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Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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I think the children are talking to each other this morning.
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And please take out your copy of God's Word.
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Turn to the book of Ecclesiastes.
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After a long couple weeks of introduction,
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we are going to really look at the text this morning, I promise.
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So turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 1.
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I'm going to read the whole chapter to us, verses 1 through 18.
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The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
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Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.
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Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
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What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
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A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
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The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.
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The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north.
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Around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
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All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.
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To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
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All things are full of weariness.
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A man cannot utter it.
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The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
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What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done.
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And there is nothing new under the sun.
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Is there a thing of which it is said?
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See, this is new.
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It has already been already in the ages before us.
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There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of latter things
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yet to be among those who come after.
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I, the preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I applied my heart to seek
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and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.
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It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
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I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving
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after wind.
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What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
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I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before
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me.
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And my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
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And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.
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I perceive that this also is but a striving after wind.
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For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
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This is God's word.
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It's written for his glory and our good.
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We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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So this is a bit of a sermon.
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If you haven't been here with us the last couple of weeks, the title, Ecclesiastes, simply means
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the preacher.
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It's from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Hebrew text.
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It's an Anglicanized version of that word.
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The Hebrew word quohaleth, which we get the preacher from, carries some idea of an assembly.
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And so that's why we look at this.
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And although it's written likely by Solomon, although we're not completely confident of that,
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that he intended for an audience to pick up and to read as we do today.
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And so it's the words of the preacher.
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And it has a text, verse 2.
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Vanity of vanities.
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All is vanity.
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And most of the rest of the book is an explanation of that.
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And so we must ask, what is the main point that the preacher wants us to grapple with as we study this book together?
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And that main point is that everything is meaningless.
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But we shouldn't stop at that point.
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That would be a very miserable place to cease.
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Why is everything meaningless?
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Verse 3.
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He says, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
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And the answer is because the gain we seek cannot be found under the sun on this earth.
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Mankind tries so very hard to do so, but it simply cannot be done.
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An analogy for this jumped into my head this morning as I was getting ready to come up to the building early,
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and I was looking for matching socks.
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And what a challenge this has been this morning for me to find I have matching socks on,
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but it took some time.
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Those of you who don't know, my wife is pregnant with our third.
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She's not really showing quite yet.
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Let me tell you that you have something adorable to see.
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If you've not seen my wife pregnant, when she starts to round out, you just have no idea.
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Prepare you for that.
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As such, we're a little behind on folding laundry.
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Our clothes are clean, but we're a little behind on that.
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I had to compliment her before I talked about being behind on laundry.
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So I was digging through that.
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Where does the matching sock go?
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This is one of the great mysteries of the universe.
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I found five mismatched socks.
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What in the world?
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I have five socks in my hand going, any of these will work.
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If I could find a match for any one of these, it would work.
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Finally, I found the one that matched.
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Now, in this case, I was looking in the proper place, right?
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I was looking amongst the laundry for the matching sock.
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Hopefully, I'll find the other four that go along with those.
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But mankind, in trying to find gain in this world, does not look in the proper place for that gain.
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And as such, we are so very dissatisfied.
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Jeremiah Burroughs, who was a 17th century Puritan preacher, wrote a wonderful book that I commend to you called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.
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Where he wrote, and I quote,
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The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.
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No, the reason is because the thing is not suitable for a craving stomach.
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Yet there is really the same madness in the world.
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Gain cannot be found in the world in the same way that an empty stomach cannot be filled by the wind.
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Last night, my family took a trip to the Mall of Georgia, which is not a place that we frequent,
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but we needed a power cord for a device here at the church building that's gone missing.
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And Sam was craving some particular food.
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So those two things combined, we said, okay, it's worth the trip down to the Mall of Georgia.
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And as we had to venture into the actual Mall, I am so burdened by a place like that.
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I am so incredibly uncomfortable by that degree of consumerism.
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So much that we don't need.
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John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress, which I'll probably quote to you a number of times in our study of Ecclesiastes,
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writes in part of the story about Christian and his travel mate at the time faithful,
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getting diverted off their path to a place called Vanity Fair.
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The book is almost prophetic concerning the Mall of Georgia.
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You read his writing and there's so many people, and I'm not being cynical about anyone in particular,
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but so many people walking around like zombies, just intoxicated, looking for the next fix to try to be satisfied.
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Souls made for God cannot be filled with anything but Him.
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And the preacher spends the rest of chapter 1 convincing his readers that this is so.
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So I want to look at five observations from the text that reinforce this idea that gain cannot be found in this world.
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It has to be found elsewhere.
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So five observations.
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Number one, our lives will not be remembered.
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First part of verse 4.
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The preacher says a generation goes and a generation comes.
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He's marking out a generation at the beginning of your life and at the end of your life.
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This is the span of a generation.
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Our lives are passing.
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They are momentary.
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They are here today and they are gone tomorrow.
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The psalmist says in Psalm 90.10,
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The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble.
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They are soon gone and we fly away.
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Our lives pass by in a moment.
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Allow me to prove my point for just a moment this morning.
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A little crowd interaction.
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If you are 22 or under, please participate.
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If you're 22 or under, raise your hand.
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Okay.
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Large portion of the crowd.
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Okay.
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22.
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Keep your hands up.
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No, no.
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Keep your hands up.
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Come on.
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Sorry.
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You'll be okay.
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Now I want you, when I say a name that you're not familiar with, and I don't mean like you've
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heard of them, but like you don't know who this person is.
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You couldn't tell me some facts about their life.
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I want you to put your hand down.
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Okay.
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You ready?
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Ready?
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Johnny Carson.
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Oh, I started with the easy one.
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Oh, gosh.
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Okay.
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Joe DiMaggio.
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Hey, okay.
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All right.
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All right.
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Don't put your hand back up.
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That's not okay.
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That once...
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If you didn't get Johnny Carson, you were eliminated.
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I'm very disappointed that my Mac device doesn't know how to spell DiMaggio.
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I had to correct the spell check there.
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Shirley Temple.
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They're getting easier than Johnny Carson.
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Oh, geez.
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Dizzy Gillespie.
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Way to go, Brigham.
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You win.
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You win.
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These are all incredibly significant individuals.
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For the sake of time, I won't tell you who they are.
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Incredibly significant in American culture.
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And yet, they're forgotten.
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Really think about it.
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We have never heard of most people who have ever lived.
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Most of the people who have lived before us, we've never even heard of.
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They have passed through life under the sun in relative obscurity.
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Even those individuals who are significant enough to be in our history books are not known for all that they were,
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but rather for a few facts, maybe a couple of qualities.
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They are remembered, but they're remembered incompletely.
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Passing.
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Vapor.
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Passing through.
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The preacher reiterates this point in verse 11.
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There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
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And again, later in the book, in chapter 6, verse 12.
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For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow.
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We're just blowing through.
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And to go further, the preacher juxtaposes this reality against another.
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The last part of verse 4, he says,
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But the earth remains forever.
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Now, don't try to pull eschatological theology out of that phrase.
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He's just saying in relation to our observation of the way man comes and goes,
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the earth stays fairly the same.
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After you are gone, the sun will rise and the sun will set.
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The waters will still ebb and flow.
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And you will have had very little effect.
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Our lives will not be remembered.
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Second observation.
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Everything is tired.
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Everything is tired.
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Because there is a sense of the permanence of the earth.
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There is a temptation to look to it for our source of gain.
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To look to those things, those material things that we can see that seem not to change.
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And those of you who particularly enjoy being outside, which I think is a large part of our congregation,
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like getting outdoors, like me, have enjoyed rock climbing and whitewater paddling.
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In so many ways, you find fulfillment in that.
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You really need to hear this.
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I am saddened by that culture that says they're spiritual and says that they find God in nature.
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They're missing it.
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Their minds haven't gone quite high enough.
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We certainly cannot deny that there is a pleasure to be found in nature.
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The preacher agrees with us on this.
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Ecclesiastes 11, verse 7.
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He says,
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Light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
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It's an enjoyable thing to be under the sun.
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The sun is a blessing to men.
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But we are warned in other places not to worship the creation.
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One example, Deuteronomy 4, 19.
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Says,
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And beware, lest you raise your eyes to heaven.
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And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the hosts of heaven,
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you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them.
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The creation cries out to us of a creator.
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And it is him that we are ultimately meant to enjoy.
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So go outside and be outside.
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I would encourage this for you.
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But as you enjoy those things that we can visibly see that are beautiful and appealing to us,
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make sure that your mind goes high enough.
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Make sure that you worship the creator who made those things.
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Psalm 19, verse 1 says,
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The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
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It's there to turn us to him, not away from him.
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And the preacher goes on because he wants us to see how ultimately lackluster the creation is.
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And I think you need to rightly read this with a bit of sarcasm.
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Verse 5,
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The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises again and again.
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The sun runs its course.
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The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north.
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Around and around goes the wind and on its circuit the wind returns.
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All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.
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To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
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These things just happen over and over and over again.
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Nothing new, nothing exciting.
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It just continues the way it's always continued.
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Verse 8,
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All things are full of weariness.
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All things, including man, is full of weariness.
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A man cannot utter it.
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Picture him mumbling to his bed.
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A man cannot utter it.
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The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
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Paul takes up this imagery in Romans chapter 8
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and says that the creation is like a slave subjected to futility,
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in bondage to corruption, longing to be set free.
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This place that was once eaten, but that is now corrupted by sin,
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screams of our need of God.
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Everything is tired.
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Third observation.
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Everything is old.
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Everything is old.
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Verse 9,
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What has been is what will be,
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and what has been done is what will be done,
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and there is nothing new under the sun.
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Is there a thing of which it is said,
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See, this is new,
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and it's been already in the ages before us.
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Now, the preacher here is not referring to the things that people create.
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Surely, he would recognize that the smartphone,
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and the MP3 file,
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and the Hubble space telescope,
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and lasers did not exist in his day.
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We could list off many other things.
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Rather, his focus is the striving of man to find gain under the sun,
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and his inability to do so.
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These are all just other manifestations of the very same thing.
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It's all old.
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All men have tried to find gain apart from God.
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It's already been done.
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Don't think you can come up with a new way to do it.
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There is nothing new.
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It's all been tried.
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So as you may as well stop thinking,
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you can figure out some new way to find gain under the sun.
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Everything is old.
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And then the preacher in the text gives us a bit of his own story
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to further make this point.
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This seems to be at the end of chapter 1,
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kind of the summary of what he goes on to give us explanation of
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later on in 2 and 3 and beyond.
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Verse 12 says,
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I, the preacher, have been king of Israel in Jerusalem.
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So we have our fourth observation.
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Number four, we are personally limited.
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We are personally limited.
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The preacher, like us, has an interior life.
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He is a sinful man.
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He has had his heart and flesh altered by sin.
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And therefore, he is dependent on God.
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He must dependently lean on God
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to ultimately sort out and understand
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what is of value in the world and what is vanity.
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Just like us.
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Limited in this way.
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First part of verse 13, he says,
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And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom
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all that is done under heaven.
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I sought this out.
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I worked at this task.
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And although we know that God is the one who provides wisdom,
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he provides it in proper measure.
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Proverbs 2, 3, and 5 says,
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Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
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if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
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then you will understand the fear of the Lord
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and find the knowledge of God.
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So he brings us to that place.
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He helps us to understand in enough measure the vanity of what's under the sun
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so that will be brought to him.
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The preacher, unlike us, has great experience,
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although still limited experience.
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Just think of yourself in comparison to the preacher.
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He says, verse 14,
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I have seen everything that is done under the sun,
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and behold, all this vanity,
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and a striving after the wind.
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Now we know that the preacher is a king over Jerusalem.
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Again, likely, this is Solomon.
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Likely well connected,
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connected to other kings,
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has knowledge beyond the knowledge of the lay person,
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certainly beyond the knowledge that we may have had,
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although it's still a limited knowledge.
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It's still a limited experience.
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And in that limitation,
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he's still able to say all is vanity,
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and it is a striving after the wind.
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The preacher, unlike us,
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has great wisdom.
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I don't think any of us would say we have great wisdom,
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but still it's limited wisdom.
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Verse 16, he says,
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I said in my heart,
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I have acquired great wisdom,
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surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me,
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and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
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I don't know anybody amongst us that can say that,
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that we have surpassing wisdom,
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and great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
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And as such,
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we would do well to listen to the man
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who has great experience of wisdom and of knowledge.
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The preacher, unlike us,
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seems to have the time
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to wrestle with the realities of the world,
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although it's limited time.
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Verse 17, he says,
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And I applied my heart to know wisdom
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and to know madness and folly.
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We see many examples of this later on in the book,
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and there are avenues that he runs out.
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Possible places to gain under the sun
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that he seems to explore to its very end.
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Still limited in his ability to explore,
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but are we not so much more limited than he?
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To try to work out every possible experience
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that can bring us gain.
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And he goes on to say in verse 17,
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I perceived that this also
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is but a striving after the wind.
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The preacher, like us, is limited.
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We are limited in our ability
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to search out these things.
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He says in verse 15,
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What is crooked cannot be made straight.
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He's suggesting that this confusing thing
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that I looked at and perceived to understand
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could not be understood.
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And what is lacking cannot be counted.
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This is an expression of his own limitation
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to understand.
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And then in verse 18,
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For in much wisdom is much vexation.
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And he who increases in knowledge,
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increases in sorrow,
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in this effort to know and to understand
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what can be gained under the sun.
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That's our fourth observation.
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Our fifth observation
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is that we have an unhappy business
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before us.
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The last part of verse 13,
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the preacher says,
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It is an unhappy business
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that God has given
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to the children of man
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to be busy with.
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So, the preacher has told us
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where gain cannot be found.
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He has clearly said,
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It cannot be found under the sun.
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And we will expound upon this
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as we continue to look.
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He recycles through this idea,
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You cannot find gain under the sun.
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And it would seem at this point,
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at least to our minds,
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the most appropriate thing
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to tell us is where gain can be found.
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He hasn't quite done that yet, has he?
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I've been saying it,
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but he hasn't said it yet.
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Doesn't it make the most sense
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that he would do that at this point?
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It already seems time
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to wrap the sermon up.
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He's presented the problem.
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Give us the solution
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to speed us along to the end.
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I want to cry out,
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Don't go on for another 11 chapters.
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I get it.
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I see the vanity of life.
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Where then is the gain?
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Is what we cry.
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But the preacher uses
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a much different tactic.
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Now let's say to you
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it's a valuable one.
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The preacher presents us
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with God in verse 13.
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It's an unhappy business
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that God has given
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to the children of man.
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He presents us with God,
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but he does so
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in such an unsatisfying way.
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He presents God
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as the one who is providentially
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over all that is under the sun.
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As the God who allows
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the vanity of the world
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to continue.
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As the God who wants us
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to deal with the worthlessness
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of the world.
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The preacher leaves us
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uncomfortable
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and longing
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for an answer.
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That's a good place
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to be, beloved.
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Especially if you're
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found in Christ.
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Because you know the answer.
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You can anticipate
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the answer.
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You've experienced
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the answer.
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But it's good for us
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to just stop
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and consider
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how,
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having been delivered
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by Christ,
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do we still
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look for gain
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under the sun?
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Is that not
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an uncomfortable place
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to be
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at the end of
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chapter 1?
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If I haven't
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taken you there,
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go back and read it.
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Stop at the end
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of chapter 1
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and consider all
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that the preacher
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has said so far.
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Zach Eswine,
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in Recovering Eden,
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a commentary
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on this very book,
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wrote,
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Taking time
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amid things
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not yet answered
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provokes discomfort.
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A discomfort
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often required
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in order to recover
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spiritual health.
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A sickly child
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grimaces
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to swallow
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the dark liquid
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that would recover
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her smile.
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It is good
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for us
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to consider
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this unhappy
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business
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that is before us
27:06
because
27:07
it is a business
27:09
meant
27:10
to lead us
27:11
to God.
27:14
Now,
27:14
as we consider
27:15
this text
27:16
week over week,
27:18
I have no idea yet
27:19
how long
27:19
this study
27:20
is going to take us.
27:23
We're looking at it
27:24
in a much different way
27:25
than this was meant
27:26
to be considered.
27:27
It was meant
27:28
to be considered
27:28
as a sermon.
27:30
It was meant
27:30
to be considered
27:30
from the beginning
27:31
to the very end
27:32
that I would
27:33
maybe come up to you
27:34
and just read you
27:34
the text.
27:35
That I would get
27:36
to the conclusion
27:37
that we find
27:38
in chapter 12
27:39
verse 13.
27:41
As we look at it
27:42
individually
27:43
and we try to give
27:44
application to each
27:45
bit of the text,
27:47
it's important
27:47
that I constantly
27:48
remind you
27:49
of the bigger picture.
27:50
That we do,
27:51
in fact,
27:52
speed along
27:52
to the end.
27:53
So,
27:54
I'm stepping out
27:54
of his intention
27:55
a bit
27:56
to remind us
27:57
where it is
27:58
that we find gain.
28:01
But I just wanted
28:01
you to hear
28:02
and to see
28:03
that his intention
28:04
is that you stew
28:06
for a little while.
28:07
That you become
28:08
uncomfortable.
28:09
That you say
28:10
this world
28:11
is not worth
28:12
living for.
28:14
That you would be
28:15
uncomfortable
28:16
at the Mall of Georgia.
28:18
This would be a place
28:19
that you would get
28:19
in and out of
28:20
as quick as you can
28:21
for the thing
28:21
you actually need
28:23
if you find
28:24
your most happy
28:25
at a place like that
28:26
and you have
28:27
some soul searching
28:28
to do.
28:31
So,
28:31
the end of the matter.
28:32
The end of the matter
28:33
is that gain
28:35
is not found
28:36
under the sun.
28:37
What is ultimately
28:38
good for us
28:38
is not found
28:39
under the sun.
28:42
Rather,
28:42
gain is found
28:43
in God
28:44
and everything
28:45
has its proper place
28:47
and its proper time
28:49
in Him.
28:51
Ecclesiastes 12.13
28:53
The preacher says
28:54
the end of the matter
28:55
all has been heard.
28:58
Fear God
28:59
and keep His commandments
29:01
for this
29:02
is the whole duty
29:04
of man.
29:06
I appreciate
29:07
this simplification
29:09
of the Christian life.
29:12
Fear God
29:12
and keep His commandments.
29:14
This is the whole
29:14
duty
29:15
of man.
29:18
Now,
29:18
a proper
29:19
fear of God,
29:20
a right fear of God,
29:21
a fear of God
29:22
that is informed
29:24
by who God
29:25
has revealed Himself
29:25
to us in the Scriptures,
29:27
sends men
29:29
running
29:29
to the cross.
29:32
A proper fear of God
29:33
drives us
29:35
to Christ.
29:37
All of the religious efforts
29:38
of this world,
29:40
the work to find
29:41
acceptance before God,
29:42
the labor
29:43
of trying to work out
29:45
acceptance
29:46
before God
29:47
is a misguided
29:48
fear.
29:49
If we properly
29:51
and rightly
29:51
understand who God is,
29:53
we know that there's
29:53
nothing that we can do
29:55
that will satisfy
29:56
Him.
29:58
A proper fear of God
29:59
presses a splinter
30:01
into our souls
30:02
that festers
30:04
until it is removed
30:05
and only Christ
30:06
can remove it.
30:08
It presses this issue
30:10
upon us,
30:11
this problem
30:12
before us
30:13
that only
30:14
Christ
30:15
can fix.
30:17
not only does He
30:19
bear our punishment,
30:21
but He gives us
30:22
His righteousness
30:23
and restores
30:25
our relationship
30:26
with the Father.
30:29
This is so
30:30
good.
30:32
This is the greatest
30:33
and highest
30:34
good.
30:35
This
30:36
is our gain.
30:39
Psalm 1611
30:40
says,
30:40
in Your presence
30:41
there is fullness
30:43
of joy.
30:44
At Your right hand
30:45
are pleasures
30:46
forevermore.
30:49
So Christ
30:50
is the gain
30:52
that we seek.
30:54
Nothing that can be found
30:55
under the sun
30:56
is gain to us,
30:57
but Christ
30:58
is gain
30:59
to us.
31:02
A familiar text
31:02
for you,
31:03
potentially,
31:04
I hope,
31:04
is Philippians.
31:05
Paul writes about this.
31:06
Turn to the book
31:06
of Philippians
31:07
with me.
31:13
Beloved,
31:13
it's not that you
31:14
were dissatisfied
31:15
apart from Christ
31:16
and then Christ
31:18
picks you up
31:19
out of the mire
31:20
and you suddenly
31:20
become satisfied
31:21
and this is a
31:23
state of being.
31:24
You are now
31:24
satisfied
31:25
and then you can
31:26
go along with
31:27
the normal stuff
31:28
of the world.
31:28
But then you
31:29
become satisfied
31:30
in Christ
31:30
and then you go
31:31
pursue the American
31:32
dream.
31:33
We continue
31:34
to pursue
31:34
satisfaction
31:35
in Christ.
31:36
This is an
31:37
ongoing process
31:38
for us.
31:40
Paul writes
31:40
Philippians 1.21
31:41
For to me,
31:42
to live is Christ
31:43
and to die is gain.
31:45
Why is it gain?
31:45
Because it's more Christ.
31:47
He casts off
31:48
the world
31:49
and he gets to be
31:50
in the presence
31:50
of Christ.
31:52
So,
31:52
for to me,
31:54
the gain is Christ
31:55
and to die is more gain
31:56
because it's more
31:57
Christ.
32:00
He writes later
32:00
in Philippians 3
32:02
beginning in verse 2.
32:03
Look out for the
32:06
dogs.
32:07
Look out for the
32:08
evildoers.
32:09
Look out for those
32:10
who mutilate
32:11
the flesh.
32:12
He's talking about
32:13
the Judaizers.
32:14
Those who wanted
32:14
Christian people
32:15
to be circumcised
32:16
in order to
32:17
work for favor
32:19
in God.
32:20
To not accept
32:20
the favor that they
32:21
had in Christ
32:22
but to work for it
32:23
by their
32:25
appearance
32:26
and by their
32:27
works.
32:28
Verse 3.
32:29
For we are the
32:29
circumcision
32:30
who worship
32:31
by the Spirit
32:31
of God
32:32
and glory
32:33
in Christ
32:33
Jesus
32:33
and put
32:34
no confidence
32:35
in the flesh.
32:37
Now,
32:37
verse 4,
32:38
he begins
32:39
this religious
32:41
pedigree
32:42
that he has.
32:43
This outward
32:43
working,
32:44
this labor
32:45
to be pleasing
32:45
before God.
32:46
Though I myself
32:47
have reason
32:48
for confidence
32:48
in the flesh
32:49
also,
32:50
if anyone else
32:51
thinks he has
32:52
reason for confidence
32:52
in the flesh,
32:53
I have more.
32:55
Circumcised on
32:56
the eighth day
32:56
of the people
32:57
of Israel,
32:58
of the tribe
32:59
of Benjamin,
33:00
a Hebrew
33:00
of Hebrews,
33:02
as to the law,
33:03
a Pharisee,
33:04
as to zeal,
33:05
a persecutor
33:05
of the church,
33:06
as to righteousness
33:07
under the law,
33:08
blameless.
33:09
He's saying
33:10
if there is value
33:11
in the man-made
33:12
religion of the world,
33:13
which was in his day
33:15
the apostate Judaism,
33:16
not God's way,
33:18
but the apostate way,
33:19
the manufactured,
33:21
fabricated Judaism,
33:22
if there's any value
33:23
in that at all,
33:24
I've far exceeded
33:25
anybody else's value
33:26
in this regard.
33:28
But then in verse 7
33:29
he says,
33:30
But whatever gain
33:31
I had,
33:32
I counted as loss
33:34
for the sake
33:35
of Christ.
33:37
Indeed,
33:37
I count everything
33:39
as loss
33:40
because of the
33:41
surpassing worth
33:43
of knowing
33:44
Christ Jesus,
33:46
my Lord.
33:47
For his sake
33:48
I have suffered
33:48
the loss of all things
33:49
and count them
33:50
as rubbish
33:51
in order
33:52
that I may gain
33:54
Christ.
33:56
You see this?
33:57
Paul had learned
33:58
this lesson
33:59
that there was
33:59
nothing in this world.
34:01
He goes beyond
34:02
his religious pedigree
34:04
to everything else.
34:07
There is nothing
34:07
in this world
34:09
that is gained
34:10
to us
34:10
apart
34:11
from Christ.
34:14
And beloved,
34:15
this is a lesson
34:15
that we need
34:16
to learn.
34:17
We need to understand
34:19
rightly
34:19
that everything
34:21
minus Christ
34:22
equals nothing.
34:23
and that nothing
34:25
plus Christ
34:27
equals
34:28
everything.
34:30
Let's pray together.
34:32
Let's pray together.
34:32
Thank you.