In the sermon 'Created for Something Greater' by Mike Davenport, the speaker explores the themes of vanity and purpose as depicted in the book of Ecclesiastes. The sermon discusses the repetitive and seemingly futile nature of life 'under the sun,' as illustrated by various natural cycles and historical patterns. Ecclesiastes is presented as a reflection on life's meaninglessness when viewed from a purely human perspective, but also as a call to find purpose and fulfillment through God. The sermon argues for Solomon's authorship of Ecclesiastes, emphasizing the themes of wisdom and repentance found throughout the text. By analyzing life's questions and the pursuit of meaning, Davenport encourages listeners to consider their own lives in light of eternity, stressing that man was created for a greater purpose beyond earthly vanities. The sermon concludes by inviting individuals to seek fulfillment and rest in Jesus Christ, who offers a new creation and eternal hope.

We're going to be reading Ecclesiastes, starting chapter 1, verse 1. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever.

The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes towards the south and turns around to the north. The wind whirls continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the sea comes, there they return again.

All things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done.

There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, see this is new? It has already been in ancient times before us. There's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. Let's pray.

Lord I pray that we would listen to the words that are preached. Lord, that we would have open hearts. Lord, I pray that we would be convicted today to change, not to apply what is heard to other people, the Lord that we would hear and apply to our own hearts. Amen. Then I saw in my dream that when Christian and faithful were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is vanity.

And at the town there is a fair kept called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long. It beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity, and also because all that there is sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity, as is the saying of the wise, all that cometh is vanity." This fair is no newly erected business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will show you the original of it. Almost 5, 000 years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the celestial city, as these two honest persons are.

And Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made that their way to the city lay through this town of vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair, a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long. Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and whatnot. Now as I said, the way to the celestial city lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept. And he that will go to the city and yet not go through this town must needs go out of the world. Dear ones, these words of John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress are all too true.

The way to the celestial city lies just through this town vanity. This morning we start a new study on the book of Ecclesiastes. This book was written by one who tasted all that vanity fare had to offer, all of it. And I believe that by the grace of God and that grace alone, The author was divinely snatched from the sole damning grip of this world. But this rescue was not unlike the rescue of Lot's family, where the angels of God had to forcibly take them by the hand and lead them out.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a rescue story told by one who almost lost everything. As ones who must also pass through this town of vanity wherein lies this year-long fair, Will you listen and take heed to the things the writer has to say? Well before we jump into the text, let's ask and then seek to answer Three questions regarding the who, the how, and the why. The who. Who wrote the book?

Who wrote the book? Well, the book opens with these words, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. The common thought throughout the history of the church has been that King Solomon was the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. A growing number of more recent scholars, even from conservative Christian camps, have questioned this common thought. And they point to such facts as, first, the name of Solomon, the actual name, is never given throughout the entire book.

Second, there are certain Hebrew words found in the book that seem to indicate a much later writing, much later than the time of Solomon. Third, certain circumstances surrounding the life of the author as seen in the text in this book seem somewhat out of step with what we know of the experience of Israel during Solomon's reign. So he speaks of things that just they don't sound like they quite add up. Well let me share with you my position. I believe Solomon is the author for the following reasons.

First, the author of Ecclesiastes states that he is the king, that he is the son of David, and that he is king over Israel reigning in Jerusalem. Israel was never ruled by a king in Jerusalem after Solomon. The kingdom was divided, Israel and Judah. Only three kings ruled over Israel from Jerusalem, Saul, David, and Solomon, and only one of those three was the son of David. Second, the author of Ecclesiastes claimed to be a wise writer of Proverbs.

In chapter 12 verse 9 it says, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many Proverbs, many Proverbs. And not only do we have the book of Proverbs that gives evidence of that, but even 1 Kings 432 informs us that Solomon spoke 3, 000 Proverbs. Third, As we go through this book, note the abundance of the themes of the heart and wisdom, the themes of heart and wisdom. These themes are stressed in Solomon's book of Proverbs.

The word heart can be found in Ecclesiastes some 40 times. The words wisdom or wise or wisely over 50 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Number four, Ecclesiastes is a reflection of a man who has been brought to repentance, and Solomon had wandered far away from God. His foreign wives had turned his heart away from God. But here's a story of repentance.

Number five, when one considers the last two chapters of the book, Ecclesiastes is a book written largely for the benefit of young people, much like the book of Proverbs. Number six, Jewish rabbis of old considered this book as wisdom literature, and they considered Solomon as the author, leading them within the canon of Scripture to place this between Solomon's two other works, Proverbs and Song of Solomon. And then seventh, We are given no indication that we should take the credentials of this author as figurative and not literal. To do so would undermine the authorship of any other particular book in Scripture where the author did not specifically give his name. So having looked at the who, now the how.

How should we approach the study of this book of Ecclesiastes? How should we approach it? Well, Ecclesiastes has been a book that has been often misunderstood and mishandled, and therefore has been often neglected. The style of writing has left many of its readers puzzled. I, for one, am one of those.

And the confusing comments of some scholars actually muddy the waters even more. I was excited to find some more recent commentaries that have been written by men of today that are actually fairly well-written, and so I'm glad for that. But we have the promise nonetheless that all of Scripture is God-breathed and that all of Scripture is profitable. Therefore, we do have much to learn from this book of Ecclesiastes in spite of the work it may take to glean that wisdom. Now the Hebrew title of the book is Koleth, Koleth, and it comes from a root word meaning to convoke, an assembly, to assemble.

And all of its Old Testament uses are found right here in this book of Ecclesiastes. Now this understanding of the Hebrew word is what gave the book its title in the Septuagint, Ecclesiastes, from the Greek word, ecclesia, meaning assembly, congregation, or church. And this is the reason that the word is translated preacher in most of our English translations, most of our English Bibles. Thus, translating it as preacher, It highlights the contents of this book as words of a speaker Standing as it were before a great assembly So what does this preacher have to say and is it still relevant today? Well Stuart Elliott in his commentary A Life Worth Living and a Lord Worth Loving, states the following.

In this book, Solomon looks at life from two viewpoints. First of all, he stands in one position and then in the other. And he does this alternately throughout the book. He sees the same issues from two perspectives. It is virtually impossible, Mr.

Olliet says, to make any sense of Ecclesiastes unless this simple fact has been grasped first. Solomon's first viewpoint is that of a natural man. He sees life through the eyes of a person who is still unconverted. Such a person tackles life's problems without the light of God's revelation. He leaves God out of the picture and never ponders his word.

The only conclusion he can come to is that all is vanity. Everything in this mortal life is ultimately futile. It is a waste of time. Solomon's other viewpoint is radically different. He now looks at life through the eyes of a man to whom God has revealed himself.

Such a person sees everything in a new light. Life has meaning after all, but only if we worship and serve God. When he stands in this position, Solomon's words ring with assurance and hope. And then third, the why. Why study the book of Ecclesiastes?

Ecclesiastes deals with the hard questions of life, questions that everyone must grapple with. Who am I? What purpose is there in my existence? What is the meaning of life? How do I handle the difficulties, frustrations, and disappointments of life, all of which are sure to come and be experienced by all.

Man is unable in and of himself to answer life's simplest of questions. Young people, listen to me. The world does not have the answers to these questions. It doesn't. When Albert Einstein was asked for the meaning of life, he replied in a letter dated April 28, 1951, the question why in the human sphere is easy to answer, to create satisfaction for ourselves and for other people.

In the extra human sphere, the question has no meaning. Also, the belief in God is no way out. For in this case, you may ask, Why God? Sincerely yours, Albert Einstein." When asked about the meaning of life, legendary Star Wars director George Lucas responded, �When I was 18, I was in an automobile accident and went through a near-death experience. This is the kind of experience that molds people's beliefs.

But I have found that most of my conclusions have evolved from observing life since that time. If I've come to know anything, It's that these questions are as unknowable for us as they would be for a tree or for an ant. Everybody seems to dress down the fact that life cannot be explained. The only reason for life is life. There is no why.

We are. Life is beyond reason. Consider the words of Leo Tolstoy, regarded by the world as one of its greatest authors, the writer of War and Peace. Think about that, regarded by a lot of the world as one of its greatest authors, and this is what he has to give us. Today or tomorrow, sickness and death will come to those I love or to me.

Nothing will remain but stench and worms. Sooner or later, my affairs, whatever they may be, will be forgotten, and I shall not exist." Then why go on making any effort? How can man fail to see this? And how go on living? That is what is surprising.

One can only live while one is intoxicated with life. As soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud. That is precisely what it is. There is nothing either amusing or witty about it. It is simply cruel and stupid.

My question was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man, from the foolish child to the wisest elder. It was a question without an answer to which one cannot live, as I had found by experience. It was, what will come of what I am doing today or shall do tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Differently expressed, the question is, why should I live?

Why wish for anything or do anything? It can also be expressed thus. Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?" These are but a few, just a few examples, and yet I would be so bold as to say that these quotes represent the only natural and reasonable conclusion of any and every existence apart from Jesus Christ. For one outside of Christ to have not yet come to these same conclusions is an indication that he or she is borrowing the conclusion of a Christian worldview. And why would one even do that?

Well, for hope, for one reason. But Solomon tells us in the passage that we quoted together earlier today, he says this, God has set eternity in the hearts of all men and women. He set eternity in their hearts. They know, they know there's something greater. In the preface of his book entitled Living Life Backward, How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End, author David Gibson writes the following.

Ecclesiastes also makes a very simple point. Life is complex and messy, sometimes brutally so, but there is a straightforward way to look at the mess. The end will put it all right. The end, when we stand before God as our creator and judge, will explain everything. Left to our own devices, he says, we tend to live life forward.

One day follows another, and weeks turn into months and months into years. We do not know the future, but we plan and hope and dream of where we will be and what we would like to be doing and whom we might be with. We live forward. Ecclesiastes teaches us to live life backward. It encourages us to take the one thing in the future, the one thing that is certain, our death, and work backward from that point into all the details and decisions and heartaches of our lives and to think about them from the perspective of the end.

It is the destination that makes sense of the journey. If we know for sure where we are heading, then we can know for sure what we need to do before we get there. Ecclesiastes invites us to let the end sculpt our priorities and goals, our greatest ambitions and our strongest desires. And then he says, I want to persuade you that only if you prepare to die can you really learn how to live. So why study the book of Ecclesiastes?

So that we may see afresh that we were created for something greater. Life has meaning. Your existence has purpose. Meaning, your existence has purpose. Well, Solomon prefaces his entire book after introducing himself.

He prefaces his entire book with an opening statement and an opening question. And this statement and question that follows frame the purpose for the entire book. Let's look at them. First, the statement. Chapter 1 verse 2, vanity of vanities, says the preacher.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The same Hebrew word translated vanity appears five times in this short little verse. To say that the word vanity signifies meaninglessness and that everything in life is meaningless is to take the meaning of the word, I believe, too far. For Solomon himself states later in the book that certain courses of action or ways of thinking are better than others. They're better.

If everything was meaningless, his arguments would be invalid. The word vanity signifies futility, futility or frustration. The word for vanity is most often translated in our Bibles, breath or vapor. Breath or vapor. And we should keep this in mind as Solomon goes on throughout this book, because what does he do?

He couples very often this word vanity with laboring for the wind or grasping for the wind. Without God in the picture, there is futility in and a senseless nature to everything. Children, what if your parents gave you an empty box and they sent you outside and they said, go get me a box of wind. Go get me a box. Fill that box up with wind and don't come back until it's full.

How long would it take before you would get back? Would you ever get back? That's precisely what everyone in this world does by nature. They run around in life, as it were, with an empty box just trying to catch the wind. And when they open it up again, do they feel a breeze?

The wind's gone. It's not there. They try to do the impossible and they weary themselves in the process. This dangerous viewpoint of life dwells constantly in the world of the unbeliever. It can be no other way.

The Catechism, remember the Catechism children, it teaches us that man's chief end, the very purpose for which man was created, That chief end is to do what? Glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Apart from a pursuit of the very purpose for which we were created is vanity. It's futile. It makes no sense.

The idolatrous heart of man takes the good gifts of God and buries those gifts in the affections of his own hearts. His heart latches on to those good gifts, and those gifts receive all of his affection. He looks for satisfaction and fulfillment, not in the giver, but in the gifts. Philip Ryken in his book, Why Everything Matters, the Gospel in Ecclesiastes, says that this dangerous conclusion is not confined to the unbelievers, but can make its way into the thinking of Christians as well. He states, one scholar thus described Ecclesiastes as a kind of back door that allows believers to have the sad and skeptical thoughts that they would never allow to enter in through the front door of their faith.

But secondly, there is a question that follows the statement. It's found in verse 3, what prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun." Often the best manner of teaching is asking questions. Here the wisest of mere men to ever live, of mere men to ever live, He asks a question. In the asking of this question, Solomon wants us to grapple with the strong statement that he just made, that all is vanity. He said, I made a strong statement.

I can see you kind of stepping back. So I got a question for you. What profit? What profit has a man from all his labor in which he labors under the Son? He wants us to think about the profit of our labor at the end of the day as it applies to the here and now under the sun.

Now, he takes for granted the fact that this life is one of labor and toil. All of his readers will understand this, but he wants us to consider all of his labor. Not half-hearted labor either. He's talking about real toil. Strongs describes this word toil as working severely and with irksomeness.

So take all of that labor of this sort And at the end of the day, what prophet is there? What prophet? Solomon will spend the last half of this first chapter in all of the second chapter describing for us the intensity and the severity of his pursuit for real and lasting profit. He spared no expense. He spared no effort.

And what was his conclusion at the end of the day? Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Now it's important to note the phrase under the sun. It will appear numerous times throughout our study of Ecclesiastes.

It refers to the sphere of man that is under the sun with no consideration of who and what is above and beyond and after. Well, in the verses that remain before us in our text this morning, Solomon asks us to stop navel-gazing. Stop navel-gazing. Consider several things, time, nature, experience, and history. So first, a consideration of the passing of time, a consideration of the passing of time.

Verse 4, one generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. In beginning these verses, Solomon is asking us to step on the treadmill, to step on the merry-go-round, to step on the Ferris wheel. We must understand our place in God's scheme of things. Each one of us is but one created being among an entire generation. And our generation is but one generation among many generations in the span of time.

The earth continues as it always has, But we do not. And our generation will not. One generation gives way to the next generation. Each generation, each one pursues the meaning of life and it is still being pursued today. Each generation pursues to make the world a better place and what accomplishments are being made are often undone and wiped out by the generation to follow.

Each generation seeks to leave its indelible print upon the culture and upon the future of mankind, fashion, music, entertainment, health, etc. And the next generation arises to wipe out that print and leave their own. You My friend will not be different than any who have gone before. You too will pass away along with your generation. Do you live with a firm grasp of this reality.

It's inescapable. It's inescapable. On your way home today, almost every single one of you will pass by a cemetery. It's inescapable. One generation passes away and you, the next generation, drive by in your car.

A few years from now, you will be the one who's stationary as the next generation drives by in nurse Modern technology with its Apps and social media declares you a God. That's what it does. It declares you a God. You want to know something? I've got the answer for it right at your fingertips.

You want approval? You want praise? Throw something on there and look what comes in. It seeks to cause you to forget that you are merely part of a generation that's passing away. You want to talk about what you had for dinner, you're passing away.

You're passing away. The production stage, this earth, remains as it's always been. The actors who take part in the production constantly change. There they are, present for that scene, and then they're off and other actors take their place. But the production stage never changes.

So consider the passing of time. Next, Solomon calls us to a consideration of the repetition of nature. A consideration of the repetition of nature, verses 5 through 8. The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south and turns around to the north.

The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. Creation as God made it is repetitive. It's all around us.

Often we fail to see it and almost always do we fail to even actually appreciate the continuous repetition going on all around us. You see, we elevate ourselves above the rest of creation in the expectation that we, we should not have to continuously labor and that our labor should bring us ultimate satisfaction. Solomon says, look at the sun. Consider its repetitive labors. It rises, it sets, and then out of our sight it hastens to that place again where it will rise again tomorrow morning.

He says, look at the wind. It blows in one direction as if on a mission, and then it turns around again and comes back from the very direction it came from. It whirls about, And it does so continually with no rest, continuing to operate as if on a circuit. Look Solomon says, look at the rivers. Note how they constantly flow, pouring their unmeasurable contents into the oceans.

And yet the oceans never are full because the evaporation process takes place and it removes the water from the ocean and the clouds take that water back. And there it is again, falling back at the top of the river there to make its way back down to the ocean again. There is a seeming, seeming futility to the course of nature. There's a repetition that never ceases. And we are part of this creation.

And as part of the creation, we are part of the all things that are full of labor. That's what the next verse tells us, verse 8. Consider the insight of David Gibson again. This is exactly what the preacher wants us to spot. Where we are unsatisfied with the rhythmical repetition of our lives, it is because we are pretending that things should not be like this for us as human beings.

To want infinite change, in other words, to gain something, is to want to escape the confines of ordinary existence and somehow arrive in a world where on the one hand repetition does not occur and on the other permanence for our lives does, but neither is possible. Next, a consideration of the emptiness of life experiences. A consideration of the emptiness of life experiences. Continuing on in verse 8, all things are full of labor. Man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Just like the sun that reappears each morning as if searching for some new thing, just like the wind that appears again today as it did yesterday, maybe warmer, maybe cooler, maybe stronger, maybe slower, but always there. And just like the insatiable oceans that continue to receive water from streams and rivers, and yet never filling, even so, our senses, which are the gates through which enter in almost all of life's experiences, they receive more and more new every day and yet are still not satisfied. None among us are eager to lose our sight or lose our hearing. When our sight diminishes, what do we do?

I'm looking around the room, I see a lot of you, you have glasses like I do. When our ears start to diminish, what do we do? We go to get hearing aids or other devices that will help us to hear. Why? Because the eye is not satisfied.

I've seen enough. I've been alive 50 years. I don't need to see anymore. Goodbye, psych. We don't do that.

It's not satisfied. We still, we want to be able to see till the day we die. We want to be able to hear till the day we die. Augustine well said, thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until It finds its rest in thee. You see, our senses cry out, more, more, more.

We are restless, and we turn away from that which will truly satisfy. We dig out broken cisterns that can hold no water. All they seem to fill up, But when we go back to the supply, what do we find? Those vessels empty, empty again. Quoting from David Gibson Once again, if you haven't picked up yet, I highly recommend this book.

If I've only read the first part of it, but it's been very good. Mr. Gibson says, the reality is we spend our lives trying to escape the constraints of our created condition. Opening our eyes to this is a significant breakthrough. To be human is to be a creature, and to be a creature is to be finite.

We are not God. We are not in control, and we will not live forever. We will die. But we avoid this reality by playing, let's pretend. Let's pretend that if we get the promotion or see our church grow or bring up good children, we'll feel significant and have a lasting legacy behind us.

Let's pretend that if we change jobs or immigrate to the sun, we won't experience the humdrum tedium and ordinariness of life. Let's pretend that if we move to a new house, we'll be happier and we'll never want to move again. Let's pretend that if we end one relationship and start a new one, we won't ever feel trapped. Let's pretend that if we're married or weren't married, we would be content. Let's pretend that if we had more money, we would be satisfied.

Let's pretend that if we get through this week's pile of washing and dirty diapers and shopping lists and school runs and busy evenings, next week we'll be quieter. Let's pretend that time is always on our side to do the things we want to do and become the people we want to be. Let's pretend we can break the cycle of repetition and finally arrive in a world free from weariness. We long for change in a world of permanent repetition, and we dream of how to interrupt it. We long for lives of permanence in a world of constant change, and we strive to achieve it.

We spend our lives aligning our better selves with a different future that we envisage as more rewarding. And in it all, we are simply trying to make permanent what is not meant to be permanent, us. And by constant change, we are trying to control what is not meant to be controlled, the world. The seasons and natural cycles of the world are content to come and go, but we, we sweat and toil to make believe that it will not so with us. Ecclesiastes urges us to put this behind us once and for all and adopt a better way of thinking.

Then we have in the verses that remain, 9 through 11, a consideration of the treadmill of history, a consideration of the treadmill of history. That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, See, this is new? It has already been in ancient times before us.

There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. Two inescapable yet undeniable truths stare down the pride of man, eyeball to eyeball. Number one, there is no new thing under the sun. Second, there will be no remembrance of you and me or of what we did. These two realities, if rightly understood and embraced, they would drive every unbeliever to despair.

I just want to throw something in here too as we think about this. I'd mentioned to you earlier about the technology of today that pretty much tells you you're a God. Study after study, recent studies have been done. Among young people, the suicide rate is increasing at an incredible rate an incredible rate you see there's nothing new under the sun, and the day is coming when you'll be forgotten. You'll be forgotten.

The picture is of this treadmill where no matter how fast you run, you remain in the same place in spite of all the flurry of activity. And you think by pushing the up button that you'll get somewhere, you'll get some satisfaction if I just press that button. You young people, listen to the wisdom of Solomon as he seeks to shape your thinking about the future. Yes, nothing you do will ever – nothing that you do or accomplish will ever be truly new. Yes, there is newness – get that – there is newness in relation to advancements in areas of medicine, science, technology, etc.

The Hebrew word for new indicates something unheard of. There is nothing for which it could be said you've never heard of this before Something that is wholly new That never has been before in fact the more things change the more they stay the same and Grasp this nothing you or I will ever do or accomplish will be long remembered. We are creatures of the here and now. We soon forget. Think of everything you knew about your great-grandparents.

Your great-grandchildren will probably know less about you. You will become a former thing not remembered. How foolish would you consider a man who is on vacation, he's at the beach, and he goes out early in the morning. The tide has come in and has gone back out leaving wet sand. And as he makes his way across that sand, he reasons that he's the first person that's ever walked this beach before.

He's the first person. He's got proof he's the first person. Look! His are the only tracks in the sand! You'd say, sir, you're not the first person.

You're not the first person. Multitudes were even here last night. You may be the first person up and early at the crack of dawn this morning, it's nothing new. You see, our lives are like those footprints. The tide of time and history will quickly fill in the impression that was made by our feet upon that sand, each new wave will cause it to further disappear until that impression can no longer be distinguished.

My friend, where distinguished. My friend, where does such a passage leave you? Where does it leave you? Maybe you are unwilling to budge from the thought that unlike Solomon, you will find peace, contentment, and satisfaction that his wisdom was unable to attain and that his resources were unable to buy. You're going to do better.

The Scriptures guarantee you one thing. You will find out at some point that all is vanity and grasping for the wind. And if you will not acknowledge the wisdom of Solomon concerning these things, note that one greater than Solomon has come. And that one, Jesus Christ said in the Gospels, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost. Luke 9 25.

Mr. Gibson gets it. He writes, the preacher is going to show us what we should and should not expect out of life. He is not just saying there's no gain after we've chased the wind. He will insist there's no need for the chase in the first place.

There is no gain to be had under the sun, and that's precisely the point. None need be salt. The book of Ecclesiastes describes the life of a woman that we've been studying the last few weeks. That Samaritan woman who came to the well, A woman married five times, living with a man who was not her husband. A parched soul with a thirst that far exceeded the thirst that brought her to the well to draw water again, a well that would never satisfy.

There that woman appeared at the well each and every day, appearing again just like the sun. There she came down each day from the hill there on the side of Mount Ebal making her way down to the valley where she could be at the well and then she turned her course like the wind and went right back to her home. There she came to the well with a water pot that she left and it was full, but she's back again because it's empty, just like the oceans never ever filling. We must cast our gaze above the sun, out of our small sphere and into the sphere where Christ is. In Him is satisfaction.

In Him is life. And the life is the light of men. I love the words of the hymn writer, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of men, from the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again. We taste thee, O thou living breath, and long to feast upon thee still. We drink of thee the fountainhead, and thirst our souls from thee to fill.

Our restless spirits yearn for thee, where'er our changeful lot is cast. Glad when thy gracious smile we see, Blessed when our faith can hold thee fast. The world has nothing new to offer you. Christ does. You want something new?

There's nothing new under the sun. Christ has something new for you. A new heart, a new life, making you a new creation in Him. And then to look forward to a new day in a new heavens and a new earth. You were created, my friend, for something greater, something greater." I close with the encouraging words of Richard Belcher in his commentary.

The preacher sounds very modern because he describes a despair of a world that has no purpose and is going nowhere. However, the futility which creation has been subjected to can be overcome. Creation itself is eagerly awaiting freedom from bondage just as the sons of God, although growing inwardly, are eagerly waiting for the redemption of their bodies." Romans 8, 18 to 25. Futility will not have the last word because Jesus has taken upon Himself our sin, the curse, and the futility of life. We have seen the power of the new creation in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and have experienced what it is to be a new creation through the first fruits of the Spirit.

We are able to see beyond the earthly horizon of this world to the light of the glory of the new heavens and the new earth, when that day comes, the former things, which in context refers to the troubles of life in Isaiah 65, 16, and 17. When that day comes, the former things will not be remembered. You were created for something greater. Your chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And your soul, my friend, will stay restless until it finds that rest in Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Dear Father, we thank You for Your goodness to us in giving us this word. Lord, how glorious is Ecclesiastes. Lord, it doesn't specifically give us that answer, but oh, it lays the groundwork for us to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, to know that there is hope. Oh Lord, I pray for those who do not know you, who are seeking satisfaction from what will not satisfy.

Oh, make Jesus known to them. May He needs go by the well where they draw their water, and may they go back to tell others, I found Him who is the Messiah, who will tell us all things and will give us a reason to worship. May Christ be praised in all of these things. Amen. Amen.