It’s Not Fair! | Carlos Velez | May 10, 2026

All right. If you have a Bible, you can

turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Uh if

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

you don't have a Bible, we have uh

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Ecclesiastes chapter 3,

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

starting in verse 16.

And I saw something else under the sun.

In the place of judgment, wickedness was

there. In the place of justice,

wickedness was there. I said to myself,

"God will bring into judgment both the

righteous and the wicked. For there will

be a time for every activity, a time to

judge every deed."

I also said to myself, "As for humans,

God tests them so that they may see that

they are like the animals. Surely the

fate of human beings is like that of the

animals." The same fate awaits them

both. As one dies, so dies the other.

All have the same breath. Humans have no

advantage over animals. Everything is

meaningless.

All go to the same place. All come from

dust and to dust all return. Who knows

if the human spirit rises upward and if

the spirit of the animal goes down into

the earth? So I saw that there is

nothing better for a person than to

enjoy their work because there is that

is their lot. For who can bring them to

see what will happen after them?

Again I looked and saw all the

oppression that was taking place under

the sun. I saw the tears of the

oppressed and they have no comforter.

Power was on the side of their

oppressors and they have no comforter.

And I declared that the dead who had

already died are happier than the living

who are still alive.

But better than both is the one who has

never been born, who has not seen the

evil that is done under the sun.

Happy Mother's Day.

I mean, seriously, this this guy at

times when we're going through this

book, I'm like, he needs to take a nap.

Eats. He sounds hangry or something like

he's just like it's all everything's

meaningless.

He's actually making a very important

observation

as he's going through all this stuff.

And we're going to kind of go through it

a little bit slower and pick it apart a

little bit. But as he's going through

all these observations, you know what

he's saying?

There's a problem with our world.

There's a problem with our world. And

what is his first example? He looks at

where there should be justice. He's look

at where things should be fair. In the

place of justice, wickedness was there.

The very place that was meant to protect

people becomes corrupted.

And what does he see? He sees courts

that are corrupted. He sees power that's

abused. He sees the innocent suffering,

the guilty prospering.

And if we're honest, we we still see

that today, right? There's still

corruption in our world. There's there's

abuse of authority. There are broken

systems. There's suffering that seems to

go unanswered. The world is not as it

should be.

The world is not as it should be. And

then and then what does he say? He says

there's all this wickedness going on.

But then what does he say in verse 17?

He says, "I said to myself, God will

bring into judgment both the righteous

and the wicked. For there will be a time

for every activity, a time to judge

every deed." And this is where the

tension lies.

This is where the tension lies.

The central tension of this passage is

that there is injustice now

and that there will be justice later.

There's injustice now and then there

will be justice later.

What what does the teacher believe? The

teacher believes that God sees evil and

that God will one day judge. But what is

his struggle? What is his struggle?

Why the delay?

Right? Why the delay? I don't know. But

I I ask that sometimes to God. I'm like,

what's taking you so long? Why the

delay? Why does this keep happening?

If God is just,

why does injustice continue?

It's because we live in the in between

time.

We live in between what is and what

should be.

And that's a time of waiting, a time of

trust. And in this in between stage, the

teacher is frustrated. And he expresses

that frustration. Verse 18 he goes on

and he and this is like he says I also

said to myself as for humans God test

them so that they may see that they are

like the animals.

Surely the fate of human beings is like

that of the animals. The same fate

awaits them both.

As one dies so dies the other. All have

the same breath. Humans have no

advantage over animals. Everything is

meaningless.

All go to the same place. All come from

dust and to dust all remain, all return.

Who knows if the human spirit rises

upward and if the spirit of the animal

goes down into the earth? So I saw there

is nothing better for a person than to

enjoy their work because that is a lot.

For who can bring them to see what will

happen after them. What is he saying?

He's saying everyone dies.

Everyone has the same ending. The

oppressed, they die. The oppressors,

they die. The rich, they die. the poor,

they die. All return to dust.

And and he's like, "Human beings are

like they're no different than animals."

And and then he says something very

interesting that you when you first read

it, you're like, "Am I reading the

Bible?

Is this shouldn't this be in the Bible?"

What does he say? He says, "Who knows

whether the spirit of a man goes

upward?"

Well, I mean, the rest of the Bible says

so.

This isn't teaching that there's no life

after death.

Actually, later on in the book, if we

were to read Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7, it

Ecclesiastes 12:7

says, "And the dust returns to the

ground it came from, and the spirit

returns to God who gave it." It's not

talking about that there's no life under

death. What after death? What is

happening in this moment? What is

happening when in this verse?

He's having a moment.

He's having a moment. He's having an

honest moment where everything seems

meaningless, where everything seems

unfair. And he just You ever had like

Okay, moms, you ever had

your kid just start rambling stuff

that's just like, "And you hate me and

and you did this and and all and and

they are just talking nonsense because

they're just have all these emotions

inside." What's going on with the

teacher is that he has all these

emotions inside and he just starts just

like and I don't know. I don't even

know. I don't I don't even know. He's

having a moment.

He senses that justice must come, but he

cannot yet clearly see it.

And so what does he do? He he expresses

his longing for something better. And

that's what Eccles Ecclesiastes does in

the whole book. It leaves us with this

longing. If you read the book, it

actually offers very little answers to

the questions that are asked.

It it's meant to kind of stir up that

longing, stir up those questions in in

our hearts and just reflect them.

But he's left with this longing. He's

left with understanding that there's

something wrong. There's a problem with

our world.

And then he goes further into in verses

1 to3 of chapter 4. He says, "Again, I

looked and saw all the oppression that

was taking place under the sun. I saw

the tears of the oppressed and they have

no comforter. Power was on the side of

their oppressors and they have no

comforter. And I declared that the dead

who had already died are happier than

the living who are still alive. But

better than both is one who has never

been born, who has not seen the evil

that is done under the sun.

What's going on there?

Twice he says this phrase, there's no

comforter. He's looking around and there

are people who are being oppressed. He's

looking around, there are people who are

hurt.

We see that today, right? Like there's

things that are happening. There's

there's human trafficking. There's

there's all sorts of things that are

going on in our world. There's there's

wars. There's there's people who are

poor who are taken advantage of. There's

there's all sorts of hurt. And it feels

like those who are being oppressed have

no comfort. There's no comforter.

There's no one standing up for them.

And it would be very easy. It would be

very easy to actually change this sermon

and actually go like, "So that's what we

must do is stand up for those who are

being oppressed and and and have this a

rally cry for justice." It'd be very

easy to do that. There's actually a lot

of Bible passages that talk about how we

should speak up and how we need to

actually live lives of justice. But what

is going on? That's not this passage.

That's not this passage. This passage

isn't a cry rallying us for justice.

It's actually just confronting it. And

there's actually a deeper thing that's

being confronted underneath.

You see, what's going on is that this

this author is not giving us a deep

theology when he's writing these lines.

What he's doing is he's he's speaking

grief, honest grief from a broken world.

He's speaking honest grief.

And then he goes on further to kind of

just explain how we got here.

You see, there's a problem with our

world and how did we get here? How he's

he just goes and and he says there's

something deeper that you have to

understand.

I was uh driving the other day and and

um in the morning on my morning drive,

there's this tree that I pass often and

it's a hu it's a huge tree. You can't.

It's like it's a huge tree, but it's one

of those trees that you look at and

you're like,

"Something's off with that tree." Yeah.

You ever look at a tree and you're like

some something looks off with that tree?

Like the leaves look weird. Not all the

branches have the leaves. Like it's it's

just you look on the outside and you're

like, "Something's wrong with that tree.

You can't quite tell it, but something's

wrong with that tree." Well, after one

of uh like the thunderstorms that we had

a few weeks ago, like I'm driving by

and a like almost half of that tree had

fallen off. Like it broke off

and it revealed what was wrong with the

tree. It was completely hollow. It was

dead inside.

Whatever maybe some bugs, maybe some I

don't know what had gone in, but it was

completely eaten up from the inside.

And what was revealed was the problem

was actually something inside internally

that you couldn't see. You could see

something on the outside. Hey,

something's wrong here.

But it wasn't until you saw the inside

that you actually were able to see

exactly what was wrong.

You see, that's what the author of

Ecclesiastes does in this book. He says,

"Hey, there's a problem with the world,

but the bigger problem is that there's a

problem with our hearts.

There's a problem with our hearts.

Ecclesiastes 4:es 4-6. And I saw that

all toil and all achievement springs

from one person's envy of another. This

too is meaningless. A chasing after the

wind. Fools fold their hands and ruin

themselves. Better one handful with

tranquility than two handfuls with toil

and chasing after the wind.

The problem is not just out there.

It's very easy for us to look outside

and be like, "Look at all the problems

in the world. Look at all the injustice

and not look internally and realize that

there's a problem in here.

There's a problem in here."

He uses an interesting word. He uses the

word envy.

He says, "All toil is motivated by this

envy."

Envy.

Maybe we might call it something

different. Maybe we might describe it

something different. Maybe we might say

it's just keeping up with the Joneses.

We live lives and sometimes we like to

compare or we like to compete or we

strive because someone always seems like

they have more or someone always seems

like they look better than us or they

succeed faster than us or they get

noticed or they get ahead.

It's the social media dynamic, isn't it?

You're constantly looking and comparing.

And so we strive and we toil and

suddenly work becomes something that it

should not have become. It becomes our

identity

which leads to competition

which leads to exhaustion.

And and here's here's the crazy thing.

As we try to climb that ladder in life,

as we try to rise and rise, as we are

climbing those those rungs of that

ladder, you know what ends up happening?

Usually what we step on is on the heads

of other people. As we climb up, we

climb up looking up and we step on those

underneath us to get ahead.

And there are different responses that

we can have in that setting.

and and there's different wrong

responses that the teacher identifies.

But then he says something different. He

says, what does he say? Better one

handful

with tranquility.

Instead of trying to grasp at everything

and fill up our hands with everything

and grasp and grasp better one handful

just better one handful

with tranquility.

This tranquility that is being used is

characterized by peace, is characterized

by contentment.

There's a difference between

striving for being comfortable and just

striving to be content.

There's a difference.

This tranquility looks for contentment.

It looks for restfulness. It looks from

freedom from envy.

And this life of tranquility, what we

would know today, which is different

from the author of Ecclesiastes, but

what we would know today is that this

kind of life takes a gospel

reorientation.

It takes a gospel reorientation.

The gospel changes our striving because

in Christ, we are already accepted.

We are already known. We are already

secure. We are already loved.

We do not need to prove our worth

through achievement.

It requires a gospel reorientation.

And when we are not oriented on the

gospel, when we start to live lives

filled with envy, instead of that, when

we start to live lives filled with com

comparison, what ends up happening?

Going back in, he says again, I saw

something meaningless under the sun.

There was a man all alone. He had

neither son nor brother. There was no

end to his toil. And his eyes were not

content with his wealth.

For whom am I toiling? He asked. And why

am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This

too is meaningless, a miserable

business.

When we live lives according to this

grasping nature fueled by envy and when

we just make achievement

and being the better part of comparison

our our our sole motive

the result oftent times

is isolation

is loneliness.

The teacher is describing a man who's

endlessly working. Endlessly working.

Not just endlessly working, but

endlessly working for the wrong reasons.

Endlessly accumulating and never

satisfied

and completely alone.

When toil is fueled by envy, we will not

just end up exhausted. We will end up

alone.

And what happens?

Success without relationships becomes

emptiness

becomes emptiness.

And so the teacher doesn't and for

occasionally he tosses in some some

positive answers to this. He gives a

positive comparison. He gives a

different answer to life. Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

4:9-12 says, "Two are better than one

because they have good return for their

labor. If either of them falls down, one

can help the other up. But pity anyone

who falls and has no one to help them

up. Also, if two lie down together, they

will keep warm. But how can one keep

warm alone? Though one may be

overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly

broken.

Oftentimes, I've read that passage

actually at weddings. Uh it's usually uh

when people are like tying uh a rope

together, like braiding three strands of

rope and they have this and it's on a

beautiful picture and they braid it

together and and I tell them at the end

they're going to literally tie the knot.

None of you got that, huh?

They didn't get it either.

But the reality is is that what the

author is doing, he's not really writing

a sentimental statement.

He's actually writing a statement of

survival

because what does community provide? It

provides help when we fail, warmth in

suffering, strength in battle,

companionship in hardship.

The Bible rejects

isolated individualism.

We were made for relationship.

We were made for relationship with God

and relationship with others. That's the

whole premise of our disciplehip model.

Three relationships, disciplehip,

relationships with God and relationships

with others. We were made for that.

And what we need to understand is that

the church should be countercultural to

life under the sun. Should be

countercultural to that individualistic

lonely life of envy and striving.

The church shouldn't be about isolated

achievement or comparison or performance

or transactional relationships.

No, it's a community. It's a caring

community living life on mission

together.

It's about burdens shared, meals shared,

grief shared, joy shared, life shared.

The world says climb higher. The kingdom

says carry one another.

Carry one another.

That's the whole reason that we are so

passionate about that statement about

being a caring community living life

together on missions. That's the whole

premise of why we emphasize small groups

and why we emphasize volunteering. We

were meant to do life together. We were

meant to do life by carrying one

another.

And what Ecclesiastes does is when we

don't live that way, it points out what

happens when we live under that opposite

premise. It keeps exposing, the book

keeps exposing the same truth over and

over. That life under the sun, it cannot

carry the weight of ultimate hope.

It can't.

So what is the source of ultimate hope?

What is the source of this hope that

Ecclesiastes leaves us longing for?

And how is that hope made available to

us?

You see,

if the teacher is telling us that

there's a problem in our world and that

the deeper problem is that there's a

problem in our hearts, then what is the

solution to the problem?

The solution is this.

Jesus stepped into our problem.

Ecclesiastes lets us know that the world

is not right, our hearts are not right,

and our lives are not right.

So where does this life under the sun if

it's not right? So where does hope come

from?

Not from under the sun,

but from above it,

but from above it.

And the teacher grasped this by the end

of the book of Ecclesiastes. We've read

this verse, these two verses often in

this series.

The end, the last two verses of

Ecclesiastes say this.

Now all has been heard. Here is the

conclusion of the matter. Fear God and

keep his commandments. For this is the

duty of all mankind. For God will bring

every deed into jud judgment, including

every hidden thing, whether it is good

or evil.

We have echoes of the cry of

Ecclesiastes 3:17, right? There's all of

Ecclesiastes 3:17

this injustice. There's all of this

wickedness. But God will one day bring

judgment.

God will one day make it right.

Okay.

So, God's going to one day make it

right.

But where does the hope come from?

Where does hope come? If life isn't

fair, where does the hope come from?

Well, maybe, just maybe, we should read

what that judgment looks like.

Let's go to the last book of the Bible,

Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And we get a picture of exactly what the

author of Ecclesiastes is pointing to.

Here's what it looks like.

Revelation chapter 20, starting at verse

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

11.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him

who was seated on it.

The earth and the heavens fled from his

presence, and there was no place for

them. And I saw the dead, great and

small, standing before the throne, and

books were opened.

Another book was open,

which is the book of life.

The dead were judged according to what

they had done as recorded in the books.

The sea gave up the dead that were in

it. And the death and Hades gave up the

dead that were in them. And each person

was judged according to what they had

done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into

the lake of fire. The lake of fire is

the second death. Anyone whose name was

not found written in the book of life

was thrown into the lake of fire.

So, we got a few books here.

Those first books

reveal all of our actions, all of our

deeds of all of humanity.

And this is where we need to remember

the problem of our hearts.

All of us are deserving of punishment.

All of us

are deserving of punishment because we

have a problem with our heart.

It's easy for us to point out the

wickedness in others without grasping

the reality of the wickedness inside of

us.

We're all worthy of that punishment.

Those books reveal it.

But there's another book.

There's another book.

The book of life.

And there's names written in that book.

Names that don't deserve to be written

in that book.

But there is names written in that book.

How do the names get written into that

book? The names are able to be written

to that book because Jesus entered into

our unjust world.

The only one who was truly righteous,

the only one who was truly innocent

experiences oppression.

He experiences rejection.

He experiences abandonment. He is

condemned unjustly.

The only one who deserved fairness

received injustice.

Why?

so that unjust people like me and you

could receive grace, forgiveness,

reconciliation, and eternal life.

Life is not fair.

And we should thank God every day for

that

because if it was fair, there would only

be the first set of books.

But Jesus entered into our broken world.

And because of that, because of his

life, because of his death, because of

his resurrection, we can live with hope

in the midst of the brokenness of the

world around us.

The resurrection of Jesus declares that

injustice will not win. Death will not

win. Oppression will not win. One day

every wrong will be judged and every

tear wiped away and every sorrow undone

and creation itself will be renewed.

And so Jesus makes a way for our name to

be written in the other book, the book

of life.

>> Hallelujah.

That's the answer

to why is life unfair.

It's because God has amazing grace.

And so that is offered to you that

grace.

You don't automatically get written into

the book. You have to accept that grace.

You have to accept Jesus's gift. You

have to accept the work of his life,

death, and resurrection. And when you

do, you can face injustice without

losing hope. You can work without

comparison and envy. You can pursue

contentment instead of endless striving.

You can choose community over isolation.

You can live for a kingdom that will not

fade.

And until that day,

we live honestly, not pretending like

there isn't pain in the world.

but trusting in the God who makes all

things right. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness. We

thank you for your grace. We thank you

for the fact that life is not fair

because if it was, we would all be

deserving of death.

We thank you for your son and the

sacrifice

that he made so that our names could be

written in that book of life.

We thank you that we look forward to

that day not just so that the deeds of

the wicked would be judged, but we look

forward to that day with hope and

gratitude because

of Jesus

and the way that he made a way for our

names to be written in that book of

life.

Lord, I ask you that if there's anyone

in this room who has not accepted that

gift, who has not made that choice to

follow you,

that you would tug on their heart today,

that you would make that real.

We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.