Ecclesiastes 1:12-18; 2:13-17; 8:17 (ESV)

1:12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. … 2:13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. … 8:17 Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

Intro: When have you thought you knew, only to find out you didn’t?

GOD & KNOWLEDGE
How does God’s holiness apply to all of our knowledge?

OBSCURITY & DISTORTION
How have we wrenched knowledge out of joint?

MEANING & PERSPECTIVE
Why does it matter that Jesus is not merely a revealer of God but that He IS God revealed?

YOU CAN PRAY WITH US …
1 - Worship the LORD for His holy knowledge and wisdom. Praise Him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that He alone knows all things, and that He has revealed Himself to us in His Word and by His Gospel.

2 - How have you lived as if you don’t need God for what you know or how you live? Confess your pride and folly to Jesus, asking Him to forgive you but also to correct you, to heal your perspective into His.

3 - Give thanks to Jesus for His Light and Love – for His work to save us from folly and death and revealing God and His Grace to us! Thank Him for saving you and loving you enough to lead you daily by His wisdom and His Spirit.

4 - Who do you know that lives in darkness and folly? Pray for them, asking the Lord to help them to gain hope and perspective in Jesus and His Sovereign love.

5 - Ask the Holy Spirit to bear in you His fruit of love and peace. Pray that He would so work to secure you in Christ that you would live peacefully (in a dark, foolish world) and that you would be a light in that darkness.