"Dust to Dust" Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Ecclesiastes in chapter 1 is our text for this morning.

And if it's been a minute since you've been in this region of your Bible, let me give you some directions.

Open to the middle, find Psalms and Proverbs, and turn right.

But also this morning, I want to persuade you that if it's been a little while since you've been in this passage, since you've spent time in this region of the Bible, I want to persuade you that it would do your soul good to spend some time there.

And that's exactly what our students at Emmanuel Bible Church are going to be doing for the next several months.

When we begin, when we resume meeting with the students at 9 a.m.

next Sunday in the gym, JJ and I will be leading the students through a study of Ecclesiastes over the next several months.

And so with one Sunday here to speak to the congregation today, I thought it would be fun, and I pray and trust beneficial for us to take a glimpse at the message of this incredible book of the Bible that we know as Ecclesiastes.

So we'll begin in chapter one, and we'll get all the way to the end of this book before we're done this morning.

But I think the best way for us to start is by reading from God's Word.

So look down in your Bibles with me.

I'm going to read from chapter one, verse one, the first eleven verses of this book.

So follow with me as I read from God's Word.

Hear the word of the Lord.

The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind, and on its circuit the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

To the place where the streams full flow, there they will flow again.

All things are full of weariness.

A man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said?

See, this is new.

It's already been done in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things, nor there will nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

This is the word of God.

Well, this book of Ecclesiastes has often been known as the most enigmatic book of the Old Testament, though I'm somewhat skeptical about that.

If you open any commentary in the book of Ecclesiastes, the first thing you'll encounter is a line saying, This is the most puzzling, the most bewildering, the most enigmatic book in the entire Old Testament.

But you have to understand that biblical scholars are a little bit like politicians in that just as every election is the most important election ever, so every commentary asserts that this is the most important and most troublesome book in the entire Bible.

But it is indeed an incredible book.

It spans the entirety of human experience.

It's a book about love and of loss, about success and failure, about life and death.

But beyond all of that, it's really a book about the meaning of all of it.

And this is a crucial matter for us to wrestle with because it is an inescapable reality that human life needs meaning.

We need a reason for living.

The birds of the air don't need a reason for why they chase after a worm beyond just survival.

But you are more than a bird, you're more than a squirrel, you're a human being in the image of God, and you need a reason for your life.

You need a meaning for your life.

Suppose if I were to come up to you and ask, after the service this morning, I'd like you to go meet me at Giant, the grocery store across the street.

I'll be in the back, I'll be by the donuts.

I just want you to meet me there for like 20 minutes.

I feel with confidence that you would look at me and say, why?

You would want a reason to justify a 20-minute excursion on a Sunday afternoon.

But here's the question: Do you have a reason to justify the entirety of your life?

What is it that you are living for?

Why do you do what you do?

The book of Ecclesiastes is given to confront us with this reality.

Because whether consciously articulated or not, all people have a reason for living.

Many times we live for just stock answers that you'll encounter all over the world.

If you ask a person why they're living, they might give you answers such as to make the world a better place, to leave a legacy, or as has been so well articulated in a bumper sticker, I often see, the meaning of life is to live it.

That is, that we live just to experience the pleasures that we can intake in the present moment.

What the book of Ecclesiastes wants to do is show us that naturally all human beings construct meanings for their life, but in reality, when considered against the cold, hard light of reality, all constructed meanings for human life are fleeting, vain puffs of smoke that you grasp at and are gone.

Ecclesiastes wants to rip the facade off of our constructed meanings for living and wants to lead us to God's reason for living.

The reason for living that lasts, that matters, that's satisfying and fulfilling.

Ecclesiastes wants you to discover God's reason for living, the reason you were created for.

So, let's begin.

The first thing we see in the book is the human problem of life.

The human problem is that life is inevitably meaningless.

Notice, even before we get to that, let's begin by looking at verse 1.

We need to know who we're speaking with when we are reading the book of Ecclesiastes.

Verse 1 reads, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

So the author of this book claims to be one of the sons of David, who is a king in Jerusalem, but there were many sons of David who were kings in Jerusalem.

We get more specific if you notice verse 12.

I, the preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

That leaves only one candidate, because all of the descendants of David who ruled as king in Jerusalem ruled over a divided kingdom.

After the life of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into a northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital.

And so the only king in Jerusalem who also ruled over Israel, who was a son of David, is Solomon.

But Solomon is referring to himself here in the third person as the preacher.

He wants to give us the wisdom he has acquired through his extensive life experience.

He wants us to be able to understand the meaning for this life.

And he gives us the conclusion of life in verse 2.

Vanity of vanity, says the preacher.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Like a good preacher, he begins with his conclusion.

He reiterates it throughout the course of the book, and he concludes with it in chapter 12, verse 8.

His conclusion about the totality of human experience on this world is that it is vain.

And you see, that's exactly what he's speaking about in verse 3.

What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

Just break that verse down in just a moment.

Three words that get us at the message of Ecclesiastes.

What is the profit?

What is the gain?

That word gain is an economic turn for profits.

What is it that's left over at the end of the day after you've done all that you have done in toiling and laboring and striving?

What have you gotten from all of it?

And that word labor or toil is used 22 times through the book of Ecclesiastes to span the gamut of all intellectual, all physical striving, all the efforts that human beings expend in their life.

That's what he's referring to.

All human experience, all human efforts under the sun, which is just life in this world.

So he's giving a comprehensive analysis of all human experience on this world, and his conclusion is that life in this world is vain.

That word vain is worth dwelling on for a moment.

So Hebrew word heavel.

The meaning of it is pretty easy to ascertain just by think listening to the word.

I often do the little mnemonic with students when I'm explaining this.

I have them put their hands over their mouth and say the word ha heavel, ha-heavel.

You can feel your breath, and that's exactly what that word means.

It means a breath.

It's translated in Psalm 144, verse 4, like this.

Psalms 144:4

Man is like a breath, his days are a passing shadow.

That's the word that Solomon lands on to describe all of human existence.

It's a breath.

Like the mist that you see on a cold day when you take a breath.

That's all of human existence.

It's fleeting, it's uncontrollable.

You grasp it and it's gone.

All human experience, all of family and work and life and births, all of it is like a breath.

Here today and gone tomorrow.

It's fleeting, illusory, out of your control, beyond your grasp.

That's all of your life.

So you get asked the question so why does he conclude this?

Is he just an old crank at the end of his life?

Well, to fully understand why he draws his conclusion, you'd have to wrestle with the whole book.

And if you wrestle with the whole book, you'll find he draws his conclusion from pristine logical argumentation, extensive empirical observation, and comprehensive human experience.

This is no mere grumpy old man.

This is a divine word.

All human experience in this life is like a breath, gone.

Fleeting, vain, and empty.

But Solomon lays out his argument for us in miniature in verses four through eleven.

And so this morning, I want to begin by walking through verses four through eleven.

We'll see that he gives us in these short verses three reasons why we have to conclude that if we just look at life in this world, that the ultimate conclusion we have to draw is that this life is meaningless.

The first thing that he tells us is that life in this world is such that nothing changes.

You find that in verses four to seven.

Look at verse four in your Bibles.

It reads, A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north.

Around and around goes the wind, and on its circuit the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

Around and around and around go all the natural cycles of life, and that's the inevitable course of this earth.

A generation comes and exerts all of their energy gathering wealth and expending it, and then they die, and the world continues to spin, the sun continues to rise and set, the winds continue to circle around the planet.

Everything remains as though you had never even been here.

The totality of an entire human generation globally is like a group of ants on a log washed off by the wave, and the log continues on as though the ants had never been there.

It will not weep for them, neither will the world weep for us when we are gone.

That's the totality of all human experience.

Solomon says if you zoom out of the momentary experiences of your life and look at the totality of human existence, this is a conclusion you have to draw.

Is it all human existence is like a child's song?

My children sing a little song, it goes like this.

When I walk down the street, all the people I meet say, What's your name again?

And I say, My name is Yan Yansen, I come from Wisconsin, and round and round and round and round and round and round, and that's the entirety of human existence.

And it doesn't matter which round of the song your generation rises, they will fall and it will continue to go around and around and around, and there's absolutely, positively nothing you can do to change the inevitable course of this world that does not care about your existence and will not remember it.

But Solomon wants to go on because this is fun after all, isn't it?

So we should keep going.

Life is meaningless because nothing in this world changes, but more than that, Solomon also wants to say nothing satisfies.

Nothing satisfies.

Look at verse 8 in your Bible.

All things are full of weariness.

A man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The eye and the ear stand for sensual, sensory experience.

Has there ever been anyone who rose in the morning and said, I've had enough of seeing?

Neither has there ever been anyone who has ever said, I've had enough experiencing pleasure in the world.

The nature of all human experiences that it is insatiable.

If you chase money, sex, power, education, any human experience, anything that could fill your heart with a fleeting sense of satisfaction, you will find that you will be like a child chasing a bubble.

Do you know what happens when a child chases a bubble?

They either catch it or they don't.

If they catch it, it pops in their hand, and they're mad, and they need another one.

If they don't catch it and it floats away, they're mad.

So it is with every human being who spends his life preoccupied with chasing pleasure in this world.

It will not satisfy.

Solomon goes on.

Nothing changes, nothing satisfies, and thirdly, nothing in this world lasts.

Look at verse 9.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said?

See, this is new.

It's already been done in the ages before us.

There's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Does that seem false?

I mean, what about planes and space travel and Instagram?

Those are new?

Among teenagers, one of those is far more important than the others.

Fundamentally, every human technological advance is really just a new way of doing the same old things.

What are all social media advances?

They're just new ways of communicating.

What is the internet?

It's just a new way of communicating.

Humans have always been inventing new ways to communicate, but it hasn't changed the fundamental course of human life.

What is an airplane?

An airplane is just a new way to travel.

Humans have always been traveling, it's just a new way to travel.

Congratulations, we've invented airplanes.

Now we can work, eat, and sleep on two continents in the same day and do that a few times and then die.

And the fundamental course of human existence remains unchanged.

And Solomon is grabbing hold of the scuff of your shirt and pleading with you to see this is cold hard reality.

Life in this world is like a breath.

And there's nothing that you can do to change it.

Will you do something to change the fundamental course of human existence?

Will you make the world a better place in a fundamentally lasting way?

There are many great things you can try.

Oprah came out with a list of 13 things you could do to make the world a better place.

One of the things that made her list was you could use tubeless toilet paper.

Toilet paper that apparently doesn't have the little cardboard tube in the middle.

I think she wrote this list before 2020.

That's great.

That's great.

There's a lot of great things you could do.

Right now, I I have prayed with my family that we would speedily see the invention of a vaccination for COVID-19.

Will you invent that vaccination?

I hope you will, and when you do, I'll be the first to bring my family to receive the vaccination.

But you have to recognize that even when you invent that, you will not inoculate anyone who won't still die.

Does that mean that you should give up and stop trying?

That's not Solomon's conclusion.

Solomon says you find work to do, you should do it with all your might, but it does mean that you ought to sit down and ask, why am I doing this?

And if you analyze it honestly, you'll discover that in this world, no matter what you do or who you are or where you go or what you gain or what you lose or any experience you have, all of life will be like a breath, here today and gone tomorrow.

And nothing you do will change the course of human history, nothing you do will fundamentally change the human nature, nothing you do will even be remembered.

Maybe you'll be able to get your name in a history textbook, and some poor 13-year-old will have to spit out your name for a test and hate you for it.

Nothing changes, nothing satisfies, nothing lasts.

Therefore, this world is all there is, nothing really matters.

That's the conclusion Solomon wants to drive us to.

If you flip over a page in your Bible to chapter 3 and verse 19, see, this is the conclusion he's driving us to.

Chapter 3 and verse 19.

What happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same.

As one dies, so dies the other.

They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.

All go to one place, all are from the dust, and to dust all return.

We all need meaning in our life, and so we construct various meanings and try to give us a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

But when considered in the whole cold light of reality, all of our constructed meanings for living in this world are empty, vain, meaningless.

There is no constructed reason for living in this world that will not be annihilated by the grave.

If you analyze your life in light of reality, you have to conclude that you are a condemned man, and your entire existence on this planet is like a man hurtling towards the earth in free fall towards the earth.

One day you're going to hit and you don't know when, and you can't stop it, and you can't lengthen your time on this earth, and when you're gone, that's it.

In fact, not just your life, but the entirety of human existence.

Scientists have told us that the sun is a time bomb.

One day it will implode, and when it goes, all human life will be snuffed out of existence as though it had never even been here.

All the sum of human experience through the ages snuffed out like a candle and no one there to remember it.

Do you know when that happens?

Nothing that has ever happened on this world will matter.

It won't matter where you lived or what you did.

It won't matter if you were a mother or a murderer.

It won't matter if you march with MLK or the KKK.

It will not matter.

You cannot change that.

If this world is all there is, then our lives don't matter.

We are all just pointless accidental flickers in dead time.

You have to see this.

If this world is all there is, this is your life.

And the only way you can live in this world is if you ignore it.

If you live intoxicated with the temporary fleeting pleasures of this world, but if you step back and analyze who am I and why am I here, this is the conclusion you must draw.

Life in this world is a breath.

None of it matters.

But there's a rub, isn't there?

You know what the rub is?

You know that's not true.

You know that all of your joys and sorrows were more to be snuffed out from a meaningless existence.

You know that the people you love are meant for more than just to be eaten by the worms as though they never existed.

You know that there's a difference between a mother and a murderer.

Some of you are upset that I even suggested that there's no difference between who you march with.

That's because this chapter, chapter 11, says God has put eternity into your heart.

God has stamped on his image bearers the knowledge of God, the knowledge of eternity.

You know that you were made for more than this world.

You know that you were made for eternity.

You know you were made for God.

And even the person trying hardest to suppress the truth about God and their unrighteousness cannot help but catch occasional glimpses of this reality that I was made for more than this world.

You were made for God, and only God can give you a meaning for this life.

We're gonna discover that meaning, but before we do, I just want to ask this question.

You may be wondering, maybe the book of Ecclesiastes is really just given kind of as a book for skeptics, as a book for secular people, to help secular people see that living in this world, if this world is all there is, it's pointless.

And you need God.

That's true.

And this book is given to help us see that, to help our secular friends and brothers and sisters and family members see that you need God.

You were made for him, and he can give your life satisfying meaning and purpose.

But I think another question that we should ask ourselves, if we are people who claim to know Jesus Christ, is we should ask even if we say we believe in eternity, do we live like it?

Or if we analyze our life in the way that we spend our time and our thoughts and our energies and our excitements and our passions, do we discover that all too often we live for this world and nothing beyond it?

Because you know what the worst kind of life is?

According to Jesus, the worst kind of life is to say you believe in eternity, but live for only this world.

That's the worst kind of life is to say, I believe in heaven and hell.

I believe that I was meant to live forever, but then only live for this world.

That's the worst kind of life.

So even believers in Jesus Christ need this book to remind us that you were made for more, and your striving is meant to be directed to something more than just this world.

You were made for eternity, and everything you do is made for God.

That's the divine solution.

So why don't we carry on and get to it?

It's uttered throughout this book, but I think it's helpful just to turn to the end.

So flip in your Bibles to chapter 12, and we'll look at verse 13.

Here's the divine solution.

You look in your Bibles at chapter 12 and verse 13.

This is the summation of all of the analysis.

Chapter 12, verse 13.

The end of the matter, all has been heard.

Here's God's solution.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Verse 14 is so crucial.

God will bring every deed into judgment.

Everything.

There will be a judgment.

You will live forever.

You know, the probably the assertion of the Bible that most bothers secular people in our world is the idea that God is going to judge everyone.

And yet, this is some of the best news in all of the world is that God is going to judge.

If there is no judgment, there is no meaning to anything in this world.

If there's no divine judgment, there is no purpose to life.

But because there is a judgment, then every moment in this life matters.

The judgment of God reverses the meaninglessness of this world.

Because you will stand before this God and He will bring every deed in your life into judgment, good or evil, secret or public, every moment of your life is infused with eternal significance.

There's gravity to every breath you take, every thought you think, every word you speak, every deed you do, everything you do matters and will bounce through the canyons of eternity.

That's who you are.

You can't escape that.

Now you cannot get away from this.

Everything you do in this life matters because God will bring you into judgment.

That's good news.

So what do you do with that?

Solomon sums it up in a word here, verse 13.

Fear God.

That's the whole of man.

The word duty is added into our translation for good, smooth English.

Koladam, all of the man, all of human existence is summed up in this word, fear God.

That is the controlling, driving, orienting force that gives your life meaning and purpose eternally.

We've got to ask the question for a second.

What does it mean to fear God?

The word fear is used throughout the Old Testament, it's used in the New Testament.

It's a word that describes our attitude towards God.

It's the reality that will give your life eternal meaning and purpose.

So we have to know what it is.

And I don't know about you, but I have heard I cannot, I couldn't count how many times since I've become a Christian, it said the word fear means reverence.

It does not mean fear, it just means reverence.

And I think I understand why people say that, and sometimes that can be a very helpful synonym to use, but I just would caution us to be careful to immediately substitute a more comfortable word for a less comfortable word when we're reading our Bibles.

Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived.

He was not lacking for words.

He wrote 30,000 Proverbs.

He had a sufficient vocabulary to express himself.

He meant fear.

So what does it mean to fear God?

I think it's helpful just to ask the question: what is fear?

Think of the time that you were most the most afraid in your entire life.

Think of that moment.

Whatever that was, I can guarantee this that in that moment, the object of your fear consumed you.

You didn't care about what you were gonna eat for lunch the next day.

You didn't care about your your investments, you didn't care about your anything.

You didn't care about your kids, you didn't care about anything.

You cared about the object of your fear.

It consumed you and controlled every thought in your mind.

If you cared about your kids, it's because the fear directed you towards your kids.

If you cared about something, it's because the fear, the object of your fear, directed your actions and your thoughts towards some other course of action.

The nature of fear is that it's a consuming reality.

This is what it is to fear God is to see God as he is in his infinite glory, majesty, power, righteousness, holiness, purity, mercy, patience, compassion, and to be in awe such that you're consumed by him, such that everything in your life is controlled and compelled and directed by the object of your fear, the living God.

Fear is just a way of summing up a right relationship with God.

It's to be so consumed and in awe of who God is that He controls and compels every facet of your life.

And when that is the guiding principle of your life, then your life will be directed towards eternal ends.

Your life will matter for eternity when you fear God.

Now, there's actually even more that we can say about this because none of us are walking around this morning with little copies of Ecclesiastes tucked up under our arms.

We have Bibles, we have the totality of God's canon, and I think we can go a little bit further with this.

What does it mean to fear God, to know this God?

I think to get there, it's helpful.

Let me read a little quote by uh an author that many of us read at various times in our education, Albert Camus, was a French existentialist philosopher in one of his books.

He writes this little quote.

He's a man who did not believe that the world had eternal meaning or purpose.

He writes this I don't know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it, but I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it.

Because I understand only in human terms.

What I touch, that is what I understand.

Is that true?

I'm unconvinced, but let's just grant it for a moment.

Even if that were true, could you still fear God?

According to what we read in our scripture reading, and the answer is yes.

The beginning of the New Testament opens in the Gospel of John in chapter 1, verse 1, with this word.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

The word word is the Greek word logos.

Logos is a technical Greek philosophical term.

A term that was used in Greek philosophy to describe the ordering principle that governed the natural world and gave it meaning and purpose.

Greek philosophers believe that there were various natural elements in the world, but what gave the entire natural world order, purpose, meaning was this force they called the logos.

And they didn't understand it, and there were various schools that debated about what it was.

And when John writes his gospel, he seizes on that world and sh on that word and shouts to the world the governing, organizing force in the universe that gives it its meaning and its purpose is nothing in the natural world.

It's the God that made the natural world.

And when you know him, then your life will have meaning and purpose.

But more than that, he goes on in the rest of the text to say in verse 14, And that word, that logos, became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory.

Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

This God that made the world ripped off the lid of the heavens under which we live, and the Son came into this meaningless world so that we could know him.

The culmination of his life is to stand in our place on a cross wherein he endures the wrath that we rightly deserve for eternity for our sins of ignoring and rejecting the God that made us, for our sins of replacing the God that made us with fleeting idols in this world, with replacing the Creator for the creation.

Christ stands in our place and bears the wrath we deserve, resurrects from the dead, and now stands through the gospel, calling all people everywhere to repent and come to me for forgiveness of your sins and to be brought to God, the God who made you, the God who loves you, the God who will give you purpose, meaning, and fulfillment for your entire life, now and forever.

You can know this God.

John even says in John chapter 1, what we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands, that we proclaim to you, so that your joy may be complete.

John 1 · chapter mention

Because when you come to know this Jesus, Peter says that he fills your heart with joy inexpressible and full of glory, and he orients your entire life.

The reason for living is a person, Jesus Christ.

The reason for living is to know him, to rejoice in him, to fear him, to serve him, to suffer for him, to labor for him.

And when your entire life is oriented around this person, Jesus Christ, everything you do in this life matters.

It's Jesus who reverses the meaninglessness of life.

That's the reason for living is to fear Jesus Christ, to keep his commandments and enjoy him forever.

But there's one more thing that we should get out of Ecclesiastes before we move on this morning.

So if you're still there in Ecclesiastes, let me invite you to flip back a couple chapters to chapter three.

Because when you understand this, the life in this world is meaningless apart from God, but when you know God, your life has eternal meaning and significance, then there's a new way to live in a fallen, fleeting world.

It's often said that Ecclesiastes begins with a little note of hope, ends with a little note of hope, and there's nothing but bleakness in between.

And so usually chapters two through eleven are glossed over because that's the pessimistic stuff in the book.

I think that's unfortunately a major reduction.

This book is replete with wisdom for how to live in a fallen world in a way that matters for eternity.

And I just want to walk you through a couple texts to close this morning to help you see this that when you fear God, he enables you to enjoy life.

Look at chapter three and verse twelve.

I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

This is God's gift to man.

Jump to chapter eight and verse fifteen.

Solomon continues in this notion that in this world there is joy to be found when you live when you live in relation to God.

Chapter 8, verse 15.

I commend joy, for man is nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will be with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

He keeps going.

Chapter 9, verse 7.

I'm just selecting a few of my favorites.

But we could do this for a long time.

Solomon is not nearly as pessimistic as many people have made him out to be.

Chapter 9 and verse 7.

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Let your garments always be white, let not oil be lacking on your head, enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vein, that is fleeting life that He's given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life, and the toil in which you toil under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield to which you are going.

Here's the message of Ecclesiastes.

Life in this world is a fleeting breath.

If this is all there is, then it's all vanity.

But the truth of the matter is that this fleeting breath is not all there is.

It's just the beginning.

And everything that you do in this fleeting time that you have on earth will matter forever.

So live this life in relation to God in entire submission to Him and look around at the life that He has given you, look at the family He has given you, look at the job He has given you, look at the home He has given you, look at the kids and the neighbors, look at the life He has given you, and seize it this moment for the sake of Jesus Christ.

When you live in relationship to God and you understand that my life is a breath and I will live forever, then you're freed up to enjoy the little bubbles of enjoyment in this life.

When you're no longer trying to put any weight on them because you know that the pleasures of this of this life are gifts from God to be enjoyed for a moment, and they just remind me that the joys of the God who gave them are infinitely better.

And when your hand finds something to do, verse 9, do it with all your might.

There is work for you to do in this world.

And Solomon would say, do it now.

Seize this moment, seize this opportunity, seize the life God has given you.

Don't waste time wishing for another life.

Don't waste time wishing for manyana.

Take this moment, live this day, seize this day for Jesus Christ.

You don't know that you'll have another moment to pour into your kids.

You don't know you'll have another moment to show them Christ.

You don't know that you will have another moment to tell your neighbors of Christ.

You don't know that you will have another moment to labor at your job, not for man, but for God, knowing that He will give you a reward.

Seize this moment for the sake of Jesus Christ because very quickly the grave is coming and you'll have no more chance.

Everything you do now lasts into eternity.

Every breath, every thought is infused with eternal significance in this life.

And Solomon is at pains to help you to see that there's really only two extremes in human life.

There is utter futility in life under the sun, or there is joy and satisfaction in life with God, knowing that everything I do for him matters.

There's no middle path.

There's vanity and there's infinite joy.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

May God give us the grace to embrace his son and enjoy this life.

Amen.

Father, we worship you because of who you are.

We ask that you would open the eyes of our hearts to behold wonderful things in your law.

Lord, we have just looked at wonderful things in your law, so now we ask, would you seal them to our hearts?

Awaken our affections to love you and to love your son.

To be in awe of him, to be compelled by him, consumed by him.

Or give us a desire to marshal everything we have at our disposal in this life in service to you.

Father, make us people who recognize that life is fleeting, time is short, everything we do for you matters.

Lord, give us energy, enthusiasm, zeal for you.

We'll pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thank you for joining Emmanuel Bible Church today through this resource.

It's my prayer that if you live in the DC area, I'll be able to meet you on some Sunday at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church, you can go to IBC.church.

Or for information on the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource helps you seek God through Jesus Christ, serve the Lord with joy, and share him with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.