
The Purpose Through the Vanity 11-26-23
November 26, 2023
The Purpose Through the Vanity
Pastor Kevin Redding
November 26, 2023
FAITH BUILDING THOUGHT – A temporary life fearing God is the only fulfilled life
I. The Preacher’s Opening Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 “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 does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to thenorth; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.”
II. The Preacher’s Ending Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 12:13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
III. The Preacher’s Practical Perspectives
1. Life is
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
• Be present in your season
(Ecclesiastes 6:7-9)
• Realize your season is temporary
(Ecclesiastes 9:11-12; 11:8)
• Remember God is with you in your season
(Ecclesiastes 7:14)
2. Work is
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 “What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”
Ecclesiastes 9:22 “So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?”
• Take pleasure in your accomplishments
(Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)
• Do good to others through your work
(Ecclesiastes 4:7-8; 5:13-16)
• Remember God is gifting you with your work
(Ecclesiastes 5:18-20)
3. God is
Ecclesiastes 8:14-17 “There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 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.”
• We won’t understand God’s timing
(Ecclesiastes 11:5)
• We won’t understand God’s distributions
(Ecclesiastes 11:6)
• We can rest in what and who God provides for us
(Ecclesiastes 9:7-10)
•Remember God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-existent creator
(Ecclesiastes 12:1)