Grasping at Wind & Searching for God

Well, good morning. Before I get in, before I

get in, let me share something. Over the years,

I have had more pastoral conversations than I

can count. I have watched people methodically

work through what we might call the American

Christian checklist. The good life, right? Get

the degree. Check. Land the job. Check. Find

the spouse. Check. Buy the house. Check. Raise

the kids. Check. Build a retirement account.

Check. Go to church. Check. And I've sat across

from person after person who has really worked

diligently to fill those check boxes more and

more, but there's always something at the bottom

of that page that they can't check. They can't

even name it. They just know that something is

missing. Maybe you've learned this. You can have

a good job, money in your bank account, friends

who love you, a healthy family, and yet your

soul can feel like it's grasping at something

that it just can't hold. You can't identify it.

You just know that you're restless. Now, if that's

familiar at all to any of you, I want you to

know that you're in good company. Solomon felt

it too. And for 21 sermons across nearly three

years, we've been sitting with him in that restlessness.

And today is the day. This is it. This is the

finale of our series in Ecclesiastes, grasping

at wind, searching for God. 21 sermons, 12 chapters,

nearly three years of journeying with one incredibly

honest king who wrestled out loud with the same

questions that many of us wrestle with in private.

I first just want to thank you. I genuinely want

to thank the body for walking through this book

with me. It hasn't been an easy series. I know

that. We've sat in some heavy chapters together.

We've talked about death. We've talked about

injustice. We've talked about the apparent absurdity

of life under the sun. In some weeks, I know

that you left here more unsettled than when you

arrived. But that's okay, because Solomon wanted

us to be unsettled. That was part of the point.

But you kept showing up. You kept opening your

Bibles. You kept wrestling. And so this morning,

we get a look at the entire puzzle that is Ecclesiastes

and appreciate it as a whole. Before we do, let

me describe a few people, and I want you to see

if you recognize yourself in any of them. A college

student who is sharp, driven, in their final

year, maybe even has a job opportunity lined

up, and yet at 2 a .m. they find themselves scrolling,

doom scrolling, through their phone, wondering,

is this all there is? Is this what my life is

going to feel like? There's checking boxes. A

young couple, maybe they're engaged, maybe they're

just married, they did everything right. You

know, the Christian courtship, the counseling,

the beautiful wedding. Now six months in, they're

staring at each other across the kitchen table

and they're thinking, I love this person, but

why do I still feel like something's missing?

How about the busy adult? Kids and all kinds

of activities, a wonderful mortgage you get to

pay off every month, a career that's being built

for maybe a decade or more, but exhausted. Not

just tired, but exhausted in the soul. The life

they've built, it looks successful from the outside,

but something feels hollow inside. Maybe consider

an older saint. They're looking back over 60

or 70, 80 years and wondering, did any of it

matter? Did I waste my life? What do I have to

show for it now that my body is failing and I

feel like my usefulness is fading? Well, here's

the good news. Solomon, who is the wisest, wealthiest,

most accomplished man who ever lived apart from

Christ himself, sat down and wrote an entire

book for every single one of us. The students,

the newlyweds, the exhausted adults and parents,

the regretful saints. I've said it before, but

Ecclesiastes is not a depressing book written

by an old cynic. It is a compassionate, brutally

honest book written by a man who had everything

this world offers and who discovered empirically

through direct experiment that nothing under

the sun satisfies the human soul. So this morning,

we're going to do something a little different

than our normal verse by verse walk. This is

our finale. So I want to take you on a survey,

a greatest hits tour, if you will, through 12

chapters, picking up the key threads that God

wove throughout this whole book. And then we're

going to land the plane exactly where Solomon

himself was pointing, whether he fully realized

it or not, at the feet of Jesus Christ, the only

one who can satisfy the appetite of the human

soul. Sound good? All right, well, we have four

key points this morning. First, we're going to

rightly understand that word that everyone is

confused about, vanity. It echoes through the

whole book. We're going to look at Solomon's

exposure of the materialistic mind. And friends,

this is going to hit close to home for those

of us who live in 21st century America. Third,

we're going to see God's hidden purpose, even

in the chaos and the crookedness of life. And

finally, we're going to arrive at Solomon's final

word of wisdom. And we're going to discover that

3 ,000 years ago, he was pointing at something.

At some one he couldn't yet fully see, but we,

this side of the cross, Get to know by name.

Amen? So start at the beginning. We've shown

you this outline since the beginning of 2023.

Can you believe that? November. But I want to

start with the first section here in Ecclesiastes

1 -2. Some of you read this. If you have your

Bible open, verse 2, chapter 1. Vanity of vanities,

says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is

vanity. Now, I need to address this right up

front because if you've walked through this series

with me, you know that almost every single time

I've said this, our final Sunday, we have to

nail it down. How often people misunderstand

that word. But if you misunderstand it, it determines

how you understand the rest of the book. You

miss all of it if you miss this word. That Hebrew

word translated as vanity is hevel. In English,

vanity carries that connotation of meaninglessness.

worthlessness, a complete waste. But if that's

what Solomon meant, this book would be nothing

but despair. It will be a suicide note disguised

as wisdom literature. But that's not what Havel

means. Havel in Hebrew literally means breath

or vapor. It's the word used for that visible

wisp of air that you see on a cold morning that

emanates from your warm cup of coffee or for

you tea drinkers. It's like the mist that rises

over the mountains when the sun comes out and

that brisk morning gives way to the sunshine.

It's like smoke rising or dissipating. Here's

another thing. You may have known this or you

may have figured it out, but that same word,

Havel, is identified in Genesis 4. as Adam and

Eve's second son, we call him Abel. In Hebrew,

his name would be Havel, capital H. Wasn't his

life cut tragically short like a breath? Do you

see it? Solomon isn't saying that life is meaningless.

He's saying that life is fleeting, vaporous,

here one moment and then gone the next. Like

your breath on a January morning. We're waiting

for those mornings, I know. But you can see it,

you know it's real, you're breathing, but you

reach out to try to grab it and it's gone. That

changes everything, doesn't it? Vanity of vanities.

It's not Solomon shaking his fist at the heavens

and saying none of it matters. It's Solomon standing

at the window and pensively thinking, watching

his breath fade into the cold air and he's saying

this, look how quickly this is passing. Look

how brief everything is. Friends, it's not nihilism.

That's a wake -up call. That's why in chapter

3, verse 1, he says this. There is an appointed

time for everything. And there is a time for

every matter under heaven. Not chaos. Appointed.

Not random. Timed. Solomon isn't despairing over

the brevity of life. He's cataloging it. He's

really reverently approaching this because he

understands that every single moment, even the

breath that you're taking while you're listening

to me pontificate, has a time and purpose stamped

by God. Every moment. In the midst of divine

intentionality, we recognize also in this same

book, one of the most counter -cultural verses

in all of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 7 .2. Better

to go to a house of mourning than to go to a

house of feasting, because that's the end of

all mankind, and the living puts this in his

heart. Now think about that for a second. Solomon

is telling us this. A funeral teaches us more

than a party. Why? Because the funeral forces

us to remember this is Havel. This is a breath.

And the living, the ones who are still taking

those breaths, need to take that to heart. And

do you see how that already reframes the whole

book? To that college student, doom -scrolling

at 2 a .m., wondering if their life is just checking

boxes, Solomon isn't saying that life is pointless.

He's saying life is short. And precisely because

it's short, every day matters. Matters immensely.

To the grieving heart in this room this morning,

I know some of you buried someone this year.

Solomon isn't minimizing grief either. He's actually

acknowledging it. Life really is like a breath.

It vanishes quickly. That's why even if some

of you are familiar with James chapter 4, we

James 4 · chapter mention

learn this. It says you are a vapor that appears

for a little while and then vanishes away. James

is writing under the inspiration of the same

Holy Spirit. He uses almost the same imagery

that Solomon used a thousand years earlier. So

it's not a new idea that after Christ comes onto

the scene we learn this. It's an affirmation

of an enduring principle. Here's the first point.

Don't read vanity as worthless. Start reading

vanity as fleeting. Solomon isn't handing you

despair. In fact, it's like he's handing you

a clock and he's just tapping at the glass saying,

look how fast these hands are moving. What are

you going to do with the time that you have?

That question is going to matter even more as

we move into the second point. Because Solomon

is going to show us what most people do with

their fleeting time. And it's not pretty. Following

our book outline, Havel, vanity is the diagnosis

Solomon gives us for the human condition. Things

are fleeting, breath -like, passing. Then he

spends nearly the first half of the book on his

case study, his personal lab report. What do

people typically do to try to cope with that

fleetingness? I need to tell you that this section

of the book was written for us. It wasn't just

applicable in the context of Solomon's day for

an agrarian society 3 ,000 years ago. It's also

written for us in one of the wealthiest nations

that this world has ever seen in an era of unprecedented

consumer choice. Solomon starts in chapter 2

with pleasure. He builds houses. He plants vineyards.

He gathers silver and gold, wealth. He acquires

singers and instruments and the arts. All that

the eyes desire, verse after verse of unrestrained

indulgence. And do you know what he comes to?

The conclusion in Ecclesiastes 2 .24. There's

nothing better for a man than to eat and drink

and tell himself that his labor is good. I don't

want you to misread that as hedonism. Solomon

isn't saying eat, drink, and be merry, and that's

the whole point of everything. He's saying even

ordinary daily provision is a gift from the hand

of God. Receive it with gratitude. Don't grasp

those gifts as the source of ultimate meaning.

In chapter five, he gives us more warnings about

worship and wealth together. He says, don't be

hasty with your mouth or impulsive in your heart.

to bring up a matter in the presence of God.

God is in heaven, you are on earth. Let your

words be few. In 5 .7, in many dreams and vanities

are many words. Rather, fear God. I want you

to hear this one in Ecclesiastes 5 .10 very clearly.

He who loves money will not be satisfied with

money, nor he who loves abundance with its produce.

This too is vanity. And again, he says in 518,

he gives that balance. Here's what I've seen

to be good. To eat, to drink, and to see good

in all one's labor, for this is his portion.

Do you see the tension that Solomon is holding?

Enjoy what God gives you, but do not love it.

Receive it as a gift, but do not worship it as

a God. Let me come to A verse that, as I've studied,

I think this is the fulcrum of the entire section,

maybe even the whole book. But it's Ecclesiastes

6 -7. All a man's labor is for his mouth, and

yet the soul is not satisfied. Let that sink

in for a moment. Solomon, the man with more wealth

than any of us will ever see. More wives, hopefully

we don't ever see that many wives. More wisdom,

more building projects, more accomplishments.

And he looks at all of the human striving that

he could do, which far out exceeds anything we

can, and he reduces it to this principle. He

said, we labor for our soul, and yet our soul

is never satisfied with our labor. Wow. Some

of your translations may have the word soul,

translated as appetite. The Hebrew word is nephesh.

Now, that word, it's actually the same word used

for soul throughout the Old Testament. It has

a connotation of that which breathes. And you

pair that with vanity, which is a breath, you

really get a sense that Solomon is teaching us

that we who breathe have short breaths. He's

making it very clear. But let's continue. We

need to see that nefesh is not physical hunger.

Solomon is telling you that your soul has an

appetite and no amount of labor, no amount of

achievement, no amount of acquisition or accomplishment

can satisfy or fill your soul. Solomon tried

it all. He didn't theorize about wealth. He had

wealth. He didn't speculate. about pleasure or

enjoyment. He pursued pleasure exhaustively,

systematically, like a scientist running an experiment

with an unlimited budget. And his conclusion

with divine inspiration is this, the soul's appetite

cannot be satisfied by what this world offers.

Not even with Solomon -level abundance. Let me

bring this practical, because I don't want to

stay just theoretical. You think of the couple

I mentioned earlier, the one who's married, maybe

they're a few years in, and they have that disquiet

that starts creeping in, that dissatisfaction.

Maybe it's not dramatic, maybe there's no affair,

maybe there's no crisis, but a persistent sense

that one spouse thinks, if my spouse were a little

more like this, or a little less like that, or

if we had this, or if we had that, then I'd be

happy. That's Ecclesiastes 6 -7 playing out in

marriage. That soul appetite is never satisfied

because you're asking your spouse, you're asking

your circumstances to fill that nefesh hole that

was never designed to be filled by things of

the earth. You think about the adult, the person

who's always chasing the greener pasture, the

new job, the new city, the new friends, the new

hobby, the new version of themselves. Every time

the new thing arrives, the satisfaction lasts

maybe three weeks, and then the itch returns.

Friends, that's not a character flaw that's unique

to that person. That's the universal condition

that Solomon is diagnosing. We read, you can

go back and read it in verse 8 of chapter 1.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the

ear filled with hearing. You can't get enough.

And here's something almost humorous then that

Solomon points out in chapter 5, verse 12. He

says essentially this, the poor laborer sleeps

sweetly. The poor person, whether he eats little

or much. But the abundance of the rich doesn't

allow him to sleep. Have you ever noticed that

the more choices, the more resources and options

that people have, the more anxious and sleepless

they often become? I think there's a strange

freedom in small, simple life. From my observations,

I'll call this the five -mile radius life. The

person whose whole world is their home. their

church, their neighborhood, their handful of

relationships. They often sleep better than the

person who's managing a portfolio of properties,

relationships, and all kinds of possibilities

spread across time zones. More options do not

produce more peace. Often, more options produce

less. Solomon continues. He puts a darker cap

in chapter 9, verse 3. He says this is an evil

and all that's done under the sun, that there

is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts

of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity.

It's all in their hearts throughout their lives.

Those are strong words. But let me explain this.

Solomon is just bringing the logic to its conclusion.

If the appetite of the soul is never satisfied

by what's under the sun, and if death comes for

everyone, regardless of how they lived, then

the human heart, when it's left to chase satisfaction

and created things, will eventually spiral into

a kind of madness, a restless grasping at wind

that never finds rest. Let me ask you a question

this morning, and I want you to answer it honestly

with the Lord. What is your soul's appetite currently

reaching for? Is it a relationship? Is it a promotion?

Is it a direction? A physical body that looks

a certain way? A retirement account that finally

feels safe? A house in a different neighborhood?

A family? A future planned with all your desires?

I'm not telling you those things are inherently...

sinful to desire or to pursue. Solomon himself

says, enjoy your labor, eat your bread, drink

your wine. It's a gift from God. But he's telling

you, with the full weight of his own failed experiment,

none of it will satisfy nephesh. None of it.

Even a Solomon level abundance. So if not anything

else, then what? What? Solomon's not quite ready

to answer that yet. Because before he gets there,

he wants to show us something else. Something

about how God is working, even when life feels

crooked and chaotic and unjust. And that's our

third point here. Now, if Solomon had stopped

it, nothing satisfies. This book would just be

one long groan. But he doesn't stop there. Because

woven throughout this book, sometimes in the

very same paragraphs as his most depressing observations,

Solomon keeps returning to this thought. There

is a sovereign God who has hidden purposes. Ecclesiastes

3 .11 makes this abundantly clear. It's one of

the most theologically rich verses, actually,

in the whole book. He's made everything beautiful

in its time. He's also set eternity in their

heart yet so that man will not find out the work

which God has done from the beginning even to

the end. Two massive truths in one verse. First,

God has made everything appropriate, fitting,

beautiful in its appointed time. Nothing is random.

Second, God has placed eternity in the human

heart. That restlessness that we talked about,

that ache that nothing in this world satisfies,

Solomon says God put it there on purpose. You

were built with an eternity shaped void precisely

so that you would look beyond under the sun and

search for the one who is above it. Chapter seven,

verse 13. He says, consider the work of God who

is able to straighten what he has bent. Then

verse 14, in the day of prosperity, be happy.

But in the day of adversity, consider, God has

made the one as well as the other so that man

will not discover anything that will be after

him. And then he jars us here in verse 29. He

says, I pray you see the shape of Solomon's argument

here. God is the one who bends and shapes circumstances.

Some are prosperous. Some are adverse. We don't

get to choose which season we're in. And we certainly

don't get to straighten what he's bent. But that's

not fatalism. In fact, it's an invitation to

trust him. Verse 29 clarifies where the crookedness

in the world actually comes from. It's not from

God's design. It's from man's own devices. It's

from our sin, twisting what God made good, twisting

what he made upright. It's us. Chapter 8, verse

14 says this. There is a vanity which is done

on the earth. That is, there are righteous men

to whom it happens according to the works of

the wicked. On the other hand, there are wicked

men to whom it happens according to the works

of the righteous. Solomon is looking straight

at the injustice of this world. Good people suffering,

bad people prospering. But he doesn't flinch

in naming it It's a breath -like absurdity from

our limited vantage point. But then he says this

almost comically in chapter 10. He said, And

he tells us that he saw slaves riding on horses,

slaves on horses, and princes walking on the

ground. Have you ever turned on the news and

thought, how on earth did that person end up

in charge of anything? Solomon saw it 3 ,000

years ago. Folly is set in high places. That's

not just a California thing. That's not just

a U .S. government thing. But where does that

leave us? Chapter 11, verses 9 and 10. He takes

another pivot. He says, be glad, young man, during

your childhood and let your heart be merry during

the days of young manhood. remove vexation from

your heart, put away evil from your flesh, because

childhood and the prime of life are vanity. There's

that word again, vanity, hevel, fleeting. Notice,

though, his response to things being fleeting

isn't despair. Yes, rulers can be foolish. Yes,

bad things can happen to good people and good

things to bad people. Instead of despairing over

all of it, He actually invites us to have godly

joy, to hold loosely to the things that we do

have in submission to God who ordained crooked

and straight things alike. Maybe you're sitting

here this morning and you're carrying some regret.

Maybe you're one of the older saints and you

look back and you think you wasted years, you

made choices that you can't undo. Maybe you didn't

study God's word enough. Maybe you're still learning

to apply it. Maybe your body doesn't work the

way it used to. Maybe you're wondering what you

still have left to offer. Solomon's answer, even

to that person, isn't to fade away in lament

or in penance. Solomon's answer is this. God

has been sovereign over every bent and crooked

season of your life. Even the ones that you caused.

He set eternity in your heart still. And that

means your story's not over. Your usefulness

in God's economy was never measured by your productivity

in the first place. Some of you know this verse

out of Isaiah 46. It's a promise that God makes

to his covenant people and it echoes the same

truth. Even to your old age, I will be the same.

And even to your graying years, I will bear you.

I have done it and I will carry you. and I will

bear you, and I will rescue you. And I pray that

we all learn and remember this, that the God

who bent the crooked places of our lives is the

same God who carries us all the way to the end.

His purposes for us don't expire when our calendar

turns 60 or 70 or 90. And Solomon's shown us

then, life is fleeting. Our appetites can't be

satisfied by created things, and even the chaos

and crookedness of this world is under the sovereign

hand of a good God who has set eternity in our

hearts. We're the ones who bend it. We're the

ones who turn the upright wrong. Finally now,

Solomon is ready to land the plane, and I want

you to lean in. It's the destination this entire

book has been building towards. You've probably

been waiting for it. So turn with me, if you

will, to our final anchor text this morning in

Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Solomon is an old man

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

now. He's reflecting on his own life's experiment.

Beginning of verse one, he tells us this, remember

also your creator and the days of your youth.

Before the evil days happen, before the years

draw near, when you say I have no delight in

him. It's after this that he gives his haunting,

poetic description of the body aging like a house.

The keepers of the house trembling, the grinders,

the teeth ceasing, the windows growing dim. But

then he arrives at verses 11 through 14, and

we haven't had a chance to stand for the reading

of God's word yet here, so let's do it for this

one. I'm going to read Ecclesiastes 12, verses

Ecclesiastes 12:11–14

11 to 14. The words of wise men are like goads,

and masters of these collections are like well

-driven nails. They are given by one shepherd.

But in addition to this, my son, be warned. The

making of many books is endless, and much devotion

to books is wearying to the flesh. The end of

the matter, all that has been heard, fear God

and keep his commandments, because this is the

end of the matter for all mankind. For God will

bring every work to judgment, everything which

is hidden, whether it is good or evil. You may

be seated. I know this was our text from last

week, but I didn't get to go into everything.

I want you to notice one of those phrases. Well

-driven nails given by one shepherd. The Hebrew

word for nails here. Masmerot, it pictures something

fixed, immovable, driven so deep that it holds

firm under pressure. Solomon is telling us that

true wisdom, it's not a passing trend. It's not

just the hottest thing on TikTok. It's not the

most popular podcast. It's not counseling for

adults with aging parents. It's definitely not

this weird. separation thing that's going on

these days. Blocking people out of your life?

How childish is that? You can tell I have feelings

about this. Solomon tells us that true wisdom

is fixed. It is anchored. It is given by one

shepherd himself. Who is that shepherd? Psalm

23 tells us really clearly, Yahweh is my shepherd.

Maybe you learned it growing up, the Lord is

my shepherd. Same. What does Jesus say in John

John 10:11

chapter 10, verse 11? I am the good shepherd.

And the good shepherd does what? Lays down his

life for the sheep. The same shepherd who fixed

wisdom like a well -driven nail into Solomon's

book is the shepherd who himself was nailed to

a cross. for our sake? Do you see the thread

that God is weaving? Solomon's final word, after

12 chapters of relentless honesty, the fleetingness

of life, the insatiable appetite of the human

soul, he brings us to a very simple conclusion.

Fear God, keep his commandments. He doesn't say

acquire more. He doesn't say experience more

pleasure. He doesn't say achieve more legacy.

He actually doesn't say follow me. He says fear

God. Full stop. So I want to bring you back one

last time. I mentioned that I thought that this

verse might be the fulcrum of this entire book.

It's Ecclesiastes 6 -7. All a man's labor is

for his mouth, and yet the soul is not fulfilled.

See, Solomon knew 3 ,000 years before the incarnation

that the human soul, the nephesh, was built with

an appetite that nothing under the sun could

fill. Now, he didn't have the whole picture.

He couldn't have known the name of the one who

would come to fill it. But by the Spirit's inspiration,

he wrote the diagnosis with startling accuracy.

And he left the prescription open, waiting to

be fulfilled. From our position in redemptive

history, we get to know the rest of the story.

We get to stand where Solomon could only point.

Listen as I read part of Psalm 63. It's a Psalm

of David written in the wilderness of Judah.

He says this, O God, you are my God. I shall

seek you earnestly. My soul thirsts for you.

My flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land

without water. Psalm 42 paints a similar picture.

As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants

for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for

the living God. Do you hear the appetite? Do

you hear what Solomon diagnosed? That nefesh,

the labor and labor that's never satisfied. David,

Solomon's father, described it as a thirst for

God himself. It's not a thirst for wealth. It's

not a thirst for pleasure. It's not a thirst

for legacy and accomplishment. It's a thirst

for the living God. And at the proper appointed

time, Jesus, we know him as Emmanuel, God with

us. He stands up in John chapter 6, and he says

John 6 · chapter mention

the words that finishes Solomon's sentence 3

,000 years later. John 6, 35, he says, I am the

bread of life. He who comes to me will never

hunger, and he who believes in me will never

thirst. Do you understand what's happening there?

Jesus is answering Ecclesiastes 6, verse 7 directly.

Ecclesiastes 6:7

We read, all a man's labor is for his mouth,

and yet the soul is not fulfilled. It's not satisfied.

And so Jesus says, come to me, and I will satisfy

it. Not with bread that perishes, but with myself,

the bread that endures to eternal life. Some

of you remember what Jesus said to the woman

at the well in John chapter 4. She was thirsty

John 4 · chapter mention

in more ways than one. And Jesus told her, whoever

drinks of the water that I give will never thirst.

The water that I give will become a well of water.

springing up to eternal life. Solomon searched

the whole earth, wealth, pleasure, wisdom, accomplishment,

legacy, a lot of opportunities that we sitting

in our very privileged seats today are able to

do. But he concluded this, the appetite cannot

be satisfied by anything under the sun. So Jesus

steps into human history. and he shows us that

he is not under the sun. He is the sun who made

our sun. He is the enduring light in the darkness.

He is the path, he is the way, and he can satisfy

what nothing under heaven ever could and ever

was supposed to. Earlier in our call to worship,

Psalm 16 gave us the destination of that satisfaction.

It said, you will make known to me. The path

of life. And your presence is fullness of joy.

Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Not

a fleeting breath of pleasure. We take these

things in this world and we forget it is like

soap bubbles. It disappears so quick. We try

to grab it and we can never hold it. But where

are pleasures forevermore? In his presence. At

his right hand. See, that is the whole arc of

Ecclesiastes, and I want you to see it clearly

this morning. Life is a breath. It is fleeting.

And the appetite of the soul cannot be satisfied

by anything under the sun. To remember that the

crooked and chaotic seasons of life are still

held by that sovereign hand of God who has set

eternity in our hearts, and that the conclusion

of the whole matter is to fear God and obey Him,

to keep His commandments. Why? Because that God,

in the fullness of time, he sent his own son

to be the most well -driven nail of wisdom, the

good shepherd, the bread of life, the living

water. It's in his presence that we find the

fullness of joy forevermore. Your restless soul

can stop grasping when it's in Christ. So let

me bring this home with some practical application.

First, if you're here this morning and you're

exhausted from grasping at wind, chasing satisfaction

and accomplishments, relationships, possessions,

I want you to hear the invitation of Christ this

morning. He says, come to me. He didn't say try

harder. He didn't say acquire more. He didn't

say do more things. He said, come. Matthew 5,

6 says, That is not you doing work. That is a

promise of him satisfying because he can fill

our longing hearts. Second, Solomon gives us

counsel toward a quiet and faithful life. It's

not a call to passivity, but it's a call to contentment.

He echoes, or this is really echoed, In 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 4:11

4, verse 11, Paul teaches us to make it our ambition

to lead a quiet life, to attend to our own business,

to work with our hands. So I want you to hear

this because we are in a culture, especially

in this university, Southern California town,

that glorifies hustle. We glorify ambition. We

glorify constant striving and full schedules.

Do we not? Hey, just know yourselves. Know the

culture that we're in. Ecclesiastes and Paul

calls us to something that is countercultural,

a quiet life, faithfully lived, content in Christ,

not because you've stopped working, but because

you've stopped striving, expecting your work

to satisfy your soul. Third, for those of you

carrying regret this morning, carrying weariness

or the sense that your best years are behind

you, Philippians 4 .19 promises this. My God

will supply all your needs according to his riches

and his glory in Christ Jesus. Now, I don't think

it's just for the older saint. I think it's for

all of us. Your satisfaction was never meant

to come from your productivity. Your satisfaction

is supposed to come from his presence. And that

door is open to you today, regardless of your

age, regardless of your history. Solomon spent

a lifetime and an unlimited budget discovering

that nothing under the sun can satisfy the soul.

We don't need to run that experiment ourselves.

Learn from what he did. Start where he left us

off at. Fear God. Now let's go beyond his ability

because we get to know the name of the one who

fulfills it all. Jesus Christ. our good shepherd,

the bread of life, our living water. We know

that in his presence is fullness of joy, that

at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

We know that. So let's not stop where Solomon

left us. Let's start there and let's move forward.

I want you to think about this. As we close this

series, it's been 21 sermons, 12 chapters of

God's word, three years, and one restless king

pointing us to a satisfying savior. So my prayer

for everyone here is very simple. Stop. at wind.

Instead, come to the one who was himself affixed

to the cross so that we would be affixed to him.

Would you take a moment and pray with me? Father,

we come to an abrupt end. A series that has poked

and prodded us, has wounded us, has caused us

to think, has made us uncomfortable, has perhaps

shaken some foundations of our beliefs and our

thoughts, but has been used by you to draw us

to you. We come to you with that same jarring

ending. that Solomon leaves us at, the end of

the matter is this. We come before you. We come

before you recognizing that we are people who

grasp at wind. And so we thank you for your patience

with us. We thank you for meeting us in our restlessness,

not just condemning us for it. Lord God, you

know how fleeting our days are. You know that

they are like breath, and you are teaching us

that. over and over and over again, please keep

teaching us to number our days. That we wouldn't

be anxious, but that we'd be grateful. Help us

to treasure what you've given rather than chase

things that you never promised. So we confess

our appetites have run after so many things that

cannot satisfy. Money, pleasure, control. the

approval of others, even good things like family

and work, these things we've made to be our gods

instead of you. So would you forgive us for our

pursuit of idolatry? We thank you that where

our labor fails, your son, our savior, Christ,

succeeds. because he is the bread of life. He

is the living water that our souls have been

needing all along, even when we didn't know his

name, even when we weren't looking. So like David,

we repeat, and I ask this to be our prayer growing

more and more each day, that we would thirst

for you, that we would yearn for you, that we

would see this as a dry and weary land. We can

still appreciate the good gifts, but help us

to long for the giver. And like your promise

in the Psalms, we ask that you would make us

to know the path of life. Fill us with the fullness

of joy in your presence and the pleasures that

can be ours at your right hand with Christ. Not

the fleeting things here, not these things that

vanish like a vapor, but the everlasting joy

that is only found in knowing you and being known

by you. For those of us carrying regret this

morning, would you remind them that you are sovereign

over even the crooked and chaotic seasons? Would

you remind us that you carry your people all

the way to the end, even with the gray hair?

And for those who are exhausted from all their

striving today, would you grant them the grace

of a quiet, faithful life? content in Christ

alone? We also ask for your mercy upon those

here who do not know you. For anyone who has

not come to you and come to your son for satisfaction,

would you use the words today spoken from your

word to draw them to yourself? And so we thank

you. Jesus, thank you for walking our church

family through this entire book of Ecclesiastes.

Thank you for your patience with our questions,

with our doubts, with our restlessness along

the way. And so we pray very simply as we depart

our fellowship today and from this book, that

apart from you, all is vanity, a breath quickly

gone. But seal this truth in you, in Christ.

Our souls find what they were made for. And we

ask all of this in the saving and satisfying

name of Jesus Christ, our good shepherd. Amen.