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All right. Amen. Well, we're going to start a new study this evening and it's going to be in this book right here, the book of Ecclesiastes. So I'll give you, I'll get into the title here in a little bit, but what I want to do right now is to start with an overview, okay? Start with an overview of the whole book and then we'll just run to chapter one, go through that and make some sense of this stuff. Now, if you look online, you'll listen to what these people out here, these so-called professing Christians are teaching, okay? They love bringing this up right out of the gate. They love saying, well, we don't know who the author is. Seriously, just go look it up. We don't know who the author is. It sounds like Solomon, but it probably isn't. We don't know for sure. You know, they just love casting that doubt and I want to make sure before we even start that you have the answer to who wrote this and who is preaching, okay? And that'll make sense here in just a second. So let's take a look at something here. Look down at verse number one. So remember, what do we do when we study something that we don't know? We're trying to find the answer to a question that we don't know. We go from the known to the unknown, okay? So the question has been posed, who wrote this? Who's behind it? Okay, what's the deal? Well, look at verse number one. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, okay? Now, I mean, I read that and I think, okay, well, that's just how Solomon possibly just started off the letter because I believe this is, and I'm going to be able to prove it to you. This is from Solomon. It comes right after the book of Proverbs. If you know the Bible, you're saved, you've studied kings, you've studied chronicles, you've studied the Proverbs. It's pretty easy to tell at that point that this is Solomon. But, okay, I'll play your game. Let's say, what I heard one guy say, he's like, well, this says right here, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. So that's just saying that what you're about to read are his words. But this is somebody else. And because we don't know who this is, we don't even really know if this belongs in the Bible because of how pessimistic it is. But we'll go through it anyways and see if we can make some sense of it. That's a horrible way to live life. You want to talk about anxiety and despair? That Christian viewpoint provides it, okay? Beyond the shadow of a doubt. Now, keep your place there, but go real quickly just over to chapter number 12. Go over to chapter number 12 and look down. Let's do 9 and 10. Do verse 9 and 10, okay? Chapter 12, look at verse 9. It says, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. Okay, and we understand that Solomon had over 1,000 proverbs and such. Look at verse 10. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. And so, when I was just kind of trying to get a feel behind these people and why they say these oddball things like, well, we don't know who wrote it, it's a pessimistic book, might not belong here. You know, those same people on the side, you know what they'll tell you? Well, you know, we really need to focus on the book of Enoch and the book of Elijah. Okay, that's where the real information's at. I talked to a guy not too long ago, and this bugs me, and this is why I'm bringing this up. And he had all these questions, the typical questions that most Christians have no idea how to answer. I answered them all for him. And then, you know what he did? He's like, this is great. I really thank you for providing me with the answers. But, and then he started like quoting me word for word about Bell and the Dragon, first and second Maccabees, the book of Enoch. I mean, all these apocryphal books, he could just spout off like verses from those things. And I just kindly said, you know, we've got 66 books in the Bible, okay? And you're sitting here quoting me these books that are just, that have odd doctrine, weird things in them that Jesus didn't even endorse. You know, I was like, do you not see the problem with that? He's like, oh, you know, kind of, but, you know, there's a lot of hidden, you know, stuff out there that we got to look for. So people are crazy, okay? That's basically what this book is about. People are crazy. And they'll bring you here and say, see, it's not written by the preacher. And since we don't know who the author is, and we don't know if we can trust it, that's, I'm serious, that is the viewpoint of a lot of professing Christians, okay? Now, we'll get into what all this stuff means later on. Now, go back to chapter number one. So what do we know about the Bible? Well, the Bible tells us that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And because the author's name is anonymous in the book, it doesn't say these are the words of Solomon, it says these are the words of the preacher. Well, because we know that the Bible says holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, obviously, we know that this is narrated by the Holy Ghost. It doesn't matter who physically penned it down. If God wanted us to know, we would know, okay? But the point is, these are the words of God. That's the idea here, and that's the point, okay? So, just something to keep in mind. Now, I want to show you here why I believe that this preacher that is brought up in verse one is King Solomon, not Rehoboam, or any of the other kings that came after, okay? Now, just to kind of show you this here, look down at verse number 16. I'm just going to give you a couple of reasons real quickly why this is King Solomon. So, verse 16 says, I communed with mine own heart saying, lo, I am come to a great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Now, keep your place right here, but go backwards in your Bible and go to 1 Kings, chapter number three. 1 Kings, chapter number three, and let's see what that looks like there, okay? Now, before I go off and we read this verse here, you know, the Bible explicitly says that Solomon was king over all Israel and makes that distinction and reign from Jerusalem, okay? What is all Israel when the Bible says that? Well, it's all 12 tribes, okay? That's what it means there. And so, I think that should be enough to prove to the world that this is Solomon here, penning this down or writing this are his words, you know? But it's not enough for the new evangelical. So, 1 Kings 3, look down at verse number 12, okay? Look what it says. It says, Behold, I have done according to thy word. So, this is God speaking to Solomon in a dream and a vision here. He says, Behold, 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, okay? So, the first thing that we see here and the first reason that I believe that this is written by Solomon is because of the unrivaled wisdom, okay? Unrivaled wisdom. You compare verse 16 in Ecclesiastes chapter one with 1 Kings chapter number three, it becomes crystal clear that it's talking about Solomon. Now, go back to Ecclesiastes, but keep your place there in Kings because we will go back to it here in just a moment. And go to chapter number two real quick. Ecclesiastes chapter number two. So, we've got the first point here, which is unrivaled wisdom. Now, let's look at the second one here. Look at verse seven of chapter two. So, he says this, I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house. Also, I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem. And look at these last two words, before me, okay? So, what do we have going on here? Well, we've got unrivaled wealth. Now, go to Matthew chapter number six, New Testament, Matthew chapter number six here real quick. And let's see what Jesus said about King Solomon. So, Jesus, in Matthew chapter six, in this passage we're about to read from, is teaching about how to overcome worry and anxiety. And he mentions this here. We'll start off here in verse, let's do 27, okay? He says, Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto a stature? Okay? So, your thought, like, you know, you know these mind pump people, like, oh, it's all in the mind. The reason why you're not growing muscle, the reason why you're not getting stronger, faster, better, it's because your mentality. You can't, you're not, you're not speaking to it. You're not, your mind isn't strong enough. You know, it's mind over muscle, mind over matter, okay? And the Bible tells you, like, you can think happy, happy thoughts, big, big muscles, all you want to, but unless you hop on that gear and override that genetic code, it ain't happening, okay? Look at verse 28. He says, And why take ye thought for raiment? Okay? So, why are you worried about clothing? Look at the rest of the verse. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. Okay? And so, he uses this analogy here of a lily and how it doesn't do any external work, but yet it's clothed very beautifully. Now, look at verse 29. It says, And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Now, why does Jesus use Solomon as the example here to compare it to a lily? Because if anyone in the world was going to come close, it would have been King Solomon because of the wisdom he was given, the riches he was given. You know, a lot of these people say, Go to 1 Kings 10. Go to 1 Kings 10. A lot of people today like to brag about these wealthy, you know, rich families that are in the world ruling everything, you know, these rich elites. And yeah, they got a lot of money. Yeah, they got a lot of power and whatnot. But here's the thing, okay? Nobody is really going to Elon Musk. Nobody is really going to the Rothschilds or these, you know, rich popes to really hear their wisdom. Okay? They go there to do human trafficking, human sacrifice, going to get drugs. I mean, just to get wickedness. Okay, that's what it's all about. You know, you don't find the kings of the earth flocking to those people like they did Solomon. Solomon is in a level all on his own. Okay, so 1 Kings chapter, almost went to 2 Kings, 1 Kings chapter number 10. Look at verse 22. Okay, so remember, reason number one that this is definitely Solomon that we're talking about here in 1 Kings. Number two, it's because of his unrivaled wisdom. Number two, it's because of his unmatched wealth. Look at 1 Kings 10 and verse 22. It says, For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish. With the navy of Hiram, once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. Okay, so think about this. Every three years during Solomon's reign, he would get this ship, it would be full of gifts, gold, silver, and then you read like these these weird things like apes, peacocks, like what are you going to do with those? Well, when you have that much money, wisdom, power and fame, why not? Okay, you got to figure something out here. So I guess he became the first zookeeper. You know, the Bible doesn't really say but it just kind of goes to show you the level that Solomon was on. Okay. And then for the most obvious one here, number three, go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number one is found in verse number one. Look at it again. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, the son of David. So obviously, it's talking about Solomon when you put all of these things together. Okay, so that's just a quick overview of why we believe that this book is definitely talking about King Solomon. That is who the preacher is. Obviously, whoever penned this down, just because we don't know his name doesn't mean that this is illegitimate. It just means this is, you know, authored by the Holy Ghost because we know that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So let's do an about here. What is this book about? Okay, turn to chapter 12 real quick. So you're going to do a lot of flipping tonight. So go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12. What is this book about? Well, this book is about, I guess you could say human wisdom, even though that phrase is really a misnomer, because there's no such thing as human wisdom. So I guess we should maybe say it's about the human viewpoint. Okay, apart from God is what this is about. Okay. And so what you're going to find here is that in chapters one through 11, describe the human viewpoint. Okay. So essentially, what Solomon has done is said, Okay, I've got all the power, all the money, all the wealth, all of this stuff here, I'm going to seek out madness and folly, I want to learn what makes these things tick. And so essentially, the book is him basically putting the Bible, the Word of God aside, and going on a quest, okay, and he's going on this quest. And he's analyzing life, okay, just the cycles of life, the patterns of life, the things that that men do under the sun, and he comes to this conclusion in chapter 12. So remember, chapters one through 11, describe the human wisdom or the human viewpoint, chapter 12 is divine viewpoint. Look at this right here in verse number eight, this sums up the entire book, this sums up the entire answer right here. Verse eight, vanity of vanities, sayeth the preacher, all is vanity. Now you're gonna hear me say this a lot throughout this study here, okay, the word vanity, you do a word search, you do a word study, you're going to come to the conclusion that it means futile or empty, okay, futile, destructive or empty, meaningless, hopeless, not profitable, okay? And so the whole book is basically summed up right there in chapter 12, verse number eight. Now, I will say this, I think if you haven't done this, it would be a good thing to do read the whole book in one sitting, not a hard read, read the whole book in one sitting. This book here is excellent, I would say needs to be at the top of your priority list if you are a young person, okay? And you say, well, why is that? Well, because you're going to learn that the theme of this book here, or the method rather, which we're going to talk about here in a moment, is quest by experiment, okay? Solomon decides I'm going to put the word of God aside, I'm going to go into the world and see what happens. How can I fare in the world without applying, you know, the word of God, and we'll get into what that means here in a little bit, and we'll get more into Solomon here in a second, but he does this, and you get to learn from his mistakes, you get to learn from his looking at life at the end of his life in a rear view mirror, so to speak. You know, hopefully by now we've all learned that we don't need to stick our finger inside of a light socket to experience what it's like to get electrocuted. We've just learned from other people teaching us, hey, don't do that, don't short circuit an outlet because you're going to get electrocuted, and it's not good, okay? So again, this book has a ton of help, not just for young people, for everybody, young in the faith, whatever. If you got a pulse, this is definitely good for you, but this is something I think needs to really be put down on the kids, on the teens, like you need to read this and you need to soak this in. This is that important. I mean, obviously all the word of God's important, but you get what I'm trying to say here. Now, before we move on, so we got a little bit of what this is about. Now, how did this come to be about? Why was Solomon the right guy to write this book or for us to learn from? And so to do that, let's go over to chapter four of 1st Kings. So back to 1st Kings in the Bible. Let's go to 1st Kings chapter number four. So we've already learned that Solomon was given, so we'll back up here, okay? Chapter three, God appears to Solomon and says, you know, you can ask me for whatever you want to. And what does Solomon ask for? Well, he makes a very wise decision, says, I want the wisdom to be able to properly judge your people. God gives him that and so much more, okay? He gives them so much more. Now you're in chapter number four. Look at this here in verse number one. Okay, so King Solomon was King over all Israel, King over all Israel. Now we know that during King Solomon's early days in his reign, that he had peace from his enemies and he was able to do some building. Hey, does everybody remember what he built? Well, he built his own house. He built his own palace, okay? But he also built the temple of the Lord. You fast forward to chapter number eight, Solomon puts down this great prayer, okay? And it's a really, if you haven't read it, you got to read it, okay? Because in that prayer, God, I mean, Solomon's asking God like, Hey, Lord, please use us and use this place to be a beacon of light to the entire world so that everybody can hear the truth and magnify and glorify your name, okay? But however, something happened, okay? Remember, Solomon was a great man. I mean, just had great wisdom, wisdom like no one has ever had before or even since, obviously till Christ shows up. So we know that about him. But what happened? Okay, well, let's start off with number one, okay? Who was his first wife? Anybody remember? Was it another believer? Another Hebrew? No, he married an Egyptian woman, okay? And probably for political alliance, okay? So even though we read that Solomon is this guy with all this incredible wisdom, he still makes mistakes. And you say, well, what does that prove? Again, that proves that the best of men are men at best. So he marries this Egyptian, okay? And then he decides, yeah, you know, I'm so wise and I've got so much going for me. I mean, you want to talk about somebody who's got systems, somebody who's efficient? This would be the guy. It's not Elon Musk. No, it was King Solomon. So he says, well, I'm gonna get wife number two, three, four. He goes all the way up to 700. 700 wives. Now go to 1 Kings chapter number 11, okay? He goes up to 700 wives. And guess what? He doesn't find fulfillment in that, okay? So what does he do? He gets 300 concubines. I don't have time to get into that, but there is a distinction between a concubine and a wife. And the point is, he's got 700. 700. Okay, look, most of us will struggle in life dealing with one woman. This dude took on 700, okay? And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I mean, think about, ladies, you know, I'm telling the truth, okay? It's like, hey, does anybody like it when their husband's gone all the time? Not giving you attention, right? You don't have to raise your hand. I know the answer to this, okay? So could you imagine a dude having 700 nagging heathen wives? Okay, like, hey, you're not spending enough time with me. I mean, how did he deal with that? I'm surprised he didn't kill himself. 700 wives, 300 concubines, okay? By the way, you know what that teaches us, okay? No matter who you are, how your emotions are rolling or what's going on, you will never find true fulfillment in other people. It comes from one source and that source is God. That is what that teaches us, okay? So Solomon's like, hey, I'm wise, I'm efficient, I'm going to take this on. Anybody know another man who's taken on 700 wives, 300 concubines, 1000 different women? No, we don't. Okay? So that did something though. That changed something in Solomon and he got rebuked for it. Look at this here. First Kings chapter number 11, verse number one. So it says, but so you read chapters one all the way to here and it's just like Solomon's doing all this great stuff, okay? And then you hear this, but okay, verse one, but, but King Solomon loved and here it is many and that's a strong many man. That is a huge number there. Many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, okay, with his first wife, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians and Hittites. Verse two of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love. So he did cleave unto these somehow. I mean, he claved unto them and he loved them. That's what it says. As crazy as it is, look at this here in verse three, he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. The Bible says that evil communications corrupt good manners, okay? And I can't tell you how many dudes I've talked to in my life and they're like, you know what? I know this girl's got some serious issues. She's not saved. She's a rocker type, but I'm going to turn her straight. No, she's going to get you into a bind you will not get out of, man. That is what's about. Look, Solomon couldn't hold down the thousands of these, okay? They overcame him. They turned him from the great man that God installed him to be in to somebody who does the unthinkable. Keep reading here. Look at verse four. For it came to pass when Solomon was old, look at this, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord as God, as was the heart of David, his father. Verse five for Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom, the abomination of the Amorites. Verse six and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as David, his father. So David had some issues, right? I mean, David definitely had his problems, but he always went right back to just going after the heart of the Lord. Solomon is not like that. Now we see him and he's worshiping these false gods. He brings idolatry and all kinds of sin into the nation of Israel after God gave them peace and all of this prosperity. Look at verse seven. It says, then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. Of course, you read in the Bible how people sacrifice their children to Molech. That's what he's endorsing here. Okay, look at verse number eight and likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. Skip down for the sake of time to verse number 11, wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, for as much as this is done of thee and thou has not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to thy servant. And he just goes on to tell him exactly how that's going to unfold and how he's going to do that. And it says he's going to take it from his son Rehoboam. We don't have time to get into that. So let me have you guys leave your place there and go back to Ecclesiastes chapter one. Okay. So again, great for young people. Now, if you're, now that we got a good background on King Solomon and his life, how he fell, the reason why, because his wives turned away his heart. Okay. Ecclesiastes deals with a lot of that time period. Okay. And so if you're looking for a theme, it's basically an answer. Okay. Chapters one through 11 are basically an answer to the question that a lot of people out here ask, which is what is life's highest order? What is life's highest goal? What does that get a person? Okay. What does that achieve for a person? And the answer again is found really in chapter 12, where you could even say in the first three verses of chapter one, which is there's no profitability of it. Okay. There's no profitability. We'll get into that here in a second. It is for not life apart from our creator is death. That's all it is. It is death. 100% it is death. Um, so if you're looking for a style, okay, a style in how this is written, okay, again, we've already read verse one very clearly. You're going to find this word seven times in this book, and that is the word preacher. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because a lot of people like to over complicate this book and try to make it confusing. And I'm going to pull these deep, huge scientific facts out of it. It's a sermon. That's the style of this book. He says, preacher, we are the church. Okay. And he's preaching again. He's preaching his method, which is quest by experiment. I'm going to repeat that a lot throughout the study quest by experiment. Okay. So again, verse one, the words of the preacher, um, just real quickly go over to chapter seven. Look at this one here real fast. Chapter number seven verse let's do 27. So he says this, uh, behold, uh, chapter seven, verse 27. Behold, this I have found or have I found safe the preacher counting one by one to find out the account. What is the job of a preacher? The job of a preacher is to take the word of God and to do investigations, take problems and solve them using the schematic that we have the word of God. This is your schematic. This is your wiring diagram. This is the thread of life. Okay. Any problem that you have in some way, shape or form can be identified and solved through the word of God. And so you just, you know, don't look too, too deeply and oh, and get all confused. This is a sermon. Sermons are meant to be clear. He is a preacher and he's preaching to us a message and something that he wants us to under stand lessons to be learned, which again now highlights the method of his sermon or of his preaching, which is something that would definitely be wrong for you and I to do. Thank God that we get to learn from him and that is quest by experiment. That's what it is. What do you think this whole 700 wives, 300 concubines were playing with the apes and the peacocks and you know, doing all of this crazy stuff, spending more time building his house than he did the temple of God and completing that first. Okay. It's quest by experiment. He's experimenting. He wants to find out the most intricate details of madness in the world and folly and all of this, these sort of things. And really that leads to the mood of the book, which you're going to find is cynicism. A lot of the verses that you read in here, a lot of the responses that he, he has are honestly, since a cynicism, you know, you get cynical and why is that? Well, because you and I all know that the world's viewpoint on a lot of things is very cynical. It's very silly. It's very stupid. The way that the world operates and we're going to kind of wrap this intro up here, but if you're looking for the conditions, let's just say the conditions during Solomon's life, chapter four, you're going to find oppression. Chapter number eight, you're going to find that he's upset about no accountability. What do you and I oftentimes, what do we all talk about? You know, I heard on the news, you know, Biden said this and you know, he's getting away with all the, these tax crimes and all these politicians are sending all this money to Ukraine and they're funding Israel. And then in the back door, they're taking half that money and pocketing them themselves. Right. And we're always talking to how does a Senator who makes a, I don't know, a hundred plus whatever thousand dollars a year, 200 thousand, whatever their salary is, how do they become multimillionaires with no other side hustles or side jobs? How did Nancy Pelosi become as rich as she is? Right. Well, because there's no accountability. Okay. But when you realize that, that just focusing on that sort of stuff alone and apart from God and apart from understanding true judgment and judgment to come, it will drive you nuts. It will drive you absolutely crazy and actually cause you to turn course in your life in a direction that you will regret. I promise you that chapter 10, we actually get to read about a lot of suspicion. Okay. Because as Solomon is going into idolatry and sin, his conscience is bringing these things up. Prophets are coming to him and now he's getting suspicious of other people. And he does a lot of, you know, makes a lot of bad decisions like how he treated Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. So that is your quick overview of the book of Ecclesiastes. A lot of that stuff will be repeated throughout the study. Now let's get into it here. Chapter number one, and we're going to title this life is incurable. Okay. Life is incurable. And so let's look at that here in the first three verses. So the words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem, okay. Right out the gate here. What are the first words of his sermon? Vanity of vanities, save the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. So if you fail to know Solomon, if you fail to understand that this is a book, this is a, a quest by experiment. When you fail to realize that you read this and it's like, man, life sucks. Like why even try? Why try to be the best at work? Why try to be the best Christian? You know, if the cycle of life is just futile. Again, remember Solomon has set apart the doctrines and the statutes of God and has gone on his own to figure out madness and to figure out folly. Verse three. Look at this here. What profit hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun? Okay. And so the question here is what is profitability? You go ask the world. Well, it's money, it's power, it's fame. It's being able to send my, my kids to an Ivy league school. It's making sure that I can leave up for them millions of dollars. Okay. Those are the types of answers that you will get from the world. But what's ironic is when you talk to these people at the end of their life, you know what they're going to tell you. I wish I spent more time with my kids. I wish I spent more time with my spouse. I wish I spent more time with the very few people that actually cared about me. I cannot tell you how many times in my life in this community I have heard that said from older people that know that their time is limited. Okay. So right out of the gate here, the first three verses are basically telling us that from a human viewpoint, from worldly wisdom, okay, the people in the world, there is no hope. The stuff that they're laboring for is going to perish. It is going to be gone. In fact, go to Romans real quick, keep your place here, but just go to Romans chapter number eight. Let's look at this here. Romans chapter number eight, because actually Paul mentions this here in Romans chapter number eight. And I just want to show you that. So you have this here. So Paul writing to the Romans in chapter eight verse 20, he says this for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by a reason of him who have subjected the same in hope. Okay. Obviously a reference to the fallen world here. Look at verse 21 because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Verse 22 for we know that the whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain together until now. So you say, well, what does this mean here? Well, basically saying that creation is subject to the futility of sin. Okay. Because man sinned in the garden, things are the way that they are, but that doesn't mean that we're without hope because we know that in Christ, that's where our profitability is. We have faith, we are saved, we are born again. And because of that, we have tools that the world has no access to that they cannot use. And so a Christian should not ever find themselves in the same hope and disparity in false laboring that the world finds itself in all the time. So now we're going to look at verses four through 11, which really demonstrate the futility or the death of the cycles of life. Okay. That's all he's trying to say here. Look at verse number four. So he goes on. One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. And why is he saying this? Why is he bringing, remember cycles of life. Okay. That's what he's describing for us here. And I'll show you why in a second, look at verse five. The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose. So again, you know, he's building up to something here. He's letting us know that, you know, there's, there's, there's a cycle out there and you're not going to be able to stop it. Look at verse six. 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. Again, another reason why this is definitely King Solomon, because the Bible says that he spoke about trees and he spoke about animals and he just understood. I mean, he said this way before, you know, Doppler radar was invented and all these other crazy things, you know, before GPS and drones and, you know, the weather man being able to predict the weather. Okay. The Bible's light years ahead of you on all of that stuff here. Okay. Now look at this here. Verse seven, all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full unto the place from whence the rivers came or come, thither they return again. Then he says this in verse eight, all things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. And so basically the first observation in this chapter is this time keeps marching on and you can't stop it. And so when you set aside God and you try to go at life alone, this is the hopelessness and despair that is inside of the hearts of lost. Okay. They might act like they're good to go and be posted on social media and how cool they are and how satisfied they are inside. They know this inside. They realize, wait a second, that clock is ticking. Wait a second. There's another gray hair. Wait a second. There's another wrinkle. Wait a second. Maybe I don't have tomorrow and they don't know what to do about it. And so what happens is they get to a point in their lives where they realize, you know what? Life is hopeless. Life is full of despair. You know, what's the whole point here? Okay. Now some people, unfortunately they get to that state of mind and they wind up taking their own lives. And it's sad because they could have learned what to do about it just by coming to church, a church that preaches the truth. Look at verse number nine. He says, the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that which shall be done. And look at this. And there is no new thing under the sun. Okay. You're going to find that phrase several times in the book of Ecclesiastes under the sun. Okay. There's no new thing. You say, well, Hey, we got AI now that's new. No. All man can do is improve and come up with new technologies as God allows people to do. God has input smarts and wisdom. God said in the last days of the book of Daniel, that people would be able to figure out different secrets of the earth. It's only because God is unlocking things and rolling time forward so that he can come back and provide the judgment that he said he was going to do. Now, again, there's nothing new under the sun. Okay. There are life is full of patterns. Life is full of patterns. We'll have to do another study on that someday, but from the unsaved perspective, from the perspective of just human viewpoint, okay, life is pretty sad. Life is pretty sad to them. Life is pretty unstable. You do all this stuff and then you're gone. You know, nothing's harsher than listening to an atheist describe his life. You know, I don't believe there's anything out there. Just when you die, that's over. Okay. Inside. We all know that not only is that foolish because that's what the Bible says, but inside we know you don't really believe that. Okay. Inside you were scared to death inside. You know that there is something coming because truth exists. And the truth is you're going to get older and you will tap out from this life. Life is incurable. Look at verse 10. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new. It has been already of old time, which was before us. Verse 11. There is no remembrance of former things. Neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are come with those that shall come after. Okay. Now let me just say this. Life is incurable. And what you get out of this first chapter is that what is incurable by man is endurable with God. Okay. Remember that what is incurable by man is endurable by God. We may not have all the answers to cure the cancers and the stuff that these people are coming up for us. But you know what? With God, it is always endurable. And so the whole point here is that life in and of itself leads to no profitability. So what's the lesson for the Christian? What do we do about it? We'll go to Philippians chapter number four, new Testament, Philippians chapter four, and let's provide you with an answer for that. And you're going to find that answer in one word and that is contentment. Okay. That is contentment. People talk about all the time, you know, how do I find true happiness? What is true happiness? Well, the Bible will tell you, you will arrive at that place when you learn and understand what contentment truly is. Philippians chapter four, look at verse number 11. So Paul says this, he says, not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. Okay. Like God, I mean, God taught Paul some pretty interesting lessons. I mean, how do you be content in the situations that he went through? How do you get stoned and beat and get up and you're like, I ain't done yet. I didn't kill me. Where's the next door? Where's the next town? That's how Paul was. Look at verse 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. And he says this everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And then all of that leads to this right here. Verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Very famous verse. Okay. Very famous verse. One that everybody should have memorized. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. So when something happens in your life or someone else's life, okay, that's a believer. Okay. And it's like, it's incurable in their mind. They don't know what to do about it. You remind them, you know, what is incurable by man is endurable with God. That is Philippians 13 in a nutshell. Now go to 1 Timothy. So keep going towards the end of your Bible there. 1 Timothy chapter number six, 1 Timothy chapter number six. So again, the cycles of life, okay, are going to happen. You can't stop it. It's nothing you can do about it. However, that doesn't mean that we're without profitability because we're in Christ. We're in God. Hey, we're on another plane. We're in a different system right here. 1 Timothy six, look at verse number six. Paul says this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. You know what great, another word for great gain is profitability. Okay. So again, there is profitability under the sun for the Christian, for the believer. And I know somebody is going to send some hate like, oh, you're saying that people that don't believe like you can't. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That is what I'm saying. If you are not saved, you are without hope and lost in the world. That's it. This chapter right here, the first 11 verses, that's you. You're going to go through these cycles of life, work as hard as you can, worship this, worship that. Guess what? At the end of your life, you're going to die and go to hell and a story. That's what it is. Okay. But for us, we read this here and we realize what Solomon is doing. He's doing a quest by experiment, which is crazy, but it provides so much application and so much wisdom for us because he did that. Okay. And we get to say, wait a sec, you're right. What is the profitability in the world under the sun? Oh, it's nothing. The only way to profit is to get great gain by contempt and you get that by serving the Lord. Now look at verse 12 here. Let's move on chapter one, Ecclesiastes, Bible says this, he says, I, the preacher was King over Israel in Jerusalem again, just like we read in first Kings chapter four. Okay. Crystal clear who this preacher is. It is Solomon verse 13. And I gave my heart to seek and to search out wisdom by concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised there with. Okay. So he's getting his heart ready to peel off the layers behind why man does what man does. Basically verse 14 says, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That's what it is. Now having that understanding though, and just knowing that really gives you the high ground when you go to work on Monday and Tuesday, and you're just out there in the world because you know that is necessary. But for us who are saved, we know that the time is short. The Bible says your life is like a vapor. Okay. And you know what? When we do all things like we talked about this morning, heartily as unto the Lord, you go to work, you're working hard, you know, you don't like the task you do. You say, that's okay. I'm going to do this to make the kingdom of God and to make my God proud. You know what? It takes away all the animosity. It takes away all the bitterness. It takes away all those thoughts of like, you're above this, you shouldn't be sweeping that floor. And it puts it on the back burner. And guess what? God says, ah, there's somebody that's a builder. That's somebody I can use to lift up. And that's what we need to do about this. Look at verse 15 says that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. So again, this is just another reality. Okay. You know, us guys, we love to solve problems. If you're like me, I just like to solve problems. I like when people come at me, Hey, I got this problem. Oh man, I want to try to figure it out. Whether it's a problem within a machine or a problem in your life. I love to try to figure things out, but you know what? There is never going to be the cure for all of them. Okay. And I bring that up because we all know there is a certain person that will someday come on the world scene that says, I've got the answers. I've got the answers to everything. And I just need one thing. And that's your soul. Okay. You're just going to have to worship me, take this little Markie year and everything will be all and well, by the way, verse 15, very true principle that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And do I need to go there tonight? Or do we want to wait till June? I think we'll wait till June. You all know what that's about. Verse 16, or at least, you know, an application that that's about. This is why, by the way, why we don't support. And sometimes we get calls like, Hey, you know, we have these programs that make sodomites straight. No, you don't, because if they follow the Romans chapter one, the Bible is very clear. Sorry, guys, I got to do it. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. Okay. So your program don't work and I'm not paid into it. So get the hell out of here. Okay. Look at verse 16. It says, I communed with mine own heart. So again, going back to this phrase, right? The method of Solomon's sermon quest by experiment. Okay. Look at what it says. I communed with mine own heart. Now is that, is that really wise? Oh, what does the Bible say about the heart? Well, it's desperate, it's deceitful above all things, desperately evil. Okay. He says, I communed with mine own heart saying lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yay. My heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge for 17. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. So he sets out on this quest to figure out the inner workings of this madness and folly and to understand human viewpoint. And what does it do? It leads to vexation of spirit, but he still does. He still goes out on this quest anyways. Okay. But think about this. God takes that. God takes the folly that the most wise man on earth has and uses it for us to learn from. Okay. Remember quest by experiment. Again, this book is largely the answer to the question, what is life's highest goal? Well, you're not going to find it on the world side. You're only going to find it in Christ in God. Last verse right here. Verse 18 for in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. Okay. Now for you and I, we look at that sometimes maybe if this is new to you and you're like, man, maybe I shouldn't read anymore. I should just really chill out on some things. Not the case. Okay. Remember from a human viewpoint, who's ever worked with somebody that's not saved, but they know all the conspiracies and they're there. They're all like, man, you're close. Like you got a lot of truth. You understand a lot of the corruption. Okay. Will you just talk to them or hang around them for any length of time? Okay. And look at the verse again. Here's what you can expect for in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. You're going to see that person just get more sorrowful and more sorrowful because he realizes he's one person. Maybe there's a thousand people around here that have those views and they can't do anything about it. Right. Isn't that the cry of the so-called Patriots today, right? Like, Oh, we've got to do something. We got to rise up, but nobody is rising up. You know, people protested over the, over the tax on T back in the day. And we've got a president who said, you don't got F 15s. You don't got all these, you know, nuclear weapons. You can't take on the government. Okay. And nobody did anything. Guess what? That's the cycle of life that we're in. We're in a pattern. And unfortunately in this part of the pattern, most men are weak. And guess what? That also tells you, God's not blessing this country. I hate to say it, but it's true. God's not going to bless a nation whose major export is murder, death and sodomy. It's just not going to happen. Okay. It's just the facts of life. So what about from our perspective? Well, from the believer, when we increase in wisdom, okay, you might have a little bit of grief, but you know, the end of the book, you go read revelation, you go read the book. We win game over. It's as simple as that. And that provides you an eye with the comfort that unfortunately they in the world are without, they don't have that profitability. So again, life is incurable, but that's okay because what's incurable by man is endurable with God. So let's stop right there. We'll pick it up in chapter number two next week. Let's bow our heads and have a work prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this great book and this great sermon that you preserved for us. And again, we just pray that you would help us to learn and retain these things, share them with others. And we just pray that you bring us back safely this week. Lord bless the fellowship after the service in Jesus name. I pray. Amen.