So we continue today through the book of Ecclesiastes. We're gonna come to Ecclesiastes chapter four. This series is living with the end in mind. And today's sermon is the more things change. So I lived, Tish and I lived in a large city before moving to Charlotte. We lived in a suburb of Chicago. Chicago's huge, but has a lot of little small suburbs. And we lived in a small one out there, and they did things like parades and picnics on holidays like July 4th. There's a small city in Minnesota, Lakeville, Minnesota, that just a population of about 60,000. They hold an annual celebration. Here's from this summer. Emotions ran really high in 2015 when the winner, 10-month-old Berkeley Bailey was disqualified. Again, this is the baby crawl-a-thon. This is coming from the local paper there, the The Sun this week, an article in 2015. But the mom disputed it. The mom disputed that the baby had been unfairly qualified from the race. See, the organizers huddled soon after this baby crossed the finish line. and stripped her of her first title of her young life. They ruled that the baby unfairly had pulled herself on her left side and raised her arm up in the air. And they explained to this newspaper that the rules were clearly established to make a fair competition, a level for everyone, and it was that you had to crawl on your hands and knees. And the mom protested that these were unfair rules, that this was just the way, you know, some babies are unique in how they crawl. And she said, that's the only way we've ever seen our baby crawl. That's all she's ever done. And the doctor even told us it was a crawl. Now, the representative raised the issue that The previous year, in 2014, there was a baby who was disqualified who crawled like a bear on his hands and feet. And he finished the race first, but he was also disqualified because, quote, when you do that, you're a speedster. So... Fortunately, as far as we know, since then, no babies have been disqualified for crawling illegitimately. Now, some competition is fun and funny, but other competition can be very damaging. And we're going to see that in our passage today in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. So I invite you, your attention to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. verses, we'll do all the verses in this chapter. Let me set the context of this before we actually go through the passage. At the end of Ecclesiastes 3, the teacher. Now the teacher, if you're new in this series, the teacher is the speaker who is giving most of Ecclesiastes. There's a narrator who gives us the opening and a conclusion, but most of Ecclesiastes is musings of the teacher. At the end of chapter 3, this teacher had had spoken with very strong emotions about oppression. He looked around and saw oppression in his world. Now this chapter is going to continue talking about oppression and it's going to add more observations about things that are difficult in a broken world. So I invite you to stand with me. as we read God's Word. We're reading from the Christian Standard Bible. There are many great Bible translations, ESV, NIV, CSB that we're reading from. We're using CSB in this series. So let's read God's Word again. I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who were oppressed. They have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them. They have no one to comfort them. So I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive. But better than either of them is the one who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one person's jealousy of another. This too is futile in a pursuit of the wind. The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind. Again, I saw futility under the sun. There's a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. Who am I struggling for, he asked, and depriving myself of good things. This too is futile and a miserable task. Two are better than one. because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up. But pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm. But how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. This too is futile in a pursuit of the wind. This is the Word of God. You can be seated. Now this is a tough chapter. Mainly because it talks about things that are somewhat depressing on the surface. But again, let's understand where we are in context. Let's understand what's happening here. The teacher is observing life. And he's observing life under the sun. Life on this plane, and we must keep that in mind as we walk through it. And he keeps seeing problems, and he keeps talking about problems. He observes problems, and he calls them out. So the first problem, there are four of them, and they're related. They can be different, but they just flow in and out with each other. The first problem we see in the first three verses is oppression. And let's look at those again. Look what he said. Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed. They have no one to comfort them. Powers with those who oppress them, they have no one to comfort them. So the teacher's observing. Notice the first words there in the text. Again, I observed. He's looking around and he's seeing situations where people are being oppressed, where powerful people are oppressing weak people and vulnerable people. Now, Notice the heading there, four constant problems in a fallen world. I might use the word fallen at times, I might use the word broken. Fallen refers to the fact that God created a perfect world. He put Adam and Eve in a perfect environment, and he gave them all kind of fruit and food to eat and said you can, but there's only one in the center of the garden that you can't eat, and we all know the one they chose to eat was that one. They sinned, they disobeyed, and then humanity fell. because of disobedience to God. Adam was our first father, and we fell into sin, and curse, God cursed the ground, and the world has lived under the curse, constant problems in a fallen world. This writer, long after creation, is seeing, wow, look how messed up the world really is. I see a lot of oppression. So what was his response? Verse two. So I commended the dead who've already died more than the living who are still alive. You know, it's like, they don't have to think about that anymore. They don't have to see it anymore. But better than either of them is the one who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. 23 times in Ecclesiastes, the writer uses this comparison, better than. But this is a heavy comparison. I was joining my words together. The reason why it was heavy is because it's oppression and it's depressing what he's seeing. And he's saying it's better to have died or never even to have lived because of the oppression that's out there. Now, because a statement like that is found in the Bible, does it mean that that's God's Value that's God's view. Does God want us? to be Depressed and to despair of life and and look around and say there's so much oppression, you know It's better not to have ever even lived ever even born or to have already died So this is one of those situations we've come across them already in Ecclesiastes and we'll come across more in that we have to understand what kind of literature this is. This is God's Word. It is inspired. Every bit of God's Word is true in what it affirms. But there's different types of literature, and this is wisdom literature. And sometimes in wisdom literature, you have a foil. You have somebody spouting out some wisdom that you have to evaluate. And you say, wait a minute, does that match the rest of God's wisdom? For example, and I've probably mentioned this before, there's a book in the Old Testament, Job, and Job suffered a lot. And Job had friends who came and spoke to him and they gave him their wisdom, right? But, and the Bible recorded it, because God wanted us to know what was being said to Job. But we don't take everything that Job's friend said as gospel, as right, as that's why Job was suffering. It's a foil, it's put there to make us think. It's part of God's word, but it doesn't necessarily reflect God's values in that moment. And really, honestly, philosophically, if you look at the world only from a horizontal plane, you might reach that same conclusion. Why live? It's so messed up. And we have to look at context, we have to look at the rest of Scripture when we deal with, okay, this is a foil and these verses are a foil, no doubt. So we look at context, we look at the rest of Scripture. Does the rest of Scripture teach that it's better never to have lived? Absolutely not. Jesus said, I have come to give them life and give it more abundantly. Oppression is real, but this isn't what God is saying our response should be. That's what this writer's response was. Secondly, moves right into another problem as he's observing and that problem is jealousy. Verses four to six. Now already, it's interesting that work has been commended three times. Three times he's already said that work is good, it's from God, it's something to enjoy, like all the rest of God's gifts, but now the fallen world has affected work. It has affected everything about us. God created work, work is from God. Genesis two, God put Adam in the garden to work it and tend it. He gave work, work is from God. But yet after the fall, now things change. And it's negatively impacted and we're gonna see in these next few verses some opposites. First, we're gonna see in verse four, a person who has so much ambition, Lack of contentment and is motivated by unhealthy comparison and competition. I think this person definitely would have been in the baby crawl-thon race, they'd have been complaining. Verse four, I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one's jealousy of another. This too is futile. and in pursuit of the wind. He looked around, why are people working so hard? Why are they trying to make money? Why are they trying to get ahead? Well, they wanna, they're jealous of other people, right? They wanna have more than other people. They wanna do better than other people. It all comes from jealousy, he says. Years ago, There was an article in Newsweek magazine on life in Washington, D.C. And it said this, ambition is the insatiable beast that most often demands to be fed in this town. The reward in the transaction is frequently not currency at all, but power, prerequisites, and ego massage. For this, there are people who will sell out almost anything, including their self-respect and the well-being of thousands of others. And you know, that's not only true in Washington, D.C. That's true in a lot of work environments, especially a lot of corporate environments. So he's observing that, he's observing in his setting that there's a lot of competition and unhealthy competition. Work is good and doing an excellent job is good, but the motive behind it, he sees the wrong motive. The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. So one over here is racing to get ahead of everybody because they want to compete with others and other ones just like I'm lazy and that's foolish. But contentment does exist and can exist and it does not require being the wealthiest person on the block. Look at verse 6. Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind. We know that God himself established the model of rest when he created the world, right? He created the world in six days. And what did he do on the seventh day? He rested. And he modeled that for us. Now, related to this jealousy, he just keeps going. There's another issue that I think is primarily related to work. It's true of any broken environment. But with work, let's talk about loneliness in the next few verses. Again, I saw futility under the sun. There's a person without a companion, without even a son or a brother. And though there's no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. Who am I struggling for, he asked, and depriving myself of good things. This too is futile and a miserable task. Now, in the original language of the Old Testament, verse eight reads, there is one and there's not a second. There is one and there's not a second. Loneliness. He's observing a person who works so hard, who focuses so much on work, that he doesn't have time for relationships. That it's all about work. It's all about success. It's all about achieving. And they end up lonely. You might say that their closest companion is money. And then the writer gives us some examples of places and ways in which solitary existence is inferior to companionship. The first one is when you need help. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if he either falls, his companion can lift him up. But pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. If you fall down and you're by yourself, you're in trouble. But if somebody else is there, it's great. They can help you. And that's one time when we, when having a companion is certainly better. The second example is when you need warmth. Verse 11. Also, if, if two lie down together, they can keep warm, but how can one person keep warm alone? If someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." Now, in short, as we think about both of these last two sections, work is good and designed by God, but it can become soul-destroying, and it can become Isolating. Even today, how many people think or have said, man, my company is squeezing everything out of me. Work can be soul destroying. It can be isolating. It can lead to loneliness. And now in verses 13 to 16, there's another problem. that's mentioned as part of a fallen world. I call it political turnover. Now, if you've attended Harvest for any length of time, you know that we preach the Bible and we focus on Christ and making disciples everywhere. We're wanting to make disciples who make disciples. We do not ever focus on partisan politics, okay? So don't worry, don't get nervous at this point. But the scenario that is talked about here resembles politics in one sense. It's funny, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to watch the debate this past week. I mean, it was OK in my schedule, but I wasn't sure I was going to be able to watch it. But I watched it, and I was discussing it with my wife afterwards. And I was talking about one of the candidates saying, you know, if they would have just done this or said this or that, she just kind of laughed. And she looked at me, and she said, honey, why don't you just run for president? That's about as political as we're going to get here, okay? But the situation that comes up here in verses 13 to 16 resembles something in our country, regardless of who's running. I mean, this would be true now, this would be true 10 years ago, 50 years ago, or 50 years in the future if the Lord tarries. Now their system of government in that day was much different, right? It wasn't a democracy. There were no elections. There weren't people voting because there was a king. But notice what the teacher observes about those who had authority. Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings. For he came from prison to be king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who move about under the sun follow a second youth who succeeds him. There's no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile. and a pursuit of the wind." Now think about what the teacher observed here. Here's humble, exalted, maybe popular, unpopular. And then what about, oh, let's get another one. Let's get a different one. Let's get a successor. What about their successor? The younger one came along behind, right? Verse 15, follow a second youth who succeeds him and What happens? That ruler ends up just as unpopular. Similar things happen today. If you live long enough, you will see it. Politically, one regime follows another one. And they all promise success, and they all promise solutions to our deepest problems. They spend vast amount of money trying to solve what they consider to be most important, the wrongs in society. But there's no lasting success. There's no permanent solution that political leaders are gonna be able to enact, right? We all know the only one who can bring lasting solution, and he doesn't live here. Oppression, jealousy, loneliness, fleeting political popularity. That's why I titled this sermon, The More Things Change. Think about those things. And you know the saying, right? Finish it with me. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The same issues that this teacher observed in Ecclesiastes 4 are true in our society today. in 2024. It's a fallen, broken world. And I want to suggest four ways to respond. And the four ways that I'm going to suggest respond correspond directly with these four things. And to do this, we're going to have to go beyond Ecclesiastes. Right? So Ecclesiastes 4 has laid out the issues. Here's what I see. I see oppression. I see jealousy. I see loneliness. I see political turnover. And the writer of Ecclesiastes doesn't give us the answers in chapter 4 to that. We have to wait to the end of the book. But since We're only going through chapter 4 today and you don't want to stay here to 3.30 this afternoon. We're going to go beyond it and we're going to address each one of these from scripture. So how should we respond to our broken world, right? He saw a fallen broken world. We live in a fallen broken world. Hopefully it's not a big leap for you to see, man, I can see a lot of these things in our world too. So first of all, adopt God's perspective on oppression and take action. It's definitely not God's will for you to despair of life because there are oppressive situations in our society and in our world. That's a purely secular approach. That's looking at life under the sun. That's not looking at God's view on those things. God cares about people that are oppressed. Psalm 103, six says, the Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Many times God warned his people about that. His people that he raised up, Israel in the Old Testament, he warned them about how they treated those who were most vulnerable. Here's just a few sample passages. Leviticus 19.15, do not act unjustly when deciding a case. Do not be partial to the poor or give preference to the rich. Judge your neighbor fairly. Or Deuteronomy 24, do not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your Israelite brothers or one of the resident aliens in a town in your land. You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be held guilty. How about the prophets? The prophets talk about it a lot. If you read the Old Testament prophets, they talk about injustice. They talk about oppression. Zechariah 7, verse 8, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. The Lord of armies says this, make fair decisions, show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another. but they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder. They closed their ears so they could not hear. They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of armies had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore, intense anger came from the Lord of armies. I wanna challenge you today to think about people in our world and our society that may be oppressed. And what should you do about it? Pray about it. Think about it. Brainstorm with others. We can't just ignore it. It's easy to ignore. I view on work and money. Well, what is God's view? Well, Colossians chapter 3, not talking about primarily work necessarily, but it says whatever you do, Do it from the heart as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. So work for the glory of God. Tomorrow morning, whether your work is at home in your office or with your children or you drive to an office or get on a plane and go somewhere, the work that you are doing, do it for the Lord. Do it for the glory of God. Don't do it to compete with others. Do it for the glory of God, and work hard. Proverbs 6 says, go to the ant. You slacker, observe its ways and become wise. Without leader, administrator, or ruler, it prepares its provisions in summer. It gathers its food during harvest. How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep? a little sleep, a little somber, a little folding of the arms to rest, and your poverty will come like a robber, your need like a bandit." So work for the glory of God and work hard, but be content with what you have. Proverbs 14, 30, a tranquil heart is life to the body. But jealousy is rottenness to the bones. Proverbs 15, 16, and 17, better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred. One of the series we just finished a little while ago was the parables of Jesus. We talked through the parables of Jesus. And those of you that were here for it, if you've read any of the parables of Jesus, you know that money is a big issue that comes up over and over again. And money is something that God gives us to be good stewards of and to use, but not for money to capture us or drive us or become our identity or our focus. God's view is to live in contentment with what we have, to learn to become a giver, and not a getter. I think of Paul, the apostle, in Acts, when he was describing his work, and he talked about how hard he worked, and we know Paul worked really, really hard, but he said, I learned that what the Lord Jesus said, it's better to give than to receive. Paul modeled hard work, but he modeled generosity. We need to develop, I think, a better pace of life. Even Christians sometimes live very frenetic, very hectic, very restless or rest-deprived lives. And God himself modeled, as I mentioned earlier, he modeled work but rest. Andy Crouch in the TechWise family says that one in seven adults, or only one in seven adults, that's 14% set aside a day a week for rest. And on that one day a week, what do they do? Mostly they work. One in five of this small group say they don't do any work at all. So you got one in seven saying, okay, this is my day of rest, but only one in five of that group saying they don't do any work. Even fewer Americans commit time to daily time alone, 16%, or with God, 21%. or to activities that recharge them, 12%. Only 12% of American adults say they intentionally set aside a time of day when they don't use electronic devices. So can we step back? and look at Ecclesiastes and say, we see this competition and we see this pace and this jealousy and this loneliness, and can we see that maybe we've gotten sucked into a way of living that doesn't build in true Sabbath the way God wants for us? Third, I wanna encourage you to live and make disciples in community. live and make disciples in community. God created us for community, not for isolation. Think of Ruth and Naomi. Think of David and Jonathan. Think of Jesus and his disciples. Think of Paul and Timothy. There's an African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. Remember how effectively this happened in the early church? This is hard for us because we live in America, we live in the West, we live in an individualized society, and we think it's all about us as individuals. But look how the early church In Acts 2, after a day of Pentecost, Peter preaches, refers to the fellowship, to breaking bread together, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were performed through the apostles. Now, all the believers were together. and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Well, there's one more that I think's a valid response as we look at and think about leaders who come and go and some are popular and some are not. What do we do? We all know in America we're in a political season. Most of us will probably be glad when it's over. Got four pieces of mail yesterday in my mailbox. One of them was a bill. Two of them were from one candidate and one was from the other candidate. What do we do? Pray for political leaders. Don't put your hope in them. Put your hope in and seek God's kingdom. Paul told us this in 1 Timothy chapter two. First of all then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority, so we may lead a tranquil for them. God calls us to do this. Verse three, this is good. And pleased is God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. This is where our hope is. in God's kingdom. This is what we're called to do, to seek God's kingdom. One commentator says it this way, William Barak, the indelible sinful nature of fallen mankind prevents the success of setting up the kingdom of God apart from the return of Jesus Christ. Ideal social justice must await the righteous one himself. So we work against oppression. We work to do justice. We work to make disciples. We live in community together. We try to make an impact on the world, but we realize We can't bring about God's kingdom ourself, and it's certainly not gonna help in the political arena. What do we do? We do what Jesus told us to do in Matthew chapter six. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Life under the sun apart from God is futile. I mean, we see that all through Ecclesiastes. So what do we do? Seek God's kingdom first. Be driven to serve God, to live for God. Maybe you're religious, maybe you're not religious, but you're wondering, what is all this about? We're not talking about religion today. We're not talking about just joining a church or turning over a new leaf. We want you to realize that there's no human answers to life that are going to take us all the way through eternity. There is an answer to eternity, and it comes through Jesus Christ, who lived as a perfect son of God, who died, who paid for our sins on the cross, who was buried, who rose again, and is coming back to set up his perfect kingdom. Open your heart to Him, and if you know Him, you're already His follower. Focus on these things. Every year, there are about 1,500 people who set out to walk the Appalachian Trail. It's over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. And only about 10% of the people who start out complete it. We've actually had one of our harvesters, Dave Garrett, about 20 years ago, who did complete it. I chatted with Dave this morning, actually, on the way here. One of the reasons that people drop out is because they haven't learned to travel light. They carry too much stuff. And I read about this man who started on the journey, and he had his backpack loaded and overloaded with all kind of things. He had an audio player with bird calls. He had an air pistol to scare away the varmints. He had a camera, a radio, alarm clock, and at his first stop, he met an experienced hiker who said, wait a minute, you got to get rid of some of those things. So he started getting rid of them. They weighed them on the scale. He said, do you really want to carry this with you for the next 2,000 miles? I asked Dave about it, and Dave said, yeah. He said, I even, my toothbrush, I started with a toothbrush, and I cut it in half. so it'd be less weight, you know. This person I read about discovered that his biggest problem was an accumulation of little things. He didn't need half of what was in his first aid kit or that extra tube of toothpaste. His heavy multi-tool knife was replaced with one that only weighed one ounce. He sent home 26 pounds of unnecessary weight. And the writer who was telling that story asked these questions, and I close with these. How many of us are trying to walk the trail of faith in Christ weighed down by an accumulation of things? Some of these might be an accumulation of possessions or worldly habits, expensive hobbies or sins, such as anger, bitterness, grudges, or lust. Instead of enjoying the beauty of life with Jesus, we complain about how hard it is to follow him. What do you need to unload today? And I ask you that question. Do you need to unload jealousy, or unhealthy competition, or political allegiances that are stronger than allegiances to the kingdom of God? Let's seek God's kingdom first. Will you bow your heads, please?