it was scary. I was in the middle of that, and you couldn't move. I was getting claustrophobic, and I was like, ugh. But I was really just concerned with the way our culture and government and everything was heading. And as you know, it turned out to be a little more epic than we planned. And this was the picture I took of the Capitol building after we peacefully marched to the Capitol building. But this is as close as I got, which is why I was still here for the last four years. But I was there to hear the tear gas and the gunshots and everything, and I left there. It was just so discouraging. I mean, it's just like, what did I bring my kids into? And I often thought, like, this world just looks nothing like, even 10 years ago when they were born, it's just changed so much. And it's like, the issues that I'm dealing with are so, you know, like, huge. I mean, there's just not at all what I thought. And I often wondered, too, like, what is it my parents thought about when they, when they were bringing me into the world? You know, like, were they, did they feel like the world was no capable ace? Or, you know, like, what was it like? And I have a weather app called Weather Underground. And so I didn't really think much of it. But I was scrolling through YouTube and found a thing about a group called the Weather Underground. And so I came up. I was like, well, let's see what this has to do with. So about the time I was born, there was a lot of racial unrest. Vietnam had just ended. And apparently there was a Marxist group blowing up statues of police, pipe bombing the Capitol. They set two bombs off in the Capitol, bombed the Pentagon. And ironically, it's like this load of upheaval that people are still, it's like the same things that people feel today. And so it was kind of like, made me feel like, okay, This is a struggle that's been there for forever. There's always an evil to struggle against. And it is ultimately in God's hands where it ends up. John, can I add one thing real quick? Sure. My cousin, George Malcolm White, was the architect for the White House and the Capitol from Nixon to Clinton. And about a week after Nixon appointed George Malcolm White as the architect of the White House, Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's neat But yeah, so they're really I mean they said it's It is amazing So the next section of Ecclesiastes is about the pleasure of wealth and fun and this is always something I struggle with too because I grew up at home where Almost everything was used for God's kingdom. And we didn't get a lot of fun stuff. It was pretty spartan. So I kind of tended to, when I was a kid, I kind of overbalanced the other way a little bit. This was a boat that I was trying to talk Trey into buying in my 20s. This is the actual one. And I had this whole plan. We were going to do charter cruises and serve meals and whatever. And fortunately, he had better sense than that and bought a house instead. But when I was younger, especially when you're a teenager or 20s, relationships are just not that stable. Even a lot of times inter-family relationships are just not as solid as you would want. But money always seemed like, you know what? You earn it. You spend it. It doesn't make you sad. It can't make you happy. But if you don't have enough of it, it really kind of makes things a little rough. But then the government printed a bunch more of it. And I learned it wasn't as solid as I thought it was. So it's only because people agree that it has value at any given time that it has any value. Ecclesiastes says, rich or poor, wise or foolish, religious or political, famous, unknown, everything is equalized by death. So, and as the commentary pointed out, one of the problems is that man's never satisfied. No matter how much one sees, he still wants more. Our ears never reach the stage where they don't want to hear something new. We travel incessantly for search of new sensations, new sights, and new sounds. We are after what the sociologists call the fundamental wish for new experiences. But we will return from the search dissatisfied and jaded because man is so constituted that all the world cannot bring lasting happiness to his heart. And with that, I'll let Jessica take over about the rest. The sands of time are sinking. The ladies are used to me crying, but thank you. All right, I'm actually gonna start in Psalm 90, nine through 10. All our days have declined in your fury. We have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain 70 years, or if due to strength, 80 years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone and we fly away. This was written by Moses. It's thought to be written around Numbers chapter 20. And here they are, the Israelites, they're foreigners, they have no home, they're sojourners, they're pilgrims, and as you know, many are waiting for death. That is the consequence that they received when they did not trust in God. But for Moses, it's a very personal experience. In Numbers chapter 20, it starts off with Aaron, I'm sorry, with Miriam, his sister, passing away. And then this is where we see Moses gets frustrated and angry with the Israelites for wishing they were back in Egypt dead. And he strikes the rock. And so then Aaron and Moses receive the consequence that they cannot enter into the promised land. At the end of chapter 20, you see that Aaron goes on top of the mountain and he dies. And Moses knows that he's gonna be next. So the death is very personal. John mentioned the past 10 years and just the difference we've seen, or it felt like we've seen in our culture. And I'm gonna take it to a personal level for our family. I'm gonna zoom in to the past five to six years. This is a family picture at a gathering in 2019. And not everyone that I'm gonna mention is in this picture, but four of them are. There's been lots of death in our family, specifically on John's side. We've lost seven in these past few years. It started with his Aunt Pat in 2018, and then his cousin Tana to cancer in 2019. And if you know any funny stories, it probably has Aunt Dot in it. She passed away in October of 2020 and just weeks later John's mom passed away in October. Uncle Jack, who's also pictured in there, that's Donna Lou's brother, he passed away in March of 2022. his sister Jenny to cancer in September 2022, and then we're coming up on a year of losing his dad at the end of February of 2024. It wasn't until I was 40 years old, and to give you an idea, I'm 44, that I experienced being at someone's deathbed and seeing what's known as Shane Stokes breathing. And this usually means that death is imminent. It's where breathing is not rhythmic. There's very shallow breaths. Then there's no breathing. And then there's this big gasping for air. It was with John's mom that I witnessed that. And since then, I meant to say it reminds me in Psalm 90 how it says we finished our years like a sigh. But since then, I've witnessed it three more times with my grandfather, with his sister Jenny, and then with Pastor Petters. Needless to say, our foundation has been rocked a little. And as John mentioned that these are the very people who are very present in our life that gives us a lot of meaning, a lot of stability, a lot of identity of just why we do the things we do and eat the way we eat and talk the way we talk. So we've been carrying around a huge loss. What does this have to do with Ecclesiastes? Ecclesiastes chapter 7 says, the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. It's better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man. And the living, you and me, we take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be happy. Meaning like when the faith is sad, it makes us contemplate and be deep in thought, and it makes us happy because hopefully we're growing in wisdom as we see the brevity of life. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning. We have been a house of mourning. And I hope that through that, we've been growing in wisdom. So in response to the brevity of life, Going back to Psalms chapter 90, it starts off where Moses is just talking about the brevity of life and you see it comes down to the central point in verse 12. It says, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Teach us that the sands of time are sinking, so we may live well. As Casting Crowns says in their song, Only Jesus, all the kingdoms built, all the trophies won will crumble into dust when it is said and done. Because all that really mattered, did I live the truth to the ones I love? Was my life the proof that there is only one? whose name will last forever. If you continue on with Psalms chapter 90, you see that he continues with a prayer. So that's his response. It starts off with, teach us to number our days, that we may have a heart of wisdom. He goes on to say, oh, satisfy us in the morning right now. Satisfy us with your loving kindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Let your work appear to your servants and your majesty to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands. So we're asking God, to satisfy us as we're here on earth to make us joyful and glad that the work that he has for us to do for his kingdom would be made known to us and that his glory would be revealed to our children and that his grace and favor would be upon us and that he would establish everything that we do for him that he would build it up And why? Because we know the best is yet to come. As John mentioned, I would love to tell you Jenny gave me this, but she didn't. But I feel like this was her life, and we all knew it. The best is yet to come. So when I saw this, I had to buy it in memory of her. The ladies on Tuesday are studying Andrew Brunson. Pastor Joel mentioned it on Sunday. And one phrase that he used recently was that we are to live with eternal eyes. To see beyond the temporal and beyond the sun to him. So I started off like Eeyore with a very pessimistic idea. And you can read Ecclesiastes and it can seem very pessimistic. where it said, the sands of time are sinking, like Eeyore might say. But there's a hymn that was written in 1857. It's actually a poem. And there's, I forget how many, maybe 18 verses or something. But it's called The Sands of Time Are Sinking from the first phrase. And it's actually full of optimism and joy. Because the very next phrase says, the dawn of heaven breaks, the summer morn I've sighed for, the fair sweet morn awakes. Dark, dark has been the midnight, but day spring is at hand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. The king there in his beauty without a veil is seen. It were a well-spent journey, though trials lay between. The lamb with his fair army on Zion's mountain stands, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. O Christ, he is the fountain, the deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted, more deep I'll drink above. There to an ocean fullness his mercy doth expand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. Just like the Israelites, we're just passing through. We're Sojourners, we're pilgrims. We're pilgrims here on earth, but we have good news. Dayspring is at hand. The promised land is on the other side. So I'll leave you with this. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, Yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So I encourage you, to enter a house of mourning, attend a funeral, and may it help you grow in wisdom, seeing the brevity of life, and to live with eternal eyes, and to know that the best is yet to come. So we get to the end of this book that's filled with cynicism and pessimism, and I realize why Zach thought I was well qualified to discuss such a book. Everywhere in this book refers to God as Elohim, which is the mighty creator, but never Yahweh, is the God who enters into a covenant relationship with man. So most people will acknowledge the existence of God, but few have a relationship with Him. Anyone under the sun can know that there is a God, but few have a saving faith. CS Lewis has a quote that says, if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. So maybe it's okay that the world loses its luster as you get older. Things don't look as bright and shiny and you don't find the joy that you once did when you're young. But it helps us to realize that the best really is yet to come. We have so much that we can look forward to in heaven. I mean, there's no age, no death, no pain, no mourning. You know, God's storing up an inheritance for us. Our faith will be sight. But when your body isn't that old, a new one doesn't sound as special, you know? So I know that we really have to get above the sun to find out what life is about, and ultimately that we can find that meaning by first entering into that covenant relationship with Yahweh, but then overflowing it to others. So then we have the teacher kind of ends with this final summary of just fear God and keep his commandments. So when you're choosing your goals and trying to figure out what are the right goals to achieve and what to focus on and persevere on, the preeminent thing should be to fear God first and seek that and keep his commandments. So that's what I've got. Yeah, that was great. That is a lot of wisdom from two people who have walked with God for a long time and seen a lot of things. So we'll close out. We got five minutes left by way of application. My encouragement is going to be to see if I can get this PowerPoint right. There we go. Take some time this week. Read through Ecclesiastes or listen through it. Bar the headset. Bar the headset is up for rent. Takes like 30 minutes, not a super long time. Think about some of these main themes. Consider your life in light of eternity. We'll skip that for now and we'll close with this. Think about a time that you've been let down. Like your expectations were so high and then they were dashed. I think we all can think of something whether the stakes are big. or small, and you face a little bit of hardship. And hardship has this way of exposing your core beliefs, you know, what you feel inside, who you are as a person, what you believe. And Ecclesiastes, I think, can be a hard book because of its painfully true commentary. on life and how life is under the sun. The narrator's gonna say at the end, man, it's like goads, it's like nails, this kind of stuff hurts. And we're exposed to scripture, we've got a couple of options. A few ways that we can respond. Way number one, you can look at A Hard Truth, a book like Ecclesiastes, and you can say, don't really like what it says. I'm gonna maybe change, maybe soften it, water it down, make it more palatable. It's not a good option. I think we see a lot of people do stuff with that with some of these more challenging passages, challenging books. Option number two, a much better option, is to look at scripture and say, I'm probably the one with the problem. My expectations are off. I need to conform my life to God and his word. And then option number three, it kind of goes along with option one. Some people look at a hard passage and say, I don't see life this way. I'm just going to walk away from the faith. I'm going to choose not to believe this stuff. And I think in the last decade or so, 15 years, I don't know, I feel like I've been hearing a lot more of people deconstructing their faith. It's been this theme, and I think people deconstruct their faith a lot of the time, at least when their expectations aren't met. They're living a life maybe to the best of their ability, and they're hoping for Proverbs. but they're experiencing Ecclesiastes. And so the author of Ecclesiastes does this painful work with the goad, like with nails, and does some deconstructing. But what he does with his deconstructing is he doesn't throw God out the window, because God's not the problem. We're the problem. When we look for happiness on this earth, sometimes that's the problem. And this deconstruction is hard, but it leaves us in a place where we can actually look out and hope for something better than a life under the sun, see good news for what good news is. So think to yourself, maybe later today, maybe this week, you know, what do you expect of God when you think of a paradox, a frustration, Hevel, in this life? Because things don't work out like they should, at least to our, you know, our perspective, the wicked prosper, good people suffer, good people die young, good people get sick, people lose their jobs, life can be very perplexing. And so I'm going to close out with this quote. This quote is really good. It's from Derek Kidner. I recommended his commentary for Proverbs. He's got an awesome little commentary on Ecclesiastes. But I think he says it well. And he talks about the pessimism or the hardness or the challenges with this book and this is what he says about these challenges, about this hardship of Ecclesiastes. He says this is exactly what the writer intends. He is demolishing to build. The searching questions he has asked are those that life itself puts to us if we'll only listen. He can afford to ask them because in the final chapters he has good news for us. Once we can stop pretending that what is mortal is enough for us, who have been given a capacity for the eternal. The function of Ecclesiastes is to bring us to the point where we begin to fear the futility of life. And so it is, if everything is dying, we face the appalling inference that nothing has meaning. Nothing matters under the sun. It's then that we can hear, as the good news which it is, that everything matters. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. That is how the book will end. On this rock, we can be destroyed. But it's rock, not quicksand. There is the chance to build. And so this book kind of balances out Proverbs. It's more reflective, but very pragmatic and practical, and encourages us to look for that true meaning in life outside of under the sun. It does say if you're wise, you're going to take advantage of opportunities that God gives you. You will enjoy life. in a fallen world, but we're also called to live soberly in the knowledge of the fear of our Creator, because we're going to give an account to Him in the end and how we live, even when life and its challenges is frustrating and seems like a paradox. So that's Ecclesiastes. Next week we are on to Job. Let's close out with prayer. Heavenly Father, Thank you for the whole counsel of God, for all of the scripture, for the encouraging stuff, for the discouraging stuff. We need to be taken down a notch. We need to see life for what it really is, and life apart from you is a tough life that leaves us hopeless. It's meaningless. It's futile. It's frustrating. We thank you that that's not where life ends, but that there is a Redeemer, or that you have made a way to make everything new. We thank you for a church body hearing from others who are very, very wise, who can speak to some of these things personally. It's one thing to know. It's another thing to have lived experience, and we would do well to pay attention, take advantage of what we have. I pray as we turn to worship, we would sing about this good news, Lord, that we have in your Savior, Jesus Christ, something that we can look forward to, we can tell others about, we can worship you for, and live life in the light of eternity. I pray for all of this in your name. Amen. Bye.