Catching Smoke: Living Life Under the Sun Part 2

We look above the sun. Listen, I am thrilled to continue our brand new sermon series in Ecclesiastes.

We started last week. Let me ask you all this. How many of you are figure it out people?

A couple of hands shot right up. Think about it now. How many of you are figure it out people?

How many of your spouses would say, yeah, he or she is a figure it out person? You're not going to call somebody to fix it for you.

You're going to figure it out. That's what you're going to do. You don't need directions. You don't need an instructions manual.

You definitely don't need GPS telling you where to go. You know the way there.

I was telling my son recently about the Rand McNally Atlas maps.

I used to be the navigator. That was fun. We were traveling all over America.

It's just different back then, you know? Missed exits happened a whole lot more, I think.

Wait, that was the one? Well, you got to tell me sooner.

All right. Figure it out people, man. You don't need directions. You don't need GPS.

You definitely don't need somebody standing over your shoulder telling you how to do something.

You'll figure it out. And truthfully, that's not always a bad thing.

You learn from that. You gain experience. You pick up wisdom from that.

You know how stuff works because you've lived a little.

Most of us have figured out a lot about different things.

Maybe you're somebody who knows a little bit about a lot of things.

But if you live long enough, you eventually figure something else out, too.

And that is this.

Figuring it out doesn't fix it.

It's the truth of it.

You can figure it out.

But that doesn't mean it's fixed.

What do we mean?

You can know exactly what's wrong.

You can understand why it's happening, where it went wrong.

You might even have a pretty good idea of what should be done.

But still, nothing changes.

It might be in the lives of those around you.

It might be in your own heart.

Marriage is still strained.

The anxiety is still there.

The diagnosis doesn't go away.

The family dynamic is still broken.

The situation at work hasn't improved.

And those are the problems that mess with us the most, aren't they?

Not the ones we can't figure out.

The ones we can figure out but can't fix.

So, this is where the teacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes,

picks up in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

So, if you would take your Bibles and turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

We're going to read from verses 12 down through verse 17.

These are the problems that can keep us up at night.

The ones that bring us fear, anxiety, depression.

Somewhere along the way, we realize that wisdom by itself is not the solution.

It can't be.

Now, don't hear what I'm not saying.

As you're turning to Ecclesiastes 2, understand that wisdom matters.

The Bible makes it very clear.

And life itself would make it very clear that wisdom matters.

The Bible values matter.

Wisdom.

Proverbs.

If we accept Solomon, King Solomon, as the writer of Ecclesiastes,

we also understand that he wrote Proverbs.

And in the Proverbs, we see admonishments toward wisdom over and over again.

Particularly in Proverbs 4, he's teaching his son, wisdom matters so much.

Make it be your goal.

Pursue it.

And you realize that Solomon did do that.

He asked God for wisdom.

God granted it to him.

Possibly more than anyone else in his time.

More than anyone else in recorded history, it's possible that Solomon gained wisdom from God.

And so he's teaching his son in Proverbs, hey, wisdom's a big deal.

It'll protect you.

It'll guide you.

It'll look out for you.

It'll keep you from stumbling.

It'll help you be successful in your life.

Just look at me, son.

Look at me.

I have been wise.

And look at all I've accomplished.

And then you get to Ecclesiastes.

And we got a very different picture from Solomon on the subject of wisdom.

So let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2 as we pick up our series, Catching Smoke.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

How do we live this life under the sun?

Verse 12.

So I decided, the teacher is speaking, he's writing here, and he says, I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness.

For who can do this better than I, the king?

I thought, wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

Obviously, right?

Verse 14.

Verse 14.

For the wise can see where they're going, but fools walk in the dark.

Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate.

Both will die.

So I said to myself, since I will end up the same as the fool, what's the value of all my wisdom?

This is all so meaningless.

Anybody ever been there?

You're surrounded by something that you've pursued.

You've gone after it.

You've achieved it.

You've gained it.

You've got it.

You see it every day.

And at some point, you look at it and say, what good did this really do me?

It's all pretty meaningless, isn't it?

That's what we're getting from Solomon.

Y'all, I told you last week, this is a weird book of the Bible.

It's different than most of them.

But it's so important.

It's so crucial.

It's not what we're used to when we're reading the scriptures.

But we can gain so much from it.

Let's pick it up in verse 16.

For the wise and the foolish both die.

The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool.

In the days to come, both will be forgotten.

In my Wednesday night, Pastor's Life group, they got a little sneak peek of this.

And toward the end of it, we just touched a little bit on, as we go back and dig a little

deeper into the text of the sermon on Sundays.

We dug into, what does Solomon mean?

This is all so meaningless.

We started looking at the different experiences that you have in life and how you want them

and you think they're great and then you taste them.

And it's like, yeah, well, what's the next thing?

On to the next thing.

So verse 17.

After he realizes this, he says, I came to hate life.

Because everything done here under the sun is so troubling.

Everything is meaningless.

Like chasing the wind.

Something you can never catch.

Like trying to catch smoke in your hand.

So, where does this leave us?

Let's look at number one.

What can we draw from this?

What are some main truths that we can take away from this unsettling passage in Ecclesiastes 2?

Number one, wisdom can explain life, but it can't fix it.

Wisdom can explain life, but it can't fix it.

Look back at verse 14.

The wise can see where they're going, but fools walk in the dark.

So I saw the wise and the foolish share the same fate.

Fools don't know what's coming next.

They miss the life lessons.

They don't learn the moral of the story.

They just blindly go through their life trying to appease their own desires, trying to get what they want,

trying to make themselves feel better, more comfortable.

And they miss so much along the way that wisdom can teach them.

But even the wise eventually share the same fate as the foolish.

So they may have understood far more along the way.

They may have learned valuable lessons, but the value in the end doesn't come from wisdom.

It doesn't come from the learning.

So the teacher speaks as someone who has reached the pinnacle, the ceiling of wisdom.

He's gotten the wisdom part down.

God gave it to him.

This is not earthly wisdom.

This isn't the wisdom that the world considers wise, but it's actually foolishness.

This wisdom came from God.

This is real, genuine, valuable wisdom from God.

And Solomon had it in excess.

And he gets to the end of his life and he says,

man, it was all pretty meaningless.

Didn't really help me all that much.

Why?

Why is that?

He had all the lived experience.

He had all the broad knowledge.

He had deep insights.

You can look at the ancient text, the wisdom of Solomon,

and you can see all the records of Solomon's righteous judgment.

Of course, we've got the famous one with the two women fighting over the baby.

And Solomon says, okay, I'll cut the baby in half.

And each of you can take half if we can't dispute over whose baby this is.

And of course, the real mother said, no, no, no, don't do that.

She can have it.

And then he realized it was hers and awarded the baby to her.

Wisdom was something that Solomon knew.

The kind of wisdom that people assume should make life work.

It should make you highly successful.

But Ecclesiastes is honest enough to say, the teacher teaches us that wisdom alone cannot save us.

There's a British corporate coach named Rashid Ogunlaru.

And he says it this way, intelligence is overrated.

Wisdom is underapplied.

Intelligence is overrated.

And wisdom is underapplied.

I thought that was a very appropriate and applicable sentiment to share with you in our study of Ecclesiastes 2 this morning.

Because intelligence just means gaining more information.

But it's what you, what?

Do with that information that matters.

And wisdom can be gained but not used.

Not utilized.

Not applied to our lives.

How many of us know a thing or two about life?

And how many of us don't follow those things that we know all the time?

Have you ever heard the phrase, well, I knew better?

Or I should have known better.

Of course you did.

That means wisdom not applied.

And I think this is where Solomon found himself.

And I almost wonder if he overstated a little bit in Proverbs when he said, wisdom's going to do it, man.

Wisdom's going to go before you.

It's going to do, basically, the sentiment, he didn't put it in these words,

but the sentiment that you could glean from it is, wisdom's going to do all the work.

You just hang on to wisdom.

And the truth is, wisdom can only get you so far.

So, the teacher tells us that as his wisdom increased, so did his sorrow.

Why would that be the case?

As I got wiser, I got sadder.

I got more sorrowful.

Why?

Because wisdom helps you see what's broken.

It helps you see what's broken in the world around you,

and it helps you see what's broken in your own heart,

in your own soul, in your own mind,

in your own relationships, in you.

Wisdom helps you see yourself more clearly,

but it doesn't always give you the power to heal it.

Wisdom explains why relationships fall apart.

Wisdom explains why injustice persists.

Wisdom explains why systems fail.

Wisdom reveals why life is unfair.

And I hate to say that to some of the younger people in the room.

Man, life's just not fair.

Look, you're going to learn it at some point.

That's why Jesus is so great, because he is.

That's why he stands apart from everybody else,

because he's different than this broken world around us.

So, wisdom can reveal the brokenness,

but it can't help you heal it.

So, Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 and 29.

Matthew 11:28

This is where Jesus steps into the gap.

Ecclesiastes needs some help here,

and it points us ahead to Jesus.

Jesus never criticizes wisdom,

but he refuses to make it the solution.

He doesn't say, figure it out.

He doesn't say, learn more.

He doesn't say, become more wise.

You will become more wise the longer you spend with the Holy Spirit,

the longer you spend in the Word of God,

the longer you spend around those who have learned wisdom from God and applied it.

You will become more wise.

But Jesus says, this is not the end goal.

This is not what you should be chasing.

You should be chasing me.

He says, come to me.

The invitation is to me.

He says, come to me, all of you who are weary,

and carry heavy burdens.

Maybe you've learned a little bit.

Maybe it's increased your sorrow.

Maybe you've realized the truth about the world around you

and the truth about yourself.

And he says, come to me.

Carry those heavy burdens over here to me and give them to me.

I will give you rest.

He said, trade those heavy burdens for my burden, for my yoke.

It's light.

It's easy comparatively.

Trust me.

Let me teach you because I'm humble and I'm gentle at heart,

and you'll find rest for your souls.

Wisdom can name your weariness.

Jesus invites you to bring that to him.

Ecclesiastes helps us understand why we're tired.

Jesus says, give me your tiredness.

I can give you energy that you don't understand.

It doesn't make any sense.

I can give you peace that surpasses your understanding.

So wisdom diagnoses problems, but Jesus delivers people.

Let's say that one more time.

Wisdom diagnoses problems,

but Jesus is in the people delivering business.

He can deliver your heart.

He can free your soul.

And I could ask for a show of hands.

Let's do that.

How many people in this room today would testify

by just slipping your hand up and say,

Jesus has delivered me?

Yeah.

All across this room.

Those are testimonies,

and you're probably thinking of something in your mind right now,

if not many things,

that allowed you to raise your hand and say,

Jesus delivered me from that.

Time and time throughout the pages of Scripture,

we see the deliverance of the one they called Jesus,

the Christ, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us,

who took on human flesh to walk among us and say,

this is how you live this life.

There were some wise rabbis,

some wise Pharisees who came before him

and who were his contemporaries there during his time on earth,

and they would go toe-to-toe with him in the Scriptures,

and with all their wisdom,

they were broken.

And their whole system of religion,

which was based on wisdom from God in the Old Testament,

they knew it inside and out.

They'd studied it.

Their study habits put ours to shame.

These kids growing up in synagogue school,

rabbi school,

they knew it all.

They could quote massive portions of the Old Testament.

But it didn't do them any good

because Jesus hadn't changed their hearts.

What good does your knowledge,

your information,

your intelligence,

your wisdom that you've gained,

do you

if Jesus hasn't freed you?

So,

that's number one.

Jesus delivers people.

This is discipleship.

This is learning how to follow something else,

how to pursue someone different.

Discipleship is not about knowing more information.

It's about learning how to follow.

A church can grow smarter

without growing more faithful.

Direction,

not perfection.

We've been talking about it every week

and we'll continue to do so.

Direction,

not perfection,

means we pursue

the person of Jesus wisely

only through obedience and trust.

We don't chase wisdom

by itself

that leaves us informed

but exhausted.

And that's going to lead us

to our next main point.

Main truth number two,

wisdom without God

eventually leads to despair.

Wisdom without God

eventually leads to despair.

Would you turn back a page

in Ecclesiastes?

Let's go to Ecclesiastes 1.

Wisdom without God

eventually leads to despair.

We were in Ecclesiastes 1 last week.

We're going to jump ahead.

I think we hit verses 1 through 11.

We're going to jump into verse 12 now.

Verse 12, Ecclesiastes 1.

I, the teacher,

was king of Israel

and I lived in Jerusalem.

I devoted myself

to search for understanding

and to explore by wisdom

everything being done

under the heaven.

I soon discovered

that God has dealt

a tragic existence

to the human race.

I observed everything going on

under the sun.

And really,

it's all meaningless,

like chasing the wind.

He repeats himself a lot

in this book, doesn't he?

This is the theme

that we see

throughout Ecclesiastes.

What is wrong

cannot be made right.

What's missing

cannot be recovered.

So I said to myself,

look, I'm wiser

than any of the kings

who ruled Jerusalem before me,

including his father David.

That's a big statement, isn't it?

He's kind of flexing

on all of them,

saying, look at me, man.

God has given me

so much wisdom,

so much wealth,

so much success.

I've gone higher

than any of them did.

I've got greater wisdom

and knowledge

than any of them.

Verse 17,

so I set out

to learn everything

from wisdom

to madness

and folly.

But I learned firsthand

that pursuing all this

is like chasing the wind.

And he did.

You read about Solomon?

He couldn't get enough wives

to marry.

And then he wasn't

satisfied with that.

He had a stable

of what you'd call concubines

in his palace.

He had everything

that the flesh

could desire.

And it left him

saying,

it's like chasing the wind.

I keep chasing it

and I can't catch it.

The greater my wisdom,

the greater my grief.

To increase knowledge

only increases sorrow.

So wisdom without God

eventually will lead you

to despair.

Being right

doesn't keep you

from being empty.

You can be right

and it doesn't always feel good,

does it?

You can be right

and you can even win

and sometimes

it's not very satisfying.

Gaining wisdom

and knowing the end result,

knowing the outcome,

knowing how it should go

and knowing what the problem is

does not guarantee you joy.

Doesn't guarantee you fulfillment.

That's what the teacher

is trying to teach us

in Ecclesiastes.

He's comparing wisdom

and foolishness honestly.

He's not saying foolishness

is better than wisdom.

He's saying none of it

is going to fulfill you.

None of it is going to help you.

Wisdom is better than foolishness.

Light is better than darkness.

But wisdom still runs into a wall

that it can't get through.

It still slams up against a wall

that there's no doorway through

until Jesus steps in and says,

I'm the door.

I'm the way.

The wisdom should lead you to me.

And if it doesn't,

you'll never be happy.

It'll never do you any real good.

It must lead you to me

because death is coming.

Death is coming for you.

It's coming for me

and it doesn't care how smart you are.

It doesn't care how much wisdom you've gained

or how much you accomplished

or how successful or unsuccessful

you were on this earth.

It comes for all of us.

The wise and the foolish

share the same ending.

Both are eventually forgotten.

Both lose control

of what they've built,

of what they've accomplished

on this earth

and your family

and your job,

your career,

your friendships,

your hobbies.

It's where wisdom runs out.

And so if wisdom is your ultimate hope,

what happens

when it can't save you?

It's a gift,

but it's never meant to be God.

Wisdom cannot be God.

But here's the good news

that Ecclesiastes cannot yet announce.

Go to John chapter six.

Jesus steps directly into this limitation.

This is the good news

that it was too soon

for the teacher to write about

in Ecclesiastes.

John six,

chapter six,

chapter six,

verse 64.

Jesus is teaching his followers,

large group of followers

gathered around Jesus,

many more than just his 12.

He had a large group

of those who had jumped on board

and said,

man,

this guy's great.

I love his teaching.

He's teaching something different.

We want to follow him.

And Jesus says,

some of you,

some of you don't believe me.

Y'all,

I'm sorry to say

we could probably look out

across a group this large,

statistics would say

and say some of us,

some of us probably

don't believe Jesus.

We'll act like we do.

But just like this large group

of followers

that Jesus attracted,

he said,

some of you don't believe me.

And then he said,

this is why I said

people can't come to me

unless the Father

gives them to me.

At this point,

many of these disciples

turned away

and deserted him.

They quit following.

Said,

oh, well,

this is a different vibe here,

Jesus.

Thought you were just

teaching all the feel-good stuff.

You're going to bring

life and peace

and joy and hope

and this is all great.

What do you mean

some of us don't believe you?

What do you mean

we can't follow you

unless the Father

has given us to you?

And they started

to drift away.

And then Jesus

turned to his 12

that he called out

specifically

and he said,

are you also

going to leave?

And Simon Peter,

of course,

the spokesman of the group

speaks up

and what does he say?

Lord,

to whom would we go?

you have the words

of eternal life.

We believe

and we know

that you

are the Holy

One

of God.

Notice what Peter said.

Notice what he didn't say.

He doesn't say,

Jesus,

you explain everything.

You make it all

make sense.

Y'all,

the truth is

if you've ever

opened up the Gospels,

Matthew,

Mark,

Luke,

and John

and you've got

a red letter Bible

and you see the words

of Jesus

in red

but even if you don't,

you go read

the words of Jesus,

he usually didn't

explain everything.

He usually didn't

make it all fit together.

He was pretty cryptic.

He was pretty hard

to understand

about a lot of things.

And so this wasn't

based on Peter saying,

oh wow Jesus,

you just overwhelm us

with all this wisdom.

Half the time

they couldn't figure out

what he was saying.

But what they did

figure out was

he's got the words

of eternal life.

This is different.

This means something.

He's different

than all these other rabbis

just spouting their wisdom.

He's giving us

real hope.

He's giving us

real truth.

Peter doesn't say

your teaching,

Jesus,

lines up with the

historical Jewish

doctrine handed down

to us from generation

to generation.

He doesn't say,

Jesus,

you are everything

that we've been

studying about

and how it all,

you make it all

fit together,

Jesus.

Funny thing is,

Jesus did make it

all fit together

but they couldn't

even understand

all that back then.

But instead,

Peter says,

you have the words

of eternal life.

We believe

and so that's

how we know.

Because we believe,

you have born

faith in our hearts.

How many of you

remember the day

when you said,

I believe in Jesus

and faith was birthed

in your heart

by the Holy Spirit

of God that day?

Can you remember

that day?

Yeah.

Stoney just gave

testimony of that day

when he was a child

and he stood up

and said,

yes,

I believed then,

I still believe today,

I have this faith

that God gave to me

and he has established

it in my life.

I'm going to get up

and testify

and identify

as a follower,

a disciple of Jesus.

And he set the example

for his family

and many others

to come

who are going to do

the same thing.

Peter said,

we believe

and now we have

this wisdom from you.

This knowledge

of you

has come

from us believing

you

and the faith

that you have given

then to us.

We believe

so this is how we know.

Our faith in you

has unlocked

wisdom for us.

Wisdom runs out

but Jesus does not.

The teacher

in Ecclesiastes

shows us the wall

and Jesus says,

I'm the door

through the wall.

We don't follow Jesus

because we have

all the answers.

We follow him

because we believe

he is the answer.

So even when wisdom

runs out

and certainty

is not available,

we follow

the direction

of Jesus

and that is what

I believe God

has laid out

for our church.

Jamie referenced it

in her prayer

just a moment ago.

God has been working

in this church.

I can only testify

for the last few years

since I've been here

but I've seen

with my own eyes

God working

in our church

throughout our Sunday

school classes,

throughout our small groups,

the men's group

that meets

on Monday night,

the couples group

that meets

on Tuesday night.

Penny has her

Bible study

that she leads

over in Lily's.

Listen,

God is working

through the people

of this church.

That's what he does.

He doesn't use institutions.

He uses people

and he called

a bunch of people

together

to say fellowship

together,

stick together,

do this life

together

as a church.

You're my church.

I died for you.

I love you.

I care about you.

Care about each other

the same way.

So that's the wisest

direction for our church.

Practically speaking,

what does this look like?

Discipleship.

God,

help me follow you

more closely

and if we're all

doing that together

then our church

will follow you

more closely.

God,

make me more hospitable

to each other.

Make me actually

care enough

to go out of my way

to help somebody.

You want to see

what Jesus was

on this earth?

He was hospitable.

He was kind.

He would help people.

He would meet

their immediate needs.

They were hungry.

He would feed them.

They were hurting.

He would heal them.

Their souls were broken.

He would speak life

to them.

How can we be hospitable

in the way of Jesus?

And then the mission.

We've seen the mission

clearly laid out

for our church.

We love God best

by loving whom

he loves.

So we go share

the gospel,

the good news of Jesus

with anyone

that once

we were all sinners

and Jesus came

and died

for the punishment

for our sin.

He took our place

when he hung

on that cross

and allowed himself

to be killed,

put to death,

suffer all that torment

for your sin,

for mine,

so we wouldn't have

to face the eternal

wrath of God.

And instead,

we get to place hope

not in just the one

who died,

but also the one

who rose from the dead

and said,

I'm alive today.

I've proved I'm God.

I've walked with you.

I've showed you

how to live this life.

Put your faith in me,

Jesus says.

Come to me

and I will give you hope.

I will give you rest.

And that's the mission.

We take that message

to everybody

who will listen

and we show them

hospitality.

That's how we become

more and closer

disciples of Jesus.

That's how we obey him.

That is the direction

for our church.

We obey God

and we strive

to walk more closely

with him.

We're kind

and loving

and going out

of our way

to help those around us

and we keep his mission

above our own.

That's wisdom

unlocked

by our faith.

Ecclesiastes

does not instruct us

to abandon wisdom.

It warns us

to stop

worshiping it.

Wisdom matters,

but it was never meant

to carry the weight

of eternal meaning.

Only God

can handle the weight

of eternal meaning.

That weight belongs

to him alone.

Ecclesiastes

shows us

the limits

of wisdom

under the sun.

Jesus invites us

to take all

of our wisdom,

our earthly wisdom,

all of our understanding,

even that which we've

gained from him

and say,

God,

thank you

for teaching me

in this life.

Thank you

for showing me

things,

for guiding me

through,

for helping me

learn valuable lessons,

but God,

that's not the end goal,

not to say,

look how much I know.

That puffs us up.

Paul teaches us

that knowledge

puffs up.

I get the picture

of a balloon head,

you know,

just getting bigger

and bigger

the more it learns.

And I just want

to stick a pin

in it sometimes.

Watch it pop.

That's not how

God wants us

to live this life.

Just puffing

ourselves up

with more knowledge,

more wisdom.

He says,

take all that wisdom,

hand it back to me

and say,

God,

teach me

how this

will lead me

to you.

Teach me

how this

will make a difference

in your kingdom

on this earth.

Teach me

how this will help

accomplish your mission

on this earth.

Then we can get

to the end of our life

and we don't have

to look back

and say,

man,

I did it all,

I gained it all,

and it didn't really

mean anything.

We can look back

and say,

all the wisdom

that God gave me,

all the resources

he gave me,

all the experiences,

good and bad,

he gave me,

he used to make

a difference

in something

that matters.

So when we live

life under the sun,

what do we do?

We look above the sun.

Can we say it together,

church?

We're going to keep

asking this question

and answering it together

throughout this series.

How do we live

under the sun?

Let's say it together.

We look above the sun.

One more time,

how do we live

under the sun?

We look above the sun.

God,

that's what we're doing

right now.

We're casting our eyes

above the sun,

above this world,

above the highest point

that we can see.

We're casting our eyes

on you.

Hebrews 12 says,

we look to Jesus.

He's the author

of our faith.

He'll be the finisher

of our faith.

And until that day,

teach us

how to keep our eyes

fixed above the sun.

because everything

under it

is meaningless.

But you bring

the meaning.

You bring

what matters.

You bring

the why.

Help us

to never

forget it.

There's somebody

here today

who doesn't know you.

Help them

to make this

the day.

Speak to their hearts

right now.

Convict them

of their need

for you.

And let this

be the day

that they make

the decision

and say,

I believe.

I put my faith

in you.

We'll give you

the glory for it.

Church,

while your heads

are bowed

and your eyes

are closed,

I'm going to ask

that question.

If there's somebody

here,

maybe a guest

or maybe somebody

who's been coming

for a long time,

but you say,

today is the day

that I want to make

this decision

for myself,

not because I was

raised around the church

or not because I

always figured

I was a Christian,

but I'm going to,

for myself

and my family,

today,

I'm going to put

my faith in Jesus.

Would you slip

your hand up?

I'd love to talk

with you.

I'd love to pray

with you.

If that's you

right now,

I want to put

my faith in Jesus

today,

I believe.

And slip your hand

up now.

Thank you.

For the rest of you,

let me ask you

this question.

If God's working

on your heart

to keep your eyes

fixed on him,

to not chase

what you think

will fulfill you,

what you think

you need in your life,

but to chase

Jesus first,

whether it's wisdom,

whether it's wealth,

whether it's anything

else.

You say,

God's working on me.

I need to place him

as the most important

thing that I can gain

on this world.

Would you slip

your hand up now

and I'll pray

for you as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

God,

across the room,

your people

are in an attitude

of prayer with you.

Your spirit

has free reign

in this place.

I pray that you

would move

in our hearts,

that you would

reveal to us

how we can learn

from this valuable

writing centuries ago.

It says,

don't fix your eyes

on wisdom.

Don't fix your eyes

on anything else.

Fix your eyes

above the sun

on God himself,

Jesus Christ,

the one

who will always care.

We'll give you

the glory for it.

church,

let me close us

in prayer this morning.

God,

we thank you

for worshiping

with us today.

We thank you

for joining us

as we gather together.

We don't want this

to be a one time.

We meet on Sundays

and then we get back

to the rest of our week.

We want to carry you

with us

when we go home,

to carry you with us

whatever we're doing

in this life.

That's what will

make the impact.

That's how we apply

the wisdom we learn

is when we live it out

through the filter

of Jesus,

guiding our thoughts,

guiding our words,

guiding our actions.

Would you remain

in an attitude of prayer

for me

for just a minute longer?

Linda's going to

keep playing

and

if there's something

God's working

on your heart

about right now,

give him time

to speak to you clearly

in the stillness

of this moment.