The Meaning of Life

Morning. As a young man, I remember being captivated by a collection of stories. Some of you are probably familiar with them. Here are some of them. An old man turned 98. He won the lottery and died the next day. Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly. He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye. He waited his whole life to take that flight. And as the plane crashed down, he thought, well, isn't this nice? It's like rain on your wedding day. It's a free ride when you've already paid. It's the good advice that you just didn't take, because who would have thought it figures? A traffic jam when you're already late. A no smoking sign on your cigarette break. It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. It's meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife. And isn't it ironic, don't you think? Now maybe you've heard or sung that song, Ironic by Alanis Morissette. But if not, I think most of us can at least relate to that sentiment. We all live with expectations that our life should go a certain way. From trivial things like plastic wear to the most serious matters of marriage and even life and death. We have a narrative that we think we're living under, right? I should be healthy. I should enjoy my work. I should have good relationships with my grandkids. My car should start. My investment should grow with the proper rate of return. My vacation should be relaxing. My plans should succeed. But often they don't. It's a regular part of our experience that our plans are frustrated, that life doesn't go the way that we think it should. And Alanis Morissette calls this ironic. I think she's on to something. And even beyond the individual level, it seems like people in general, as we just look around the world, people get ahead who it seems like they shouldn't, right? And those who should don't. And this is a problem for everyone, but I think especially for people of faith. This is hard for us. What are we supposed to think about God when it seems like things are not going right? Now this frustration and elusiveness of the meaning of life is what the book of Ecclesiastes is really all about. You can go ahead and turn there in your Bibles. It's on page 553. If you're using the Pew Bible in front of you, and if you don't have a Bible, you're welcome to take that as a gift. So we're going right past the Proverbs and the, past Psalms and Proverbs. And if you have to look at the table of contents, there's no problem doing that. This is not a book we look at a lot. And just a fair warning, we're going to be flipping around a lot. So usually we're taking a smaller chunk of the Bible and working through that very slowly and in a detailed way. This morning we're going to be looking at the whole book of Ecclesiastes. So we won't be reading the whole thing, but we'll be overviewing the whole thing. So we're going to be flipping around a lot. So just be prepared for that. You may want to just write references down to look them up later. What I hope for us to see in this book this morning is that God's people are called to trust God and enjoy his gifts as we suffer the frustration of this life and await final vindication. So let me say that again. What I hope that we see in the book of Ecclesiastes is that God's people are called to trust God and enjoy his gifts as we suffer the frustration of this life and await final vindication. So let me read Ecclesiastes 1.1. the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Now right off, I want us to notice that there are two characters in the book. The first is the author or the narrator whose voice we hear here and is gonna come up again at the end of the book. And then the next is this preacher character. And the word that's translated from preacher is someone who gathers, usually talking about gathering a crowd together for teaching. And that's why the book is named Ecclesiastes, comes from the Greek word, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, ecclesia, which is the word we use for church, right, gathering. So preacher is a good idea, I think, for what this person is. Now it says he's the son of David, the king in Jerusalem, and that gives us a couple of options about who the author could be. First, it could be Solomon. A lot of people think that. He was a prominent son of David who was the greatest king in Israel's history. He was marked by wisdom and prosperity like no one else in that nation's history. But there are some parts of the book when you read that don't just, don't really seem to line up with Solomon's life and his experience. So some people think it's written by a later teacher kind of just using the voice of Solomon, like a history teacher today might write from the voice of George Washington or something like that. We don't really know a lot else about the background of the book, but we see the chief concern of the book, and it's a timeless one, and that's in verse 2. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. So one of the keys to understanding the whole book is going to be to understanding what this word vanity means. Some translations will say meaningless or futility or useless or pointless. So that helps us see it's not the kind of vanity we typically think of, maybe, that first comes to mind as like a selfishness or arrogance, but one that's empty. And it's the Hebrew word hevel that literally means breath or smoke or vapor. And so go outside on a cold morning. I'm from Florida, so this still fascinates me. You go outside on a cold morning and you breathe out and you see this little cloud in front of you, right, that takes shape for a moment and then vanishes just as quickly as it came, right? That's hevel. But not only does it just vanish quickly, it's not just short-lived, but it takes a form, but it's not graspable, right? So if you breathe out and you try to grab it, what do you get? Nothing, right? That kind of combination of things that really capture the meaning of Hevel, this word that characterizes life. A couple years ago, a few of us hiked up to the top of Mount Pleasant and it was a day kind of like this morning where we got to the top and we were just in the cloud. And there was no way to look around, there was no bearing, there was no way to see elevation or direction or anything. It was just literally like 10 feet of visibility and then Nothing. Cloud. And that's what captures this word, Hevel. So the idea that the preacher is wrestling with is that life is really short and really hard to understand. It's incomprehensible. And that's what he's really concerned about. And so, if we're going to understand the meaning of life, the first thing we have to come to terms with is that much about life is hevel, it's vanity. And I think the author is helping us to see that if we want to understand, we can't extract the meaning of life from life itself. We can't draw conclusions simply from our experience about what life is about. And so he describes this in chapter one, verses 12 to 14. I, the preacher, have been king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind." So we hear this struggle. Think about all that is done under heaven, all that is done under the sun. Imagine if we had a Google Earth live stream where we just zoomed out and we could look down and see everything that's happening on the earth. There are billions of people moving around, but it's just kind of like watching ants. They're just moving around. Everyone's busy doing something, but in the end, it really amounts to nothing. And from this perspective, it's an unhappy business. Our days are consumed with activity, but what is it that ultimately matters and lasts? And so verse 15 really captures this. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. So sometimes it's really obvious that things are terribly wrong, but there seems to be no way to fix them. There's nothing we can do about it. And then sometimes we know something's wrong, but we can't even put our finger on what it is and why. And it's not just that we don't have enough knowledge. So if you look down to verse 16, I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me. And my heart has had a great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation. And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. So sometimes the more you know, the worse things get. There's no end to the amount of knowledge that you can pursue, but it still doesn't answer all of your questions. And the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. This can be discouraging and frustrating. So the quest for meaning in life is extremely disappointing. And at this point, that's what he's pressing home for us, is that we're not supposed to be able to figure it out, at least not on our own, by our own efforts of examining the data around us and coming to our own conclusions. And that's the condition we live in, that's Hevel. And so most of the book then is this extended meditation on this condition and the ways that it presents itself in the various aspects of our life. And again, we won't have time to read it all this morning. I hope you will during this week. But I want us to consider four truths that I think kind of anchor the book, four points that help us better understand what the meaning of life is and what we should do in response. So here are the four things I want us to see this morning. First, life is brief. Second, death is inevitable. Third, life is hard. And fourth, death is not the end. So life is brief, death is inevitable, life is hard, death is not the end. So let's consider first together that life is brief. So look back to chapter one, verse three. What does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and it goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. So you hear that concern, right, that life is short and that nothing really changes. People come and people go, but the Earth continues as it was. Again, if we were to go back to our Google Earth image and look even in our region, there may be some buildings here or there that weren't there, but for the most part, 1,000 years ago, you had the Blue Ridge Mountains, you had the Atlantic Ocean, and 1,000 years from now, you're going to have the same thing. It's going to look more or less the same. The sun rises and sets every day, the wind keeps blowing, rivers flow into the sea, but it doesn't get filled up. It's kind of weird, right? If you plug the sink in your bathroom and try that, it's not going to work, but somehow that works with the earth, right? The rivers keep flowing and the seas stay about where they are. And I realize there are concerns about, you know, melting ice in the poles and changes on the coastline, but we're not talking about dramatic worldwide kind of changes. There's earth and there's sea, and people are in some ways just kind of incidental. And then he looks specifically at the human experience, verse 8. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which is said, see, this is new? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after." So there's a problem that we can't get enough, right? We say we've seen everything, but we don't mean that. We never retire our senses, even though they may break down on us. But at the same time, nothing is new. And I think for us, that doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound right because the industrial revolution in the last hundred years has really transformed the way that we live as human beings. And somebody smart told me one time that somebody born in 1890 has more in common with somebody born in Moses' time than somebody born in 1990. So there's been this dramatic change in the way that we live and we live under a barrage of new, right? We're being told nearly every waking moment of our lives that we're incomplete because we don't have the latest version of whatever. But if you think about it, all that technology really does is make communication and transportation and entertainment more efficient and accessible. And all those things have existed as long as human beings have. And if that wasn't enough, nothing lasts. So there's no remembrance of former things. And so a couple weeks ago I saw a video of teenagers looking at an old rotary phone. I won't even ask you to raise your hand if you know what that is. But it was like they were archaeologists that had unearthed like a fossil. They didn't know what to do with it. And it's not even that it's just things, it's people too. Right? Most of us this morning know very little about the main influencers on the world today, much less those from history, especially outside of our direct cultural lineage. And speaking of lineage, how many of us right now could name all of our great, great grandparents? Very few, right? So life, then, is just like this elaborate sand sculpture at the beach. All this time and effort and energy goes into making this thing look amazing. But after one high tide, it's gone. And it's just smooth sand with wave after wave lapping over it, smooth beach. That's Hevel. Second, we see that death is inevitable. I promise this sermon will end encouraging, even if it doesn't feel that way now. Chapter three, verse 18. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them to see that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and to dust all return. So we don't realize it to the extent that the ancient world did maybe, but we're surrounded by animal death, and that's supposed to remind us of our own mortality. Now we go through a lot of trouble to insulate ourselves from harm. We have healthy diets and exercise, medication, safe cars and houses, police and military, and on and on and on. But none of these things finally keep us from dying, right? We're confronted with death regularly, even though we deny it. We have dead skin on our bodies. We have gray hair, even though we color it. We have stained teeth, even though we bleach them. Our bodies break down. You think about kids, they're basically made of elastic, right? Adults get hurt while we're sleeping. I don't even know how that happens, but it happens. It's not something that we like to think about, but death is always before us. Sometimes it comes prematurely, but even when we get old, it's usually not a pretty thing. It's accompanied by the dysfunction of our minds or our bodies or both. And so the preacher warns youth to think about that, to appreciate life because it's brief. So all the way to chapter 12, verse 1. He says, remember also your creator in the days of your youth. Before the evil days come, and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut. When the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low. They are afraid also of what is high, and the terror is in the way. The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails. Because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanity, says the preacher. All is vanity. So he's giving us here a picture of the aging that precedes death. And this can be a discouraging time, right? Hands start to shake, legs bend, teeth become useless, eyesight and hearing fail, communication stops, hair turns white, appetites go away, there's discouragement about inability, there's fear, there's restlessness. Aging is rarely a pretty process. And sometimes we can look at a picture, even of ourselves, look at a picture from the past, and it's hard to believe that we're the same person. We are all moving steadily toward death, more quickly than we would like, right? And that's Hevel. Third, we see that life is hard. So, so far we've been confronted with the facts that life is brief and death is inevitable. And these together show that duration aspect of Hevel, that it's here for a moment and then gone. But the other aspect is that it's not graspable. It's not, you can't figure it out. And there's something there, right? When you breathe out, you see that vapor. There's something there, but it can't be confined or pinned down. And the author describes that over and over again as chasing the wind, right? Trying to grab the wind. What would that even be? And this is where the book of Ecclesiastes, I think, really starts to get to us. We think about the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we usually think about the Proverbs. And they're these collected sayings and teachings used especially to teach youth how to live, what's generally true about life, what's the right way to go. They're observations, not promises. I think that's one key for understanding the Proverbs. But the preacher in Ecclesiastes is the guy who's read through the Proverbs and he's saying, but what about this? What about that? He's thinking of situations where life doesn't seem to pan out the way it should, where it doesn't follow those proverbs. And so we'll consider a few of these this morning. So let's think about work. Chapter 1, verse 3. He says, what does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? So the chief concern, his main concern here is what's to be gained? What difference does it make in the end? In light of how short life is and the inevitability of death, how does what I do really matter? Does anything really make a difference? And this is an important question because work is what we do, right? Most of us give our lives to some work, one form or another. And in many ways, work defines our existence. Even if we're fortunate enough to retire and rest from work, it's still our work that brought us there. Work is necessary. It's what God made us to do and it's how we survive. But the quest for final identity and meaning and purpose in work is ultimately Hevel. That's what he wants us to see. And so he goes on to wrestle with different benefits from work and how they're Hevel to make us really understand this. So chapter two, verse one, he confronts the idea of success. I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered that all that my hands had done, and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity, and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Now this sounds like a reality TV show, doesn't it? Every pleasure imaginable, parties, and accomplishments, and mansions, and gardens, and food, and drink, and massage, and cashmere, a lifestyle of treat yourself, right? more than anyone who had gone before him. But he says it's all heavil. It's smoke and vapor. It's gone. There's no substance in it. And he goes on to look specifically at money and why that's not a reliable source of identity. So in chapter 5, verses 10 to 12, he says, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep." So he points out that you can make a lot of money, but what happens? You just have more responsibility. You have a bigger house, but you have bigger bills. And he goes on to say in different places that wealth can be lost. Stock markets crash. Surefire bets don't play out. And so you can go from riches to rags and end up disappointed and confused and angry and wasting away. That's Hevel. And he also shows us that there is a blinding power of money. You can accumulate way more than you need, way more than you would ever hope to spend, with no one to give it to. And it still makes perfect sense to just keep plugging away, keep slaving away, and keep accumulating. That's Hevel. And then no matter what, no matter how much you have, you can't take any of it with you. So in chapter two, verse 18, he says, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool, yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So it doesn't matter how successful you are, how great you are, there's no guarantees about what happens after you're gone, right? Your inheritance may go to a fool. So let's think about wisdom then. If money and possessions won't do it, what about knowledge and wisdom? So in chapter two, verse 12, he says, so I turn to consider wisdom in madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, and there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool. So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me. For all is vanity and a striving after the wind." So he says wisdom has value. It's better to be wise than foolish. But no matter how wise or foolish you are, you still die. That's Hevel. And being wise doesn't necessarily keep you from losing your life prematurely. That's Hevel. And not only that, but no one will remember you one way or the other. In the future, no one will remember you at all, no matter if you were wise or foolish. That's Hevel. Chapter nine, verse 13. I love this one. I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. So we have this great picture, right, of a city under attack. Great king against it, siege works, everything. And this poor man somehow comes up with a plan, saves the city. This is great. We want to know, like, who was this guy so we can make a movie about him, right? Tell us more about him. We don't know. Nobody remembers him. It's Hevel. What about righteousness? So chapter 7, verse 15. In my vain life, I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? Now that one sounds a little bit confusing to us. I think he's upholding the categories of righteousness and wickedness, but he's saying your righteousness doesn't necessarily keep you from dying, doesn't necessarily keep you alive, and neither does wickedness mean an imminent death. And so I don't think he's telling us not to be righteous, but warning that the quest for moral perfection isn't going to guarantee anything in this life. Let's think about justice. So chapter eight, verse 14. There is a vanity that takes place on the earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity." So this is where it really starts to get real for us. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. That's messed up. That's, that's Hevel. Chapter 9, verse 1. But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know, both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after they go to the dead. And so not only do bad and good not always line up, but it's both seem to die the same way. Good people and bad people seem to die equally the same, and that's Hevel. Chapter nine, verses 11 to 15, sorry, 11 to 12. Again, I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time, like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare. So the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them. So he says life is unpredictable. Things don't happen the way that they should. This is what really bothers us, right? Time and chance are incredibly unjust. And so it's really in this section, I think, where the preacher is just brutally honest about the struggles and the disappointments of life. When you survey the big picture, how we're so busy with so much, and set that against the reality of the certainty of death, you're left just kind of scratching your head, right? It seems like there isn't any real meaning to life. Rich and poor, wise and foolish, righteous and wicked, all die. And while there may be some general patterns in the Proverbs, there are plenty of exceptions. And even if we could explain all of that, it still doesn't negate the fact that time marches on. And in a few generations, basically everything about us, everything that we know, will be forgotten. And that's Hevel. But that brings us to the last point, and that's that death is not the end. So in chapter 12, verse 9, we go back to the voice of the narrator. He says, besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote the words of truth. And so here he's reminding us, the preacher was a curator. He was finding and arranging wisdom to share with us. Verse 11, the words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books, there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. So here's the narrator's reflection, that the words of the wise are like goads. That's basically like a cattle prod, a stick with a sharp end on it to point, to drive livestock a certain direction. It's given by one shepherd who is God. And so he's saying that wisdom sayings are God's grace. They're helping us to avoid foolishness and keep us on the right path. They're good. This section sounds a lot like the Proverbs. He's warning his readers about the quest for too much knowledge. Much study is weariness to the flesh. You can't know everything. And if you try, you're just gonna wear yourself out. Verse 13, the end of the matter, all has been heard. fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil." So here we have the main takeaway for the book. What is life all about? It's about fearing God and keeping his commandments because God will bring every deed and every secret into judgment. So there it is. There it is. Death is not the end. Throughout the book, we've heard over and over again, under the sun. Man under the sun, futility under the sun. And I think that's the author's reminder of the God who is over all and observing everything that's happening. God is over the sun. And one day God will clear away all the heavil and each one of us will stand before him for our eternal sentencing. Wealth and status and knowledge and power will all melt away in his presence, and it won't matter anymore how we stack up against the people around us, which is often how we live this life. We'll be left to answer for ourselves and ourselves alone before our maker for every action, every word, every thought. And friends, none of us can stand up to that scrutiny. We may have lived relatively respectable lives, but each one of us is guilty of evil against other people and more fundamentally against God. Because we were created to be in loving communion with him, to honor him and give thanks to him and obey him. But we are born in sin. and we go astray from the womb and we act in defiant independence and autonomy. And rather than worshiping God, we worship ourselves. And so the prospect of God's judgment is not a good one. The Bible is clear that those who are characterized by sin will not inherit eternal life with God, but will have eternal separation from God in torment and agony. And the Bible is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But thankfully, there's more to the story. because the gospel tells us the good news that Jesus came to meet us, to meet the righteous requirement of the law. Jesus, the God-man, perfectly obeyed the law to fulfill all righteousness. He suffered the full wrath of God by dying on the cross, and through his resurrection, he offers forgiveness for sin and the benefits of obedience to all who would repent and believe in him. And so that's the gospel message. If you're unfamiliar with that this morning, I would love to talk with you more about that after the service. And so the meaning of life, even fearing God and keeping his commandments, leads us to the cross, where Jesus pays the penalty for our sin, and then it proceeds out from the cross, where Jesus empowers us to live in fearful obedience to God and ensures a day of final, perfect justice. Jesus is at the center. And friends, Jesus is the exact opposite of Hevel. While life is brief, Jesus is eternal. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. He serves as the last high priest forever through the power of his indestructible life. While death is inevitable, Jesus conquered death. He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him will live even if he dies. And when life is hard, Jesus showed us that suffering precedes glory. He entered into the heavel. The most paradoxical moment in all of human history is when the author of life was killed by his creation. Jesus endured suffering in this life. He entrusted himself to God's judgment, and then he was glorified. And Jesus said that in this world, we will have trouble, but that we could take heart because he has overcome the world. We are called to follow in Jesus's steps. We can press on because the meaning we seek is found only in God's presence. And so friends, don't buy into the false gospel this morning that says if you become a Christian, your life will get better. It may not. It may get way harder. You may lose friends and opportunities and even your life. But the author is telling us, reminding us that those things are heavily, they're smoke and vapor. Now I want us to see that this reality really speaks to so much of our experience, even as Christians, because we still see Hevel all around us. Some people come to Christ and leave a struggle behind. And some people continue to struggle with that same thing their whole lives. Some have easy marriages and homes, and some are characterized by constant conflict. We have different gifts, different capacities, different opportunities. And what we have to realize is with all of that, God has given us different expectations. We are all called to be faithful with what we have. And so don't spend your days as a Christian looking around, wishing your life was more like that person or less like yours. No, that's Hevel. That's smoke and vapor. Instead, spend your life trying to make the most of what God has given you, knowing that's what you'll answer to Him for. So one of the main warnings of the book is to give up looking for meaning from this life. And there are ways that we as Christians can be just as guilty of this, trying to discern God's will as if it's some magical yellow brick road we have to uncover. What God expects of us is to fear Him. to grow in our understanding of his truth, and then to apply that to the day-to-day relationships and decisions that we make. Meaning isn't found under the sun, it's found in the God who watches from above the sun. And in this way, Hevel should lead us to humility. We understand that no amount of pleasure or influence or accomplishment will mean anything into eternity, and so we just give up that quest. We know that no one really arrives in this life. You think about athletes who devote their lives to winning championships and then immediately can reflect upon how unfulfilling that experience is. We give all that up and we realize that even the people that we think have it all, all of them still die. And we have to realize that even as Christians, our ambitions can still be selfishly motivated. And so you could wanna have great knowledge so that you look good in a Sunday school class, and you can feel important when people seek out your opinion. You can take pride in how much you give or how well-ordered your family is. And all those could be good things, but they have to flow from a heart that stands in the fear of God, that knows that it's his verdict on the last day that's the only thing that matters. But there's another way I think that Hevel leads to humility, and that's in the mundane things of life. So the preacher goes back to this theme several times throughout the book, and I'll just read a few of them here. Chapter two, verse 24. There's nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? Or chapter eight, verse 15. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. In chapter nine, verse nine, enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. So the preacher is commending for us this Godward posture in the mundane moments of everyday life. Even though it's hevel, that doesn't mean it doesn't matter. In fact, what he's saying is that God, and this is amazing, God is intimately involved and deeply concerned about these everyday moments of life. He talks about these things as our portion, our joy, and that it's good and right for us to enjoy them. And so the secret of life is learning to give thanks and be content with a good meal, with a job well done, with an encouraging conversation, with intimacy with your spouse, with a beautiful sunrise or sunset. It's not that we're entitled to these things, but that we're thankful to God when we experience them. And just as parents find joy in their children as they give them gifts, so God is pleased with us when we enjoy and we're thankful for the good things that he gives us. So a friend shared a helpful summary of this principle. If you can't enjoy your lunch, you have a problem with God. It's not that your lunch is the problem. It's not that you're not going to the right restaurant or your wife or husband isn't a good cook. It's that you have a problem with God. So friends, learn to enjoy your life. Cultivate a thankful and glad heart before God. Looking for deeper meaning in everything will be frustrating and fruitless. But God wants hearts that are engaged with him, that are glad in him, that are hopeful in him. So work to cultivate a posture of contentment from the heart that finds pleasure in God and in the good things that he gives us. Enjoying the simple things without being entitled to them or consumed by them is the fruit of a humble heart for God. And that, friends, is what we call a life of faith. It's believing that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So what you're doing and where you're doing it aren't nearly as important as why you're doing what you're doing and how you're doing what you're doing. God cares. God sees. He will judge and he will reward. And friends, this is why we take the Lord's Supper. It in itself is an unremarkable meal, right? It's Hevel. But it reminds us that we live for something beyond this life, that we depend upon Jesus's life for ours, and that our only hope is to be forgiven for past sins and sustained in our current struggles and transformed by future grace. And so a life of meaning is a life lived for God because we know it's been appointed once for man to die, and after that comes the judgment. And it's on that moment that all the hevel will melt away and God will punish and reward and all will be right. Life will mean something then. And so even as we head into another week of hevel, let's resolve to live by faith that God rewards those who seek him and that nothing done for him is in vain. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we praise you this morning because you are a God who is good and wise and sovereign, that your ways are above ours. Lord, we are humbled in all of you because we don't understand this life. And we confess that so often we lose ourselves trying to do so. We lose sight of you. We get consumed with the everyday moments. We get entitled and ungrateful. and that can lead us to frustration and hopelessness, Lord. And so we thank you that by your grace, you've given us the gift of your word to illuminate and to call us out of the darkness and confusion of our own minds and hearts. We pray that we would receive this word this morning, that we would trust your final judgment, that we wouldn't look for answers finally in this life, but in the next. And we pray that we would be characterized by faithfulness and contentment in this life, Lord, that we would take joy in the work that you've given us, in the relationships that you've given us, Lord, in a way that commends you and your goodness to ourselves and to the people around us. We can't do this ourselves. We pray that you would do this in us, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.