Vain Repetition Review

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

How many of you have seen the movie called The Rookie? The Rookie is actually not a cartoon, and yet it is still rated G. There are almost no movies out there that are like new at all that are ever rated G. Most of them are cartoons, and some of the cartoons even are not even rated G any longer. But The Rookie is actually rated G. And so I can’t think of anything that’s obviously immoral in the movie that I can think about. Don’t quote me on that even though I’m being taped. Nevertheless, a great movie, one that I have enjoyed multiple times, and of course it’s a little bit closer to my heart maybe than to some of your hearts because the rookie relates to someone who plays what?

baseball. That’s right. And of course the rookie is this story about this old guy who’s not particularly old but I think he’s actually 36 or 37. So true story or based on a true story most of it in the movie is true. There’s only a couple things that they took some dramatic license with. Basically this old guy was a good baseball player now coaching a high school baseball team. Again most of you raised your hand saying that you had seen him before. So so you understand the story. But there’s one part in particular. He basically tries out makes makes the call back. They come and look at him again and then he decides he’s going to play for some minor league teams or this minor league team for the the Tampa Ray devil raise. There you go. Thanks, Jake. I appreciate that.

And so anyway, he’s playing minor league ball and the season’s going on. And you know, he’s getting like 25 cents a day for a paycheck, something like that. And basically he’s doing okay, but he’s not doing so great. It seems like he’s wasting his time. And so basically one night he’s basically just kind of depressed and down and then he sees himself on TV. They had interviewed him weeks before and so he sees himself on TV talking about baseball as just being a game, being fun. So he got goosebumps again. But basically, he stops watching himself on TV, he goes out and he starts watching this little kid’s game. And he like winks or whatever at the left field or who’s out, you know, whose uniform doesn’t fit him and his hat is on his head crooked and all these kind of things.

And so basically, it gets all pumped up. He was going to quit the team, but the next scene you see him is walking into the locker room the next day and he goes up to one of his friends and he says something to the effect of hey, Brooksy, guess what we get to do today? He’s got this huge smile on his face. Hey, Brooksy, guess what we get to do today? And Brooksy’s not really saying anything back and then the character says we get to play baseball. You remember that? We get to play baseball. And he was just extremely excited about it. I mean, there was something in him that was a motivating kind of joy and satisfaction in finally getting some perspective and remembering what it was that he loved to do, which was play the game of baseball.

And you know, that used to be the case for me. I used to have that kind of joy when it came to baseball games and really a lot of different kind of sporting events. But you know, as I was thinking about even preparing for the review this morning. Here’s the question I have for you. Guess what we get to do today?

We get to study God’s word. And I’m thankful that in my own life, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with playing baseball or playing sports or extracurricular activities. That’s not my point. But God has even within me driven me or given me this passion and this excitement and this zeal to be with you guys and to study God’s word and to whatever we do work towards every one of us becoming complete in Christ and you know sometimes I need to wake up in the morning and maybe look in the mirror and say guess what I get to do today I get to work on helping other people become complete in Christ and that is the thing that gets me excited and I’m I’m hoping that that’s something that God grows even in you and excitement for.

As we come now to the school year, and this is the first Sunday school has started, all of you probably are back to school in one way or another. And so it’s not gonna take long before you lose some of that beginning of the year excitement. It’s not gonna take too long. Maybe you never had it to begin with. Maybe it’s already gone. Maybe you had it. And by 815, on Wednesday morning, it was already gone. I realize that’s possible as well.

But I am committed to not only for the rest of this year and hopefully for the rest of my life, but in particular, even on Sunday mornings, coming and giving it our all when it comes to the book of Ecclesiastes. Sunday mornings seem to be tough for so many people. Sunday mornings generally are tough for most people because they went to bed on Sunday morning sometime, like 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. hanging out with other people. And so most of you come in, even if you went to bed at a normal time, most of you come in and you’re tired. And you’re tired from the week, you’re tired from all your responsibilities, whatever it is that you have to do.

You’re thinking about maybe already the stuff that you have to do the upcoming week. And so it’s easy to come to church. It’s easy to even come into 128 on Sunday morning and just sit there. And to expect me to do Will Smith impersonations and to keep you entertained or to do whatever else. And so you just sit there, you just kind of hang back. I know that’s how most of you endure your small groups on Sunday morning. You get to small groups and your leaders start asking you some questions and basically you just sit there using it more like a nap with your eyes open than taking advantage of the opportunity. And I just want to say as we even talk about the review this morning of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 that this is something that we ought to get excited about, something that we ought to give effort to do.

And for my part at least, that’s what I want to commit to put into it. I’m hoping that you’ll want to do the same. This morning I really am going to just try to review and give you some highlights of things that we’ve already talked about. One of the reasons that I want to do this is first of all because some of you seventh graders maybe have heard one part of one message out of the six or seven that I’ve done in Ecclesiastes so far. So if you’re a seventh grader, a new seventh grader who came in in June, as I look back on my calendar, you might have heard one message, and that’s not really a whole lot based on all that we’ve tried to cover so far.

That’s one reason that I want to kind of, again, give some of the highlights of what we’ve talked about. A second reason, though, is because May 29th, I think, was the last Sunday in my series on Ecclesiastes, and I think there might have been one in July that I just threw in there, but otherwise we haven’t been talking about Ecclesiastes for maybe three months. And so most of us have probably forgotten, you know, because most forget the day after, let alone three months later. But again, so just some highlights. The very first thing we talked about related to Ecclesiastes were some reasons why we’re going to study Ecclesiastes. And let me just remind you of those again quickly. Okay, first of all Ecclesiastes is an Old Testament book and for the most part we don’t get lots of Old Testament studying. Some people read through the Old Testament, some of you even now are are in that process again, but most people stay away from the Old Testament today.

Obviously in big church most of the time the messages that we hear most of the time are from the New Testament. There’s a reason for that and that’s because the New Testament is really the book for Christians. I mean, it’s the part for New Testament-era believers in which we ourselves are. So the church is something found in the New Testament. That’s where we are. So that’s where we spend the majority of our time. But there’s lots of good stuff in the Old Testament. Most of the time we use the Old Testament as a place where we find the truths taught in the New Testament illustrated. That’s definitely one of the things that we do. But because for the most part we don’t spend a lot of time in the Old Testament I think Ecclesiastes just by you know what half of the Bible it’s in might be beneficial for us to consider. A second reason I gave was that Ecclesiastes was written by a preacher and you can’t beat that as far as I’m concerned at least.

Look at Ecclesiastes chapter one. At least in the ESV he’s called the preacher. Preach up, preach a somebody’s blog has that on it Kramer Kevin the words of the preacher the son of David King in Jerusalem you can look down at chapter 1 verse 12 I the preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem we talked about this word it’s the Hebrew word cohelette or coheleth either way and it’s the idea of a teacher or a gatherer of wisdom to then dispense it out to other people one of the words that I used to describe it was a pundit. Somebody who is an authority or who at least thinks they’re authority on a particular subject. And so I said, this is the preacher, this is the pundit, this is the one with the perspective and the mindset and the experience to be able to give us wisdom. Written by a preacher, you can’t beat that. Number three, Ecclesiastes was written by someone who had been there. And that’s when I added in, this is no punk pundit. This is no authority or someone who is setting himself up as an authority

to teach or to give wisdom who doesn’t have any. In fact, we talked about the fact that the author who is Solomon was by God’s own commentary the wisest one to ever live. Yeah, we’ll mention that again in just a moment. Ecclesiastes was written by someone who had been there, I know, for myself. It’s tougher to listen to somebody who, you know, you think doesn’t know anything. Sometimes that person has a position of authority that we are called to do that anyway, but other times, you know, we’re looking for someone who has been there, someone who can shed some light from their experience and their perspective. And the writer of Ecclesiastes is definitely somebody who had that. It’s an Old Testament book written by a preacher, written by someone who had been there. Number four, Ecclesiastes was written for who? It was written for youth, the youths. It was written for youth. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 11.

Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 9 says, rejoice, oh young man in your youth. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Look at chapter 12 verse 1. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth. It’s written to young people, it’s written to you guys, it’s written to I think junior hires fall into this. 7th grade, 8th grade, I think high schoolers fall into this. 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, I think Probably even some college students fall into this. Early 20s, up into maybe 30s. They’re all younger than Solomon was, and he’s writing to the youth, to the young people. This is an important thing for us to get.

Here’s the guy with experience, who has been there and gone through it all, and now he’s writing to help those who haven’t made all those choices, and who haven’t walked as far down the road as he had, encourage them to make the right choices, to encourage them to have the right pursuits. And again, we’ll come back to that in just a moment. It’s written for you, which is a great reason to study it since we are here in youth ministry. Right. So Ecclesiastes written for you. Number five, Ecclesiastes was written to describe the emptiness of life under the sun. Look back at chapter one. Vanity of vanity says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. It’s the Greek word or the Hebrew word habel. Hebel, habelim, hakol, habel. Vanity of vanities. Everything. All is vanity. It’s empty. It is meaningless. It is a mirage. Maybe it looks like it’s going to satisfy, but in the end you’re gonna find that it doesn’t. And I just see so many even of you, not just of youth in general, but so many even of you guys individually. I mean I could call you by name.

I see so many of you guys pursuing things, giving your life to things that are completely empty.

They may provide you for a moment some satisfaction. You might not realize that they’re empty tomorrow, you might not realize that they’re empty five years from now, you might not realize that they’re empty 25 years from now, but when it does come to that time of realization for you, either in this life or in the next, you will see that so many of the things that you gave your time, your attention, and your money, your pursuit to, your loves are empty. They are vain. They are useless. They are meaningless. And so Ecclesiastes is a book by a guy who had been there and had more than you guys can dream about ever having. Who did more things and had more perspective on life than any of us can even imagine. Here’s a guy who had been there, had it all, done it, who says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And how crucial it is for us to get that message, to recognize that so many of us are still caught. We are earth bound, living under the sun, trying to get all of our happiness, all of our joy, all of life’s profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes is going to tell us

that won’t happen. In fact, number six then, as a reason to study Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes was written to highlight that only God can give meaning to this life. God is the only A heart that is in love with God, a mind that is pursuing God and the things above, that is the only way to get any kind of meaning or satisfaction, use from the things in this life.

And again, that’s just kind of the counterpart to point number five about this life under the sun, just providing emptiness. God is the one who provides fullness. Life under the sun is what is vain. Life fearing God, a life before God is one that is everything. I mean emptiness or everything. Vain or real. You know, passing or permanent. I mean those are your choices. Every day you have those kind of choices. Ecclesiastes will tell us obviously which way to go. Those are the reasons, all six reasons. It might have taken me two Sundays to do what I just did in like 10 minutes. So I know some of you are wondering why didn’t you just do it in 10 minutes in the first place. Hey well when you get to be the youth pastor then you can make that call okay. The second set of things that we talked about was an introduction to the book of Ecclesiastes, gave you some reasons why to to study it then just kind of gave you some background on the book of Ecclesiastes.

First of all, the author, we said the author is who? Solomon. There’s lots of reasons you can go back and get these messages off the internet if you want some more description of this, but a lot of people question if Solomon was the author of this book or not. I think that’s crazy. Those people who question that are not generally the ones that you would trust far enough to throw across the street anyway. So there’s no reason to think that Solomon is not the author of Ecclesiastes. I mean, again, if you look at chapter 1 verse 1, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. In chapter 1 verse 12, he talks about being the preacher again, king in Jerusalem. I mean, there are only so many of those people that it could apply to.

Sons of David, that’s a limited group. Sons of David who were king in Jerusalem, that’s even more restricted group and namely Solomon is the only one that that applies to. So not only his claims then of the author but the description of the author throughout the book of having all kinds of resources and access to all different kinds of things is similar to what we know about King Solomon from the historical books earlier in the Old Testament and even his moral journey. I mean here is the old guy Solomon explaining what he pursued, what he gave his life to, and again we know that to be consistent with the rest of the Old Testament, what it says about him.

In talking about Solomon, we not only tried to prove as much as we could that he’s the leader, we also talked about the fact that it is interesting to consider the fact that Solomon had a pretty great fall. It was bigger than Humpty Dumpty. I mean, he was up on top and he crashed. And we talked about his folly. And even though this wise guy, and I don’t mean that like a wise guy, I mean, he was a wise man, okay? This wise man still pursued the wrong things and still missed the point, still went against some of God’s pretty clear instructions. And so this was not a perfect man. His wisdom did not guarantee for him 100% right living.

And yet I suggested then that that’s part of the power in his message. It’s not that it makes him the fact that he sinned, the fact that he actually pursued some folly. That doesn’t actually mean that he has nothing to teach us. In fact, that might add to the power of his message because I think from the book of Ecclesiastes, we see that he realized that he had been wrong.

He realized it. And now he’s then writing to help other people avoid the wrongs that he pursued. That’s a very powerful message. So he’s the author of the audience, as I’ve already mentioned this morning, the audience from chapter 12 verse one we know are the, you, that’s right. The time seems like it was written circa. You guys know what circa means? Around circle is round. Circa, kind of connected. Around approximately could be within here or there.

Circa, 935 BC. For those of you without calculators, That is a long time ago. The author of Solomon, the audience is youth, the time, a long time ago, you know, almost 3,000 years ago. And then the reason. And I really think that the reason Solomon writes the book of Ecclesiastes is for correction and for wisdom. He’s writing it to correct those who perhaps already pursuing the wrong things like he had done. He was writing to correct those before maybe they got as far or as low as he himself had gone. And so and then correcting them he’s also providing them with wisdom for living this life. There is an evangelistic element to the book of Ecclesiastes I think. It’s a it’s the element that says this life actually is meaningless and awful and And so you’re going to find that as you go out there and try to grab the world by its tail and pull it down and wrap it around and stick it in your pocket.

You’re going to find as you go out there that it’s empty. And so don’t pursue that. Don’t go that route. Go the route of wisdom. And so it has an evangelistic element, at least by giving a distaste for what is in the world. It has a one to grow on element. Some of you may remember Saturday morning cartoons used to be like on NBC, I think it was, you know, Kim Fields. She was on, what was that show? Yeah.

I don’t know. She was the cooking maker. There was a show where like these five, like Joe. Joe was one of the girls’ names. And Kim Fields was one of the other girls who lived in this house. The facts of life! How much more appropriate could you get to the Book of Ecclesiastes than the facts of life? And the struggles of girls trying to find life under the sun is really what it was. They didn’t say it that way. That’s what it was anyway. So Kim Fields, you know, she had her like huge braces. She was the first one I ever heard you know said that she could pick up radio signals from from her braces but anyway she would come on and she would do these and that’s one to grow on and then like the little star would fly through the air and like burst out you know one to grow on and they’d be teaching you life lessons in like 30 seconds from from whatever so Ecclesiastes has a one to grow on kind of element maybe a little bit more serious that’s just what it makes my mind think of that these are life lessons.

This ought to impact your world view for the rest of your life. This ought to impact not only the decisions that you make today, it ought to impact the decisions that you make today and how you look at life forever. And so this is very much the one to grow and there are things in here that are foundational so far as values and priorities go that apply, you know, whether you’re 14 or you’re 84. And so a one-to-grow-on kind of element. It does also have a regret element, and I think you see some sadness here from the preacher, and you see some regret, I think, some sorrowful regret, and I think repentance leaving some of those things that he had pursued. And I think you’ll find some depression throughout that hopefully will resonate with your depression that you have in pursuing life in things underneath the sun. And again, a regret kind of element. So some reasons and the introduction. And then we got into chapter one itself. And we looked at verse one, the title of Ecclesiastes, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

And these are the credentials. This is like the title page of a modern book. Tells us some very basic elements at least. In this verse at least tells us who writes it, who the author is. Ecclesiastes falls into the wisdom books of the Old Testament, the wisdom genre. Some other books like that are Proverbs. Ecclesiastes then, Song of Solomon really falls into the wisdom kind of writings. So verse one tells us a significant about. Verse two then gives us the motto or the mantra that’s found multiple times throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

And I talked about that phrase, vanity of vanities being a superlative. That is it’s the highest, the highest kind of vanity you can imagine that’s really possible. For example, when we talk about Lord of Lords, That means he’s the highest Lord, the King of Kings, the Holy of Holies. That was a common Hebrew construction to describe something that was at its height, something that was the extreme. And so Solomon is saying vanity of vanities, the most amount of vanity you can imagine is found in life under the sun.

Life under the sun is the extreme level of emptiness, that’s all you got. He says all is vanity and that all means what? Everything almost. And I gave you some context about all is vanity but he wasn’t saying fearing God was vanity, nor was he saying what I’m writing to you right now about all being vanity is vanity. That would have kind of missed the point. I’m writing you something that is not really important that you should listen to but not because it’s meaningless but mean right so there are definitely some things that are not vanity but those are things that are beyond just under the Sun and again we’ll be looking at that more so as we go through then verses three through eleven is three points in a poem. No, it is a poem that has four points. How about that? First of all is the question in verse three, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

And you know, I reminded you when we went through this verse the first time, there is the idea here that we want gain, that we are all looking for profit. Another way to say it is I think everybody is looking for something that’s going to satisfy, satisfy their heart and their desires. Every one of you in here this morning is doing that. Every one of you is pursuing something that you think is going to make you happy. Something that you think is going to bring you joy. Something you think that’s going to satisfy you in your life. Most every one of you are doing it in different ways. You’re pursuing different things.

Some of you are thinking to yourself, you know what, I try to avoid doing any work I possibly can, so you’re wrong. Like my goal is to sleep as much as I can and play video games and just have fun. I am not pursuing anything. And to that I would say in that very description you are pursuing happiness in doing nothing and you actually kind of goes along even with the sluggard message from last Sunday night. You are actually doing more work to keep yourself from doing other work so that you can be happy in your laziness. Some people are trying to get joy in life by doing nothing they think, but ironically they’re working just as hard to do nothing as other people who are working hard to do other things. So you, whether you’re a guy, girl, young or old, you are looking for something to give you profit. You are looking whether it’s for money specifically or for the idea of money or for the fame and reputation that comes with money or for being the smartest person in your class so that other people can look up to you or whatever it might be,

you know, trying to look good. All of you are looking for something that’s going to satisfy your heart. You’re looking for some kind of profit. And the point is nothing, no hairstyle, No resume, no bank account, no nationally seen move on American Bandstand, no invention, nothing under the sun is going to bring that profit to you. on this earth, in this life, again, without respect to God, nothing just on this planet is going to bring that happiness to your heart. There is no profit. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? When you get to the end of your life and you look back and you add up all the hours you spent doing this thing or that thing, all the hours you spent at work trying to Earn money, all the hours you spent in front of the mirror trying to make yourself look pretty.

All the hours on the treadmill you spent trying to shave off the pounds, all the hours you spent doing whatever it is. You will at some point realize that there was no profit in those things if you sought meaning in the thing itself rather than doing that thing for God. No profit. It’s a rhetorical question. What does man gain by all the toilet which he toils in the sun? Nothing. Nothing. That led to some illustrations in verses 4 through 7. Passing generations, the rising sun, blowing wind and flowing water. As then the author is looking even at the life around him, the world around him, he saw nothing that could prove him wrong. People are born and people die and more people are born and more people die.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down and it keeps going. The wind always seems to be blowing. It’s stuck in a rut. I mean, yeah, it goes maybe through a little different path but for the most part it’s always, always going and then the flowing water. I mean, rivers are always emptying into the sea and yet the sea doesn’t fill up. In particular, Solomon probably had in mind the Dead Sea which actually only has an in and no out. I mean, whether it’s because of the hydraulic cycle and it evaporates and goes up and just comes back and does the whole cycle again and again, the point is nothing really seems to change. Just keeps going and going and going. There’s a meaningless monotony in all of life that then illustrates what life is like for us.

So verse 8 is the application. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. You just keep pursuing all those things. You keep day after day, week after week, year after year. You just keep pursuing all those things over and over. Nothing seems to change. You don’t really seem to get ahead.

It’s the rat race. It’s the gerbil on the wheel, you know, kind of feel. And it’s meaningless if you’re stuck with a perspective unto the Son. And so his reflection verses 9 through 11, what has been is what will be. What has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new unto the Son. Is there a thing of which it can be said? See, this is new. It has already been 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. We are stuck in this prison of monotony. I gave you this list. Nothing has meaning, nothing is ever finished, nothing is under control, our control, and nobody cares. Nothing ever satisfies, nothing is new or original, and no one will ever remember you and then you die if all you have is this life. All those things are true if all of you have is found in things on this earth, this planet, this life. It always comes back to for us here in student ministries and I think

as Christians, it really always comes back to where is your heart. That is really the bottom line question of everything is where is your heart. You know last Sunday morning I preached in Big Church from Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4 about seeking things above, setting your mind on things above. And I talked about the contrast not being between living below and living above. It’s not a contrast between living on earth and living in heaven. It’s a contrast between the two ways of living on earth. It’s a contrast between living on earth and having your mind stuck on things on earth, and between living on earth and pursuing the values and priorities of the things above, where God is, where Christ is. And the same as the message in Ecclesiastes, I mean, obviously Solomon, you know, was still looking forward to at 935 BC.

He, Christ had not yet come. He was still looking forward to a lot of the things that were coming in God’s plan. He didn’t have the New Testament to know the instructions from the Apostle Paul about setting our minds and seeking things above. And yet I think from a different perspective or from a different avenue taking a different approach that really is Solomon’s point. He’s not telling us that the answer is to die and get out of here. He’s telling us the answer is the perspective and the pursuits that we have while we’re here. Again, it’s not a contrast between living on earth and living in heaven. It’s a contrast between how we live on earth, living on earth, stuck on the things of earth, and a mindset that’s living on earth, seeing everything in light of fear of God. That’s really the phrase that Solomon will use, fearing God. Living life with a mindset, a consciousness, an awareness that there is something beyond the sun, and it is a life with and in front of God. So where is your heart? I mean, what are you pursuing? We’ll have lots of

time to look at the things that Solomon pursued and how empty there are. But just even at the beginning in this review of his introduction and his poem here in verses 1 through 11, I mean, what are the things that you love? Are they things under the sun? Are they things that if you were to write them on a piece of paper and look at that piece of paper, if you could imagine yourself 20, 30, 40 years from now, would you at that point in time, can you imagine yourself at that point being pleased with these loves and these pursuits that you have right now? And I mean, what kinds of things would you like to be able to say at the end of your life on this earth that you spent pursuing?

And again, it’s not necessarily an issue of, in all of the cases, doing something different as much as it is how you do what you do. I mean, obviously, you know, you shouldn’t be pursuing fame and and fortune like the world does. I mean, that’s gonna change some of actually what you do. But I mean, most of you are gonna have a job. I mean, you’re in school, you need to go to school. Most of you are gonna have a job. Most of you are gonna live in a home and you’re gonna have relationships with a spouse and children and so on and so forth. Right now you have relationship with your parents and being obedient to them.

Fearing God doesn’t mean that you don’t do those things, it just changes how you do them. And again, where you find value and priority, the things that you pursue. As you go into your small groups, you know, I came up with just a couple questions. I’m not the inquisitator or the inquisitor or the questioner, AKA Mr. Saar who generally comes up with some good ones. But just some basic ones, maybe your small group leaders have others that they want to talk to you about as well. But I’d ask you just to consider where has your heart been this past week? We’ll just start with that. I mean, in fact, you could just answer the question, where was your heart during those two or three days of school that you went to?

Where was your heart during those days? I mean, now you’re back in a swing, you get into the routine, and you say, well, you know what? My heart wasn’t really in the right place this week, but it’s because everything was new. Okay. Well, if I asked you that question at the end of three weeks and you say, well, my heart really wasn’t in the right place because I’m just so busy. And when I asked you that question at the end of summer break and you say, well, my heart wasn’t in the right place because I didn’t have a routine. See, there’s a pattern of excuses there for not having our hearts in the right place. And whether it’s because something’s new or because we’re busy, or because we’re tired, because we don’t have routine, whatever else it is, if we miss pursuing and fearing God living life before him, no matter what the reason, then we’re stuck under the sun.

Where’s your heart even this past week? I will remind you, it’s not gonna get easier as we go through the school year, it never does. It gets harder. And I’ll just throw in for free, it doesn’t get easier when you graduate from high school. And in fact, it doesn’t get easier when you graduate from college.

And in fact, it doesn’t get easier when you get married, or when you have one kid or more kids and have a job. I guess it gets easier when you die. But pretty much until then, it doesn’t get easier. It’s easiest for you now as much as it will ever be. So not a good reason or a good excuse. Second question, again, just pretty basic, similar to ones that we’re always asking, but what can you do to be guarding your heart? What can you do to be directing your heart in the way it should go? I mean, maybe for some of you, that means not doing something. Maybe that means eliminating something from your schedule. Maybe for some of you, that means adding something to your schedule, like some spiritual disciplines, You know, God’s word, prayer, fellowship, those kinds of things.

Maybe it just means you need to change your attitude going into a task or a responsibility. Maybe you need somebody to help hold you accountable or encourage you when you’re headed into a particular task. I don’t know what the thing is, but you ought to think through and come up with a plan to again guard your heart from being stuck on things under the sun and to direct it in the way that it should go. And that is seeing again, life before God. In the words of Paul, setting your mind on things above, seeking things above, not just things then under the sun. Okay, next week we will then move on into chapter one, verse 12.

And I anticipate moving full steam ahead over these next months as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes and I’m excited about it. And again, I’m hoping that you will be excited about as well and come on Sundays ready and working at your heart on your heart as God does that as well. Father, again, this is an issue of our heart. In fact, you command us to love you with all all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. You command us to do that.

That is not the option to love you wholeheartedly and passionately, affectionately. And we do confess and we do desire to then repent as well from all the things, perhaps even over the last few days that have stuck our minds on our hearts and even our loves on things that are not you, on things that are not your priorities, your values, change us, God, change each student and each staff person, change me, that we would be a people in love with you, that we would then let that impact all of our living And we would be salt and light in our schools, our jobs, our neighborhoods, even with one another.

Pray for each small group as they have some time to discuss these things now, whatever they discuss on Wednesday nights, build relationships, build godly friendships, that again, we would do this as a group, as a corporate part of the body. Make us a powerful then witness. And more than anything else, glorify yourself. Show that as we love you. And we pray this in Christ’s name, amen.