I've often heard that the book of Ecclesiastes
is a dangerous book to preach from.
I've heard that over the years, going to church,
and it's not dangerous in the sense that it's somehow
less of God's word or anything like that.
Of course not, it's just that you'll find
that a lot of cults, you'll find a lot,
I'm just trying to think of certain churches,
like Jehovah Witnesses, they love to turn
to the book of Ecclesiastes to build
their doctrines from this.
Now one thing you need to understand
with the book of Ecclesiastes,
it is the story of King Solomon's journey.
So we know that King Solomon started well in life,
he started following the Lord God,
of course when he was appointed king,
but he got to a point later in his life,
very familiar with all of you,
ended up having 700 wives, 300 concubines.
I mean that's not a very godly thing to do,
let's put it right there, okay.
So as he got through later in life,
he started to drift away from the Lord,
and this is one time, the book of Ecclesiastes is one time,
as Solomon pens down these words,
being moved by the Holy Ghost,
that he is distant from the Lord.
He is on this journey, he has gone,
he's backslidden to some point,
and he has sought satisfaction,
he has sought other things beside the Lord God
to enrich his life, and in this journey,
he finds that nothing really satisfies.
In fact, if you have a look at verse number two,
it says vanity of vanities, save the preacher,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What does it mean, what does vanity mean?
It means worthless, empty, useless.
You know the preacher's saying here,
King Solomon is saying it's all worthless,
it's all useless.
The title for the sermon this morning is All is Vanity,
All is Vanity.
So we are starting a new book here,
Ecclesiastes, we'll be going chapter by chapter
through the weeks.
And as I said to you, this is a journey,
a journey of King Solomon.
One thing, you know, you don't want to sort of
build a doctrine just from a random verse in Ecclesiastes,
you must understand the entire book in its whole, okay.
You need to understand it's a journey.
And as he writes, what he writes is true,
but to that particular time of his journey.
Okay, meaning that as he's going through this discovery,
you know, of what life is about,
he's discovering new concept and new ideas,
and it brings him back to the Lord.
It brings him back to the Lord.
Now before we get to that point,
why is this book called Ecclesiastes?
Might sound like just a random weird name
for the book of the Bible.
Ecclesiastes, of course, is not a word
that we often think about or use in the English language,
but you might be familiar that in the Greek,
remember the New Testament was written in the Greek.
Well, when you read the English word assembly in the Bible,
it's from the Greek word ecclesia, ecclesia.
So you can see where ecclesiastes and ecclesia
can sound quite similar, ecclesia.
You know, this is sort of more familiar with me
as a, you know, I can speak Spanish,
Spanish being my second language.
I can understand this a lot more
because the word for church in Spanish is eglesia,
eglesia, which is like ecclesia, ecclesiastes.
You can kind of see how these things come together.
And basically what the word means is assembly.
You know, ecclesia, of course, the church is the assembly.
It's the gathering, it's the congregation,
the coming together of God's people.
But ecclesiastes is a Latin word from the Greek,
meaning not really just assembly, but the assembler.
The person who is putting the congregation together
as it were, the assembler.
And of course, if you have a look how
verse number one begins, the Ecclesiastes 1.1,
it says, the words of the preacher,
the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
So we know who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.
It's the son of David, who's also the king in Jerusalem,
who of course is King Solomon, okay?
And King Solomon, he says he's the assembler.
He's the one getting people together
to hear what he has to preach.
And so really, Ecclesiastes, yes,
it does touch upon the assembly,
but it's really about the preacher preaching
to the assembly.
The person who has the office, who has the authority
to get the gathering together, the assembly together,
to preach God's word.
So that's where it comes from, the Ecclesiastes.
These are the words of the preacher.
You know, this is something Solomon in his journey
is preaching to the people of Jerusalem.
Now, if you can, please keep your finger
in Ecclesiastes, and turn to 1 Kings 3.
Let's turn to 1 Kings 3.
Now that we understand this was written by King Solomon,
let's get a few thoughts here in 1 Kings 3, verse number 5.
1 Kings 3 and verse number 5.
1 Kings 3 and verse number 5, the Bible reads,
in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night,
and God said, ask what I shall give thee.
Could you imagine that?
Imagine God coming to you one night.
Whatever you want, just ask of it.
What would you come up with?
You know?
I mean, I can think of a few things I'd come up with.
And obviously I know a lot of people in our church
suffer from different illnesses and struggles.
I think probably in our minds,
if your family's struggling with problems
and physical ailments and sicknesses,
you'd probably ask God, can you heal my loved ones?
That's probably something that would come to mind.
But it says here in verse number 6, and Solomon said,
Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy,
according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness,
and in uprightness of heart with thee.
And thou hast kept for him this great kindness,
that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne,
as it is this day.
And now, O Lord my God,
thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father.
The Holy says, but I am but a little child,
and know not how to go out or come in.
Solomon says, look, I feel I'm not mature enough for this job.
I'm like a little child that has been given the keys to this kingdom.
You know, I need some help Lord, I need some maturity,
I need some growth.
Verse number 8,
And thy servant is in the midst of thy people,
which thou hast chosen a great people,
that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart,
to judge thy people,
that I may discern between good and bad,
for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
What a great thing to ask.
You know, for understanding,
so he can be a good and righteous judge amongst God's people.
And that's something I pray about, you know, almost every service.
Every time I get up to preach,
God give me the ability to preach to so great a people.
You know, God's people,
those that are saved, those that are trying to learn from God's Word,
Lord, please give me the wisdom and understanding
that I can be a blessing to God's people.
Verse number 11,
And God said unto him,
Because thou hast asked this thing,
and hast not asked for thyself long life,
neither hast asked riches for thyself,
nor hast asked the life of thine enemies,
but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.
Behold, I have given, sorry,
I have done according to thy words,
lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart,
so that there was none like thee before thee,
neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked,
both riches and honour,
so there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all these days.
So even though we read in the book of Ecclesiastes,
even though King Solomon is on this journey,
you know, he's got it later in his life.
This is the beginning of his kingdom.
You know, he's asking God for this wisdom,
we can see that he's right with God,
he wants to do things righteously,
but there comes a time in his life when he,
you know, backslides,
when he gets far from the Lord.
And again, this book of Ecclesiastes is that journey,
that journey of coming back to the Lord.
And even though that's the case,
you need to understand what God has given Solomon,
this great wisdom, this great understanding,
that he would be the greatest of all kings
when it comes to wisdom.
And there'll be no other king that rises
that'll be wiser than Solomon.
And so the book of Ecclesiastes is an important book.
It contains a lot of wisdom.
It's a journey that a lot of us will not have to go through.
Or if you one day find that,
look, I'm trying to find meaning in life,
outside of God, outside of the Bible,
I want to see what the world has to offer.
You know, I want to experience the things
that people seek for in this world.
You know, you're going to find the same journey
that Solomon found in here.
In other words, you don't have to go through that.
You don't have to go through life
where you find out that it's all meaningless.
It's all pointless.
It doesn't mean anything.
Okay, and again, like I said to you,
the title for the sermon this morning was All is Vanity.
It's all vanity.
Now let's keep going there.
You're still in 1 Kings.
Please go to 1 Kings 8.
Let me just show you a few other things here.
1 Kings 8.
You know, one of the main tasks
that Solomon had completed early in his kingship
is to build that temple, Solomon's temple, okay?
It was in the heart of King David,
his father, to build it,
but God would not allow David to build it.
Solomon would build that temple.
And after that temple is built,
look at 1 Kings 8 and verse number one.
1 Kings 8 verse number one.
It says here,
then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel.
So is Solomon the assembler?
Yeah, Ecclesiastes.
That's what he is, okay?
He's assembly.
He's getting the people together.
The elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes,
the chief of the fathers of the tomb of Israel
unto King Solomon in Jerusalem,
that they might bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord
out of the city of David, which is in Zion.
So because the temple has been built,
he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the temple.
So he assembles.
He assembles.
He gets people together.
Not only does he get in together,
but he begins to preach.
I just wanna show you that.
Just drop down to verse number 12 in same chapter.
1 Kings 8, 12.
Then spake Solomon.
The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
Now I'm not gonna keep going,
but I just wanna show you,
he starts to preach to this assembly, okay?
So it's definitely,
Ecclesiastes is definitely written by Solomon.
You can see if we just compare a few passages,
he is the one that assembles the elders together.
He does have the capacity to preach.
And I love that about Solomon.
Not only has he been given wisdom by God to judge nation,
but he uses the wisdom that God has given him
to be a preacher, okay?
To go out and teach people the word of God.
So he does definitely go on and preach.
All right, all of that as introduction.
Let's go back to Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes chapter one.
Let's keep going there, verse number two.
Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse number two.
As I said to you, Solomon is backslidden.
He's gone for this journey of self-discovery, okay?
He's sought for purpose and meaning in other things
that this world has to offer rather than from God.
And he gets to verse number two where it says,
vanity of vanities, save the preacher.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
So what is it saying?
Everything is worthless.
Everything is useless, okay?
Now you say, hold on, that sounds really negative.
You know, pastor, you know, I'm going through life
and I'm going, you know, I'm trying to better myself.
You know, I'm trying to better my family.
I'm trying to better myself as an employee.
Are you telling me it's all worthless and useless?
And like, you know, if it's all worthless,
why do we pursue such things?
But again, it's only true
in his particular time of his journey.
Of course, life is not worthless.
It's only worthless if you're without the Lord God.
That's all it is, okay?
Again, Solomon has backslidden, okay?
He's penning these words as he discovers this journey.
You know, so basically what the book of Ecclesiastes is for
is for to understand the experience of a Christian
who is trying to walk a life without the Lord God.
Ah, you know, I know what the Bible says,
I know what the preacher's been preaching
behind the pulpit, but I'm gonna go my own way.
I'm gonna discover the world how I wanna see it.
I don't wanna, you know, tailor myself to God's word.
I'm just gonna live how I wanna live.
You know, that's, yeah, book of Ecclesiastes
is for that person.
Book of Ecclesiastes is also for someone who is unsaved,
just someone who just does not have the Lord God.
And we learn about what the unsaved people seek for
in life.
But Solomon's realized it's all worthless.
It's all useless.
You know, he's tried to discover meaning
in other aspects of life, but at the end of it,
it all means nothing.
So maybe it's just commit suicide then.
Let's go to heaven right now.
No, no, no.
Our life means everything, okay?
Our life means everything.
The Lord Jesus Christ gave his life,
not just for salvation,
not just for a future place in heaven,
not just for the new heavens and the new earth
and the millennial kingdom to come,
but that we can live a life more abundant even today,
that our life can have meaning today,
that everything we do can have meaning.
But again, if you take God out of the equation,
it means nothing.
It's all vanity.
It definitely is vanity if you take God out of the equation.
And so this is what you need to understand.
You could easily take that verse,
say it's all worthless, it's all useless,
let's just all perish.
Who cares about this life?
No, God has given us this life for a purpose.
Now, just to quickly go,
because again, I told you that we need to understand
the book in its full context, okay?
So please just go to the end of Ecclesiastes.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12,
Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse number 13, okay?
Ecclesiastes 12, 13,
because this basically tells us that it's not all vanity.
Life is not all worthless and useless, okay?
Because in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, it says,
let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
So see, we got to get to chapter 12
to understand what the whole matter was about, okay?
And that's how we're gonna go through this.
I want you to understand that yes,
it's true to a particular point in time in his journey,
but he comes to the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments
for this is the whole duty of man.
Look at verse number 14.
God shall bring every work into judgment
with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it be evil.
See brethren, life is not worthless and useless and empty.
Every work we do,
brethren, if we apply ourselves and we serve the Lord God,
we walk by his commandments,
we fear God, we do his commandments,
then all the works that we do
are gonna be brought to judgment one day.
And God's going to judge us and reward us
for the things that matter for all eternity.
So there is meaning.
You wanna improve your status in heaven?
Start working today.
Start applying yourself today.
Fear God today, keep his commandments today
because it all means something for all eternity.
You see, for someone who has the Lord God, life matters.
And what we do today will matter for eternity
because God will one day judge our works
and reward us for the things that we've done.
But you try to live a life without God.
You say, pastor, I just wanna get out of new life
at this church, I'm sick of church.
You know, people in church are hypocrites.
That's what people say all the time, yeah?
Even pastor, even I saw you pastor, you sinned one day.
So I know you're a hypocrite too, pastor.
So I'm gonna go and explore the world
and I'm gonna go and find out,
you know, discover who I really am.
I'm gonna go on this process of self-discovery
and I'm gonna try to make as much money as I can
and I'm gonna make a name for myself.
I'm gonna leave a legacy.
You know what, at the end of your journey,
you'll probably enjoy it for a period of time
because there's always pleasure in sin for a season, okay?
You'll enjoy it for a particular time
and then you're gonna get to a point where it's like,
man, what am I doing?
What does this matter?
You know, you're gonna find yourself not being satisfied.
You know, those that buy a big house, what do they want?
They want a bigger house.
Those that buy five investment properties,
what do they want?
10 investment properties.
Why, why is that?
Because there's no satisfaction.
There's no enjoyment.
It's all vanity.
It doesn't satisfy them.
Brevin, the only, and if you go in this journey,
and probably some of you will,
I look at the young people and I wish you don't
but it's gonna happen, I'm guaranteed.
There's gonna, some of you are gonna be like,
I just wanna discover life for myself.
Oh, come back five, 10 years, you're gonna come back,
pastor, you're right, it was all vanity.
It was all worthless.
Living a life without my Lord God was just pointless.
It's true.
And I've heard this from church people.
You know, people that have maybe sought money and wealth
and you know, they're in the millions of dollars
and you know, they've made something of themselves
in as far as this life goes and so it's all worthless.
In that journey, I lost my family.
In that journey, I lost my wife.
In that journey, I had it all by now and no one cares.
You know, when I was doing well, I had all these friends
and now when I realize the truth of God's word
and salvation and what really matters in life,
nobody wants to talk to me.
Because people just use you, okay?
People use you and you find that it's pointless.
So I want you to understand again, it's a journey.
Ecclesiastes is a journey.
Yes, Solomon gets to a point in life
because it's all vanity, it's all worthless.
It's true to him at that point in time in his journey.
But don't take that to say, well, it's always worthless.
You know, serving God is worthless.
Of course it's not worthless, okay?
Because one day he's going to judge you
and you're going to be rewarded for the works that you do.
Let's keep going there, verse number three.
It says, what profit have a man of all his labor
which he taketh under the sun?
Okay, so again, he's the most powerful man.
He's got a great kingdom.
He's got wealth, he's got possessions.
Solomon's got everything.
He's worked hard for what he has.
You know, he's labored in the kingdom.
He goes, but then, what profit is there?
What profit is to be, have the greatest name on this earth
to gain the whole world?
When you're without the Lord, again, younger self,
you love the Lord, gets to a point
where he starts chasing the girls.
You know, one wife is not enough,
goes to the second wife, third wife,
ends up with 700 wives.
That's not enough, 300 concubines.
He goes, man, I've got everything that anybody could want.
You know, he goes, but what profit is there?
It means nothing, okay?
Now, I'll quickly read to you,
because you probably already turned away from 1 Kings,
but 1 Kings 11, verse four, it says,
for it came to pass when Solomon was old
that his wives turned away his heart after other gods,
and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God,
as was the heart of David his father, okay?
So it's not that Solomon completely deserted God.
It's just that his heart was not perfect toward God.
Instead of his heart being completely toward God,
some of his heart was toward God of the Bible,
and then he just said, I'm gonna serve gods
because my wives have convinced me to do so.
You know, my wives have their religion,
so I'm gonna pursue that as well.
I'll find out what they have to teach,
and we'll soon see as we go through this chapter,
yeah, he did seek for things that were stupid as well.
Not only did he seek wisdom of this world
and truth, but he also sought that which is foolish.
And of course, worshiping false gods
is a foolish thing to do.
You're not gonna find satisfaction in other religions.
Verse number four, one generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh,
but the earth abideth forever.
Okay, so again, Solomon just sees generation
after generation, and you know, I'm finding myself,
you know, Isabel is turning 17 this week,
and I'm thinking, what happened?
You know, I mean, my kids are becoming
this next generation, and I feel old.
I'm starting to feel old.
You know, the way I dress now is apparently old,
and the way my terminology is old,
and you know, the things that I enjoy, they're old.
There's a new generation coming through.
And Solomon's realizing, well,
I'm not gonna be around forever.
Generations, they come and go,
but the earth abideth forever.
So this is what he thinks.
This is what he understands.
It's just a cycle.
It's just gonna keep going.
One generation goes, another one comes in.
Another generation goes, and for younger generation,
you know, you're gonna think the earth is all about me,
but you're gonna find out at some point in time
that there's another generation coming through,
and so what are you gonna do with your life?
You know, what matters?
What matters?
Now, of course, you know, again,
we'll look at verse number four.
It's not that another generation
is gonna just constantly come.
There will come and end.
There will be a final generation, okay?
There is gonna come a time
when God creates a new heaven and new earth,
and we're not gonna be procreating anymore
because men and women will not be given into marriage
when it comes to that point in life, in eternity, okay?
Again, so we don't wanna take this and think,
well, everything just continues forever.
We know there comes an end in the Bible.
But again, from Solomon's point of view,
at this point in life, he's finding himself getting old.
A new generation's coming, okay?
And another generation's replacing that generation.
He's seeing this cycle, this cycle of the earth, okay?
You know, we're born into this world,
and then we're going to die.
And the children will replace the parents.
And children, your children are gonna replace you.
And then their children are gonna replace them.
And the cycle continues.
So is there any meaning to life?
Is there any meaning to life, really?
That's what he's thinking about, you know?
Verse number five.
Not only is there a cycle in human beings,
but it says, the sun also ariseth,
and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to his place where he arose.
So Solomon realizes, okay, the sun rises in the east.
Which way is east here?
That way, okay?
Sun rises in the east, it sets in the west,
and then it returns back to the east and rises again.
You know, what is it saying?
There's a cycle.
It's just a constant thing.
It's not like there's this brand new thing every time.
It's just the same thing happens again and again.
Generations replace generations.
The sun rises, the sun sets, the sun rises, the sun sets.
Okay?
Let's keep going there.
Verse number six.
He goes, the wind goeth toward the south,
and turneth about unto the north.
It whirleth about continually,
and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
We can see that King Solomon
has definitely gotten an education.
With his wisdom that God has given him,
he's definitely gone into and learnt the sciences.
You know, so he's understood that wind or air has circuits.
You know, we call this air or wind currents.
You know, if you learn about that in science,
we often call that the wind or air currents.
And basically, this is how I understand it
as best as I'm, I could be a little bit wrong here,
but as I understand it, we obviously know that the earth,
the hottest place on the earth is the equator.
You know, that's the centered area.
That's where the sun hits the earth the most.
So that's where, you know, you get,
obviously with the sun hitting that the most,
there's gonna be hot air, and hot air rises, okay?
And as that hot air rises, it then starts,
depending on which hemisphere you're in.
Now, obviously Solomon's in Jerusalem,
so he's in the northern hemisphere.
So the hot air will travel north,
and as the hot air starts to go toward the poles,
the air starts to cool down,
and then cool air obviously lowers,
and then as it lowers, it starts to travel back south.
And so from his point of view,
the wind that travels south is the cooler air
from the high pressure,
and then as it hits the equator, goes south,
you know, we get the low pressure system,
and then that air travels back north.
So that's what he's observed.
That's what he's understood, okay?
That he sees this, again, this circuit, this cycle.
You know, it just continues, one thing after another, okay?
This is how the earth operates.
And of course, for us in the southern hemisphere,
it kind of works differently.
You know, the air, the winds traveling south
are your warmer airs, and then the winds traveling north,
back to the equator, are the cooler airs.
So you've probably heard it on the,
when you hear like the news and the,
you know, when they talk about the weather,
they talk about the low pressure system,
high pressure system.
It's just the changes between hot air and cool air,
and how the wind travels in its circuits, okay?
It's the air cycle.
And so, yeah, again, Solomon's learnt this.
He understands this science, and he just says,
look, it just goes around in cycles.
Everything just continues, all right?
Verse number seven, verse number seven.
Another thing that he learns is the water cycle.
He says, all the rivers run into the sea,
yet the sea is not full,
and to the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
So he learns the water cycle, evaporation.
He goes, look, the water that runs from the rivers,
they go into the oceans, they go into the seas,
and that's what you continue to see.
You continue to see the water run from the rivers
into the oceans, but why aren't the oceans full?
Like, why don't the oceans get to a point
where they break the banks and the whole earth is covered?
He goes, because he learns about evaporation.
He goes, because the waters return back when they started.
Okay, so of course, the waters evaporate
into the skies and the clouds.
It rains, it falls on the land,
gets gathered into our river system,
and then that goes back into the ocean, back again.
The cycles, okay, the water cycle,
over and over and over again, okay?
So he's just comparing creation,
it's just this constant cycle,
and we're just in one particular point in time
in that cycle.
I hope that's kind of what you're seeing as well, okay?
Verse number eight, verse number eight.
He then says, all things are full of labor.
So basically, if you want to learn things,
you need to labor for it.
You want to have wisdom, you want to learn things,
you need to labor in your studies.
You want to do well in your jobs,
you've got to labor and learn, okay?
There's a learning cycle, whatever you call it,
I can't remember what you call it right now,
where you're gonna struggle to be able to gain new skills.
If you take on a new job, you're always going to struggle.
Every time I took on a new job,
I thought I was hopeless, worthless.
Like, I don't get this job,
but then after a few weeks of training
and doing it again and again,
you become good at it, but it requires work.
You know, one thing that we learn in this generation,
and one thing that we need to teach our children
is not be quitters.
Because if you want to get good at something,
you have to labor at it.
You have to learn.
You want to get good at soul winning,
you have to go soul winning.
You want to get good at work and a job,
you've got to just labor hard and ask questions
and be humble enough to say,
look, I need to learn these things.
We have a generation, it's too hard, I quit.
I quit, job, the boss said something rough to me, I quit.
I don't, you know, he's making work these hours, I quit.
Everything requires labor.
You know, if you want to get better at it,
all things are full of labor.
Man cannot utter it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
Okay, so what he's saying is,
it takes work to learn things,
but you'll never learn it all, is what he says, okay?
Like, you know, I mean, even the Bible,
there's a lot to learn.
To me, the Bible is a book, an eternal book.
You know, the words of God, I mean, there are so many layers.
I mean, one day I'm going to get through the entire Bible,
Lord willing, okay?
But if I go through the entire Bible, once again,
we're going to be able to learn new things from God's word,
because it's just layer after layer.
You're never going to get to the end
or be able to utter everything that God has to say.
And that's just the Bible.
You continue learning the sciences
and how the world operates,
you're never going to get to the end of it.
You know, people that get wisdom,
they start to understand the more I learn,
the more I don't know.
The more I realize, I don't know.
Because the world, the information,
the wisdom is just so, so great.
And so I would say, look, if you can't learn at all,
look, the eye is not satisfied with seeing.
You know, this is like YouTube.
You go watch a YouTube video.
All right, now watch the next one.
Watch the next one, watch the next one.
You're never satisfied.
Like, there's just constant learning.
There's constant things, right?
So my thought about this is,
well, if you can't learn at all, okay,
you can't get good at,
you can't be the best at everything,
then spend your time learning what matters most.
Like prioritize to yourself what matters the most.
Then I'll learn that.
God's word is important, then I'll learn that.
My job that I have right now is important.
I'll learn that instead of wondering about a future job
that I might have in the future.
Just be good at what you currently have,
what God has given you, okay?
You gotta be able to limit yourself.
You gotta understand that I can't do it all.
I can't experience everything.
Now, Solomon experienced everything.
Well, pretty much everything, okay?
Even he realized he can't learn at all,
but you know, he experienced more than
what most people will experience.
And even after that, without the Lord,
he said it's all vanity.
It's all worthless, okay?
Let's keep going.
It says,
the thing that have been is that which shall be.
This is verse number nine.
The thing that have been is that which shall be.
And that which is done is that which shall be done.
And there is no new thing under the sun.
This is another thing that keeps popping up
in the book of Ecclesiastes.
There is nothing new under the sun.
There is nothing new.
There are no new discoveries
that weren't discovered before.
There isn't new knowledge that wasn't understood before.
You know, basically what he says is history repeats itself.
History will continue to repeat itself.
You know, World War I.
World War I was known as the war to end all wars.
They thought this is something new.
You know, all the countries coming together
and this must end them all.
No, then there's World War II.
A few decades later.
Okay, and there's probably gonna be,
there definitely has to be at least a World War III
because we know in the end times
that all the entire earth is back at warfare.
Okay, history repeats itself.
There were dictators in the past.
There are gonna be dictators in the future.
Okay, there's been communism in the past.
There's gonna be communism.
There's even to the present in the future.
You know, there are cycles.
People just go for these things
and you know, the Labor Party's right now
in charge of Australia.
You know, sometime in the past,
the Labor Party's in charge as well.
One day in the future, the Liberal Party's
gonna be in charge again
and then the Liberal Party's in the past as well.
It's just this constant thing.
There's nothing new, okay?
But even though there's nothing new,
you're still in this cycle of this generation.
You're still not gonna learn at all, okay?
There's just too much in the world
for you to experience and learn.
You're never gonna get to the bottom of it, okay?
But basically, history just continues to repeat itself.
Verse number 10.
It says, is there anything whereof
it may be said, see, this is new?
It hath been already of old time
which was before us.
Okay, one thing I do enjoy,
you know, I think we often think,
oh man, we're in the information world.
We have more wisdom.
We have more understanding than we've ever had.
But one thing I like to learn about
are ancient civilisations
and like the construction work
where people just say, look,
we have no idea how they built this thing.
You know, huge boulders.
They haven't got the machinery.
They haven't got the power tools.
They haven't got the trucks.
They say, but somehow ancient civilisation
was able to build this pyramid
or whatever it is, you know,
and they were able to carry these huge boulders.
You know, and the geometry is like,
you've got these perfect angles
and it's just built perfectly right.
And they're like, how do they do it?
Obviously they had wisdom in the past
that has been lost
and then we start to learn this wisdom again,
go look how smart we are.
Yeah, but they were ancient people
that were smarter than you, okay?
We say, oh, it's all new.
It's all been learned before.
Someone's known it before.
That's why I love all these ancient stuff, you know.
Probably civilisation was probably very advanced
at the time of Noah's flood.
I'm sure it was very advanced.
And then when the flood came,
destroyed, you know, a man destroyed
the constructions that probably existed during those days.
The wisdom was a lot lost there.
But you know, what's beautiful,
we have the Bible.
The Bible, we have God's word, you know,
and it's written there.
We can just keep learning and learning and learning
what God has to say to us.
I love, you know, the wisdom of God's word
will never be lost.
You know, learning what man has to teach
will be lost in generations to come
and then regained in some future time.
But God's word, what you learn from God's word
is going to stay with you forever.
It feeds the soul, okay?
It's our daily bread, God's word is.
It continues to nourish us, sustain us,
to give us the wisdom to live a life
that gives us joy, that gives us satisfaction,
that gives us meaning.
Isn't that what we want?
I think most people in the world
are looking for meaning to life.
What does it all mean?
Well look, I know what it means.
It means to serve God.
I have to put God first.
One day I'm gonna stand before the presence of God
and I'm gonna serve Him for the rest of my life.
And I'm not gonna have this wicked flesh with me.
I'm gonna have a righteous flesh.
That righteous flesh will never have doubts,
will never sin, will never corrupt, okay?
It'll have the wisdom that God wants to give us
at that point in time.
We're gonna serve Him for the rest of our lives,
for all eternity.
People struggle to find meaning in a temporary place,
the 70, 80, 90 years that you get given.
What about all eternity forever?
You can't find meaning now.
You know?
It's all about what comes to the future.
It's all about serving the Lord God.
That's really what life is about.
And for young people, I tell you,
the most satisfying thing,
the healthiest thing that you can give to your heart
is just to love the Lord,
just to fear the Lord, to serve the Lord.
And look, I'm talking to my children here
because I'm sure we have 11 kids.
Look, I hope not.
I hope all my 11 kids just love the Lord
every day of their life,
serving faithfully every day of their life,
in church, soul winning, reading the Bibles,
but I know realistically
that's probably not gonna be the case.
Okay, and I'm sure some of my kids will be like,
Dad, I just wanna see what this world has to offer.
You know, and off they go.
And then they're gonna go through hardships
and problems and trials.
And again, five years, 10 years, maybe 20 years.
Depends how stubborn they are.
Depends how prideful they are.
I'll turn around and say, you know what, it was all vanity.
All that matter will serve in the Lord God.
But learn it now.
You might as well learn it now
instead of waiting 20 years of your life.
Wasting 20 years of your life and realizing this truth.
Learn it now.
You know, Solomon wrote these words down
so we can learn it now
so we don't have to go for that experience, okay?
It's all here written for us in God's word.
I'm not sure where I was up to now.
Verse number 11, I think.
There is no remembrance of former things.
Neither shall be there any remembrance of things
that are to come with those that shall come after.
So in other words,
there's no point in leaving earthly legacy.
You know, I wanna leave a name for myself.
You know, I've already preached on this recently.
If you wanna be remembered for all eternity,
make sure your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
It's where the book's gonna be opened
and your name is going to be found there
and Jesus is going to declare your name to the Father
and to the angels for all eternity.
Your name can matter.
Your legacy can matter.
That's only if you seek God's kingdom first.
You do the works that God wants you to do.
Verse number 12, I the preacher
was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
And now we get to the point, he explains the journey.
Okay, verse number 13.
He goes, and I gave my heart to seek and search out
by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven.
You know, he got to a point where he just, you know,
lost a bit of satisfaction in just being the king of Israel.
He goes, you know what?
I'm gonna, instead of playing my heart to the Lord God
and this kingdom that he's given me,
I wanna start discovering everything there is in the world.
I wanna learn about every country and every civilization
and every religion and just everything there is.
I've got the time.
I've got the power, you know.
I've got the wisdom to learn these things.
I might as well apply my heart for these things.
That's what Ecclesiastes is all about.
He's preaching.
He's explained to the people
the journey that he's gone through.
He goes, and then he says this,
all things that are done under heaven.
Then he goes, this saw travail.
He goes, this was a painful experience.
I mean, it was hard work learning all these things.
And he was sore, it was painful.
This saw travail have God given to the sons of man
to be exercised therewith.
Once again, he just explains that the more you,
you know, in order to learn things,
requires labor, requires work.
It can be painful.
So I mean, he goes, I've gone for this painful experience.
This is how God wants us to learn,
by going for that labor, okay?
That's what he's saying.
And again, the idea of the saw travail,
again, I've already covered this,
but you know, study, learning, it requires work.
Bettering yourself requires work.
And one of the biggest problems
with our current generation, our society,
as much as the internet has given us wisdom and learning,
things to learn very quickly,
you learn it without the travail.
You learn it without the labor.
And what it does is it creates a generation of people
that are just parroting things.
I saw this on the internet.
Did you know brother so-and-so about this thing?
Did you study that thing?
Did you labor hard for it?
Are you sure this is true?
I've taught this before.
So many things.
I was sharing with another brother recently.
You know, I'll share this video.
I'll just tell you very quickly.
I'll share this video a while ago.
I don't remember, I can't remember who,
and maybe for someone here in the church,
it's about youth, but I'm sorry,
I can't remember who he was, okay?
But someone shared with me a video where, you know, Pfizer.
Pfizer is one of the companies that created all the,
you know, the COVID vaccinations.
Where the Pfizer CEO said that by 2023,
and I can't remember word for word exactly now,
cause you know, anyway, whatever,
by 2023, half the population will be dead.
And then after he said, he's like,
he's speaking in a press con,
I'm not a press con, like a conference, okay?
And then after he says that, basically everyone's like,
woo, yeah, woo!
And someone told me about this.
Anyway, you know, I take a while,
you know, to sort of think about things for a while.
I want to process information.
I want to go check it for myself.
So I went to, okay, at some point it kind of dawned on me,
I would come and see if this is true.
So I went and I found the video,
and the video was coming from a screen,
like it was coming from the internet,
but then it was being recorded by someone's phone.
So someone's recorded it like that, okay?
And then what I'm watching is what someone's phone
recorded from that website and go, that's a bit dodgy.
Like, why don't you just give the link
so I can watch it myself?
So then I thought, well, I better go find out for myself.
So I found, you know,
I was trying to figure out the guy's name,
what conferences are that.
I finally found the website where he said these words
and I played the video and the Pfizer CEO goes,
well, you know, by 2023, 50% of the population
will be able to afford our medication.
Woo!
People are clapping.
50% of the population is going to afford the medication
that comes from Pfizer in 2023.
That was the truth.
He wasn't saying 50% of the population is going to perish,
but someone doctored that video online.
Someone watched it.
Instead of travailing,
instead of going for the study themselves, is this true?
Before I tell Pastor Kevin,
you know, I want to tell Pastor Kevin truth
or I'm going to tell him foolishness.
So I better work it out for myself.
And it's foolish.
It was rubbish.
You know, I love that Solomon has gone
through this journey of learning, but it cost him.
It required work, pain, labor
to find out if these things are true.
The internet is making us stupid.
We think we're wise.
We think we've learned things.
I saw the video.
I saw the video too, brother.
I could have forwarded, but no.
No, this is going to require some pain and labor.
Let's find out if what is this?
It seems weird to me the way this was recorded.
It wasn't true.
I'm not saying the Pfizer CEO is a great guy.
I'm not saying that.
I'm not saying that they've got some,
they don't have nefarious rates.
I'm just saying we've got to be careful
about the information we present.
Okay, I think this is going to be my hobby doctrine
for a while, okay?
Going and having a critical mind, learning for yourself.
If it doesn't cost you anything,
if you're not laboring hard for the information,
don't pass it on.
You just become a parrot for potential foolishness.
Foolishness.
You're making people believe lies.
Think about that.
Who's the father of lies?
We don't want that father, okay?
God, what did we learn there in verse number 13?
This sore travail hath God given
to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
It's God's plan that whatever we learn,
it requires sore travail.
It requires labor, learning, time, effort
to make sure what you've learned to be true.
Solomon's not just parroting learnings
that he's heard from someone.
He's studying it for himself.
I don't want you to be a congregation
that just parrots past the heavens of Polvata.
Study it for yourself.
Go to God's word.
Put the labor in there.
Find out, is this true?
Verse number 14.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun,
and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Vexation means like frustration, annoyance, okay?
Not only is it all just worthless,
but seeking these things just causes pain,
annoying, frustration, no satisfaction, once again.
Verse number 15.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight,
and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
Now I think of this as someone trying to fix things, right?
That which is crooked cannot be made straight.
I also think about the gospel,
where people teach you have to repent
of your sins to be saved.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight.
You're not gonna fix this flesh.
This flesh can never save itself.
It's crooked, okay?
And that's what people, people think,
hey, life is about fixing things,
and life can be about fixing things.
We know that the second law of thermodynamics,
that everything tends toward disorder.
You know, even if you just leave a house alone,
it's going to fall apart.
Even if no one lives in that house,
eventually you're gonna have insects and rodents
and weather damage, and things are just gonna fall apart.
So yes, part of life is fixing things, okay?
But brethren, you're never gonna fix the whole world.
You know, there is a doctrine in some Christian circles.
You know, we're premillennial.
When it comes, what that means is basically we believe
that Christ is coming back before the millennium, okay?
There are some people that are millennial or post-millennial.
Basically they teach something similar that,
similar between themselves, is that it's the millennium now,
and that Christ will come back once the entire world
has been reached with the gospel,
once the entire world becomes Christian.
If we just fix this entire world,
then Christ is gonna come back.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight.
Brethren, we can't fix this world.
This world, in fact, we know, if you've lived for some time,
you know this world is getting worse and worse.
But there's nothing new under the sun.
In my parents' generation,
the world was getting worse and worse.
In my grandparents' generation,
the world was getting worse and worse.
We can't fix this world.
So don't put your efforts in fixing this world, okay?
Now look, again, there's nothing wrong with fixing things.
But fix things that are most important to you.
I can fix my life.
I can make my life better.
I can fix my family if something's broken.
At the house that I live in, if things fall apart,
I'll just call Brother Rob or Brother Caleb.
They can fix those things for me.
I mean, obviously, we can't fix everything.
So again, we wanna focus on what we can fix,
what's important to us, yeah?
Yeah, and sorry, it says there,
that which is crooked cannot be made straight,
and then look at this,
and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
So even if you try to make your life
all about fixing things,
you're gonna find out that there's an unlimited,
there's unlimited things in this world that needs fixing.
So just fix what you can fix.
Don't worry about fixing the entire world.
I'm gonna fix family so-and-so in church.
Fix your own family.
Let them fix themselves.
Pray to God and ask God to help them.
You know, we can't, look, again,
think about what God has given you.
Keep fixing those things.
That's it.
What has God given me?
That's what I can put my hand toward.
That's what I can labor toward.
I can't fix everything, all right?
Because there's always gonna be something wanting.
And brethren, you're never gonna get your life
where you have no problems either.
Yeah, you can fix one problem at a time
as things come up, as they're a priority,
but life is about problems.
There's gonna be problems till the day you die.
You're never gonna have everything in order.
So just accept it, okay?
That doesn't mean be lazy and don't do any fixing,
but just understand the reality of life.
Things break down.
Relationships break down.
Bank accounts get emptied.
There's always bills.
There's always something.
There's always something to fix.
Verse number 16.
I communed with mine on a heart, saying,
lo, I am come to great estates.
Solomon goes, man, I'm such a great man.
I have gotten more wisdom than all they
that have been before me in Jerusalem,
because I'm the smartest king that's ever,
I'm the best.
I'm the best, he goes.
Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge,
because I've reached the pinnacle.
I'm the greatest king that's ever lived.
I've got the most wisdom than any king's ever gonna have.
He's the best.
You know, some people's desire on the earth
is to be the best.
You guys know I like watching soccer from time to time.
The most famous, the most wealthy football player right now
is Cristiano Ronaldo.
If you don't know that name, don't worry.
But the question gets asked about him,
and he's like 37.
Most players are retired, like, is he 37?
Like, you know, not sure.
Most players retire, you know, by they're 33, 34, 35,
definitely by then, most players have retired.
He's 37, he's still going.
And I ask him, why are you still playing?
He goes, I wanna be the best.
That's his goal.
I wanna be the best footballer there's ever been.
The best.
That's what some people's hearts are.
Well, I'll just focus on one thing,
and I'll just be the greatest.
King Solomon's community's heart,
I'm the best king that's ever been.
Right?
I mean, that's what people want.
They apply themselves in athletics,
they go to the Olympics, they get their gold medals,
they break records, they've got the world record.
I'm the best.
Yeah, but you know what's gonna happen next Olympics?
Your record's gonna be broken,
and you're not gonna be the best anymore.
People that are labeled to be the best.
Then eventually, down the track, someone beats you.
Someone's wiser.
Look at verse number 17.
After he figures out that he's the best,
he goes, and I gave my heart to know wisdom,
and to know madness and folly.
I perceive that this also is vexation of spirit.
Because even desiring to the best,
even when I get to the point that I'm the best of the best,
it still vexed my spirit.
It still was frustrating, still annoying.
I'm still not satisfied.
It's interesting.
What I like about verse number 17,
he goes, and I gave my heart to know wisdom.
So yeah, he wanted to learn truth, okay?
He wanted to gain understanding,
but then he gets to the point where he says,
and to know madness and folly.
He goes, I even spent time learning things
that are foolish.
I even want to understand why people believe stupid things.
I even spent time learning stupid things
to see if there was any satisfaction
in learning stupid things.
All right, we know.
Part of that was he went and sought other religions.
What do other religions, oh, what's this God?
Let's set him up.
My wife, I'll marry this wife, she's got that religion.
Oh, see what that's about.
It's folly.
He spent time to know madness and folly, stupidity.
Forever on the internet, a lot of it is madness and folly.
A lot of it is stupid, stupid.
No profit.
And you know what?
You're gonna learn at some point
that it's a vexation of spirit.
I just wasted hours learning stupidity.
It's a vexation of spirit.
Hey, learning great things, wisdom.
Yeah, even that, it's just seeking wisdom being the best.
It just brings vexation.
You're not gonna find satisfaction
in trying to learn as much truth as you can, all right?
But you're also gonna find vexation
in trying to learn stupidity, okay?
That's what King Solomon finds, okay?
In his journey there.
Again, is there anything wrong with having wisdom?
Of course not.
The other book that Solomon writes is the book of Proverbs.
It's known as the book of wisdom.
Does God want us to have wisdom and get wiser?
Of course the Lord wants that from us, okay?
But to learn wisdom for the sake of learning wisdom,
it's just vexation of spirit.
You know, just to be the wisest, to be the smartest.
I never went to university.
Now some people, you know, I'm not saying
that it's wicked or wrong to want to get a,
you know, a, what do you call it?
When you pass a degree.
Nothing wrong with getting a degree really
at the end of it, you know?
But I never did such things.
And one of the experiences that I had,
not that I really saw this stuff,
it's just that, you know, in employment,
I often got into positions, very young,
that other people that were my, you know,
same level as me, they would have to go to university
to get that training and get that position.
And so, you know, I'd have these meetings
with certain people, certain managers,
and they'll be like, oh, so what, you know,
what courses, what university, what this and that?
And I'm like, well, nothing really.
So, like, what do you mean?
I just worked my way up.
I just got better at the job that I was doing.
I got promoted and I'm here.
And they're like, oh, then you're like this uneducated.
You're like this uneducated fool.
Because we went through this process
and we have learnt it all.
And I'm like, yeah, but I'm at your level.
You spent all this time learning,
gaining your degrees so you can be somebody.
Look what I've achieved.
Look at my career path and what I've made.
It was just a vexational spirit at the end of the day.
It was all worthless at the end of the day
because I've just proven that I can get to your level
without having to go through that process.
And I've got a family and I've got kids
and I'm actually enjoying life.
A lot of these people were not enjoying life.
A lot of these people were divorced and things like that.
They could not prioritize family
because all they did was prioritize career
just so they can have a name.
Look what I've made for myself.
So, look, nothing wrong with wisdom, brethren.
Please, don't misunderstand.
I believe in wisdom.
I think we should be wiser and smarter
and apply ourselves, use what God has given us
to better ourselves, to increase in learning.
But if it's just for that,
if it's just to have a look at me, look at my degree,
let me stick this to the wall.
Pastor, what Bible college did you graduate from?
I didn't graduate from Bible college.
Did you know that?
I didn't.
I've done some Bible college courses for my local church,
but everything I've learned, well, not everything
because I spent time in my own word and my own study,
but a lot of what I learned came from the pillar
and ground of truth, which is your local church.
I sat there, I listened to my pastors preach,
I learned great truths, I made sure that I could go back
and learn it for myself, and that's my training.
I don't have a Bible college degree to stick to the wall.
So to disappoint, I don't know if anyone's disappointed
by that, probably not.
Okay?
You know, who cares about the thing on the wall?
Okay, we don't just learn for the sake of learning
just to be the best and have a name
and look what I've done, look what I've achieved.
Surely that's the only way to be successful in this world.
No, you just seek God.
Just do what God wants you to do.
Just keep his commandments, fear God,
and you will grow and you'll develop
and you'll outshine people that try to seek meaning
in life without the Lord God.
God gives you all the meaning necessary
to live a satisfied life.
Look at verse number 18.
For in much wisdom is much grief,
and here that increase of knowledge increase of sorrow.
Interesting.
The more you know, the preacher is saying,
the more sad or worried you become.
And again, I see this in Christianity.
You know, pastor, maybe you shouldn't use this wireless mic
because the signals coming through this
are gonna affect your mind.
How did you learn that?
Because that's increased your sorrow.
You know what, we recently had these walls painted.
I don't know, maybe there's some chemical
in this paint, pastor, that'll calm and affect our health.
I don't know.
Yeah, maybe, I don't know.
You know, just, the world's trying to poison us.
Look, okay, what are you gonna do about it?
That which is crooked cannot be made straight.
You can't fix the world.
Just get on with it.
Stop getting this wisdom and then increasing sorrow,
and our life is just miserable,
and it's all, oh man, the 5G now, pastor Gavin.
Have you got a 5G mobile phone?
Because that's gonna fry your brain.
My brain's gonna perish in the grave anyway.
It's all gonna die.
I can't fix that.
I mean, you wanna join me
and burn down all the 5G towers?
Fine, but you're gonna end up in jail.
There's gonna be a lot of vanity there,
a lot of worthless and emptiness right there.
You wanna see that?
It's this heart to just fix the world.
We've gotta fix it.
Well, we know it's all gonna perish anyway.
It's all gonna perish.
So be careful about the things you learn.
You want wisdom that's gonna give you joy.
That's God's word.
You want wisdom that's gonna give you sorrow.
That's your internet videos.
It's true.
I see this all the time.
People worried and upset.
Why are you worried and upset
because I watched a video?
Because I read an article.
Well, then don't spend your time in those things
because you can't fix it.
And then you're gonna be stressed
because you can't fix it.
Okay, so anyway, Ecclesiastes chapter one.
I hope you can see that it's an exciting book to go through.
Definitely is an exciting book to go through.
A lot of things to learn.
Solomon has gone through the experiences
that each of us have maybe gone through,
have learned from, maybe are going through,
maybe will go through.
And it's all here written for us
in the book of Ecclesiastes to understand
there is no satisfaction, no joy
if you try to live a life without the Lord God.
Okay, let's pray.