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May 29 - Ecclesiastes 1 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:12
  Hello, friends, it's Sean here. Welcome.
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  Today it is the 29th of May. It's a Wednesday, and today we
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  are going to be opening up a new book of our Bibles.
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  We're going to be opening up the book of Ecclesiastes, which, Oh
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  dear, I have heard pronounced as Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes,
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  Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, you might notice,
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  sounds a bit like ecclesiastical, right?
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  Things to do with the church. Well, Ecclesiastes is directly
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  translated as a book of the church.
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  This is a book that is shared with us by this teacher, not
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  necessarily Solomon, but this teacher who calls himself
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  Koheleth, and he shares the wisdom of Solomon and often
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  provides kind of like an insider's critique of wisdom.
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  And a lot of people will read this book and go, oh, it's so
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  hopeless. It's so pessimistic and
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  depressing. Well, a lot of it asks the big
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  questions about meaning and life, but there are also parts
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  that say, actually, there is hope here.
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  And there is there is tension throughout the book of Clesio
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  Estes between this hope and this meaningless, as the author asks,
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  where do we look for hope? Where do we look for meaning in
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  our lives? And the opening chapter begins
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  by saying, is there anything under the sun, anything in our
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  lives here right now that can give us hope and meaning?
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  And if you have ever asked yourself these questions, well,
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  friends, I'm pretty much sure that's every one of us, then
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  this book is for you for the struggles that we all go
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  through. So let us crack open.
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  Let us sit at the feet of the Koheleth and listen to him as he
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  teaches and challenges and questions in the Wisdom of
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  Solomon, reading together Ecclesiastes chapter one.
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  These are the words of the Teacher, King David's son who
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  ruled in Jerusalem. Everything is meaningless, says
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  the teacher. Completely meaningless.
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  What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?
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  Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.
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  The sun rises and the sunsets then hurries around to rise
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  again. The wind blows South and then
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  turns N around and around it goes, blowing in circles.
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  Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full and the water
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  returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.
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  Everything is wearisome beyond description.
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  No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.
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  No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
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  History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before.
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  Nothing under the sun is truly new.
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  Sometimes people say here is something new, but actually it
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  is old. Nothing is ever truly new.
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  If we don't remember what happened in the past and in
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  future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
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  I, the Teacher, was King of Israel, and I lived in
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  Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for
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  understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done
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  under heaven. I soon discovered that God has
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  dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
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  I observed everything going on under the sun and really it is
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  all meaningless, like chasing the wind.
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  What is wrong cannot be made right.
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  What is missing cannot be recovered.
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  I said to myself. Look, I am wiser than any of the
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  kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me.
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  I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them, so I
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  set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly.
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  But I learned first hand that pursuing all this is like
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  chasing the wind. The greater my wisdom, the
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  greater my grief. To increase knowledge only
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  increases sorrow. Lord, there is something really
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  comforting in hearing that we are not the first people to
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  grapple with these questions. Love that when we wake up in the
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  morning and we think why? Why do I do this?
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  What is the point? Does this make any difference?
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  What is my life amounting to? Well, that is a question seeded
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  at the heart of all of us. And thank you that we can come
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  before you with these questions and that rather than trying to
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  fill our heads with all truth and knowledge, you embrace us
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  and you give us your spirit and let you companion with us
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  through the ups and downs and challenges of our lives.
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  Because you are a God who accompanies us every step of
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  every day. So I thank you for that, and I
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  thank you for giving us Jesus, in whose name we pray.
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  Ah, man.