Making the most out of our lives

Transcription

1 Ecclesiastes 1:12 2:26 The keyword: How How to make the most out of our earthly life? 1. By steering away from the goals with dead-ends (1:16-2:24a) a. Understanding of wisdom and folly (1:16-18) b. Trying out pleasure (fun) and laughter (2:1-2) c. Indulging in wine and folly: do not care about the rest of the world attitude (2:3) d. Work and achievements/accomplishments (2:4-11) e. Walking wisely or foolishly (2:12-16) f. Building one s legacy (2:17-23) 2. By striving to please God (2:24b-2:26) a. Only God has the ability to fill one s life with meaning (2:24b-25) b. Pleasing God must be our highest goal (2:26a) c. The sinner s life can be summed up in one word: vanity (2:26b) TGIF

2 Introduction Several years ago I used to live and work in Germany. My employer at that time organized a ski trip to Austrian Alps and I being a fan of skiing joined the trip. Our group consisted of about 80 people: 2 full buses. To my surprise none of the colleagues I knew went along. So I did not know anyone from the group. Despite this I really enjoyed the trip; it was great weather and nice snow. On the day of our departure we agreed to check out from our hotel early in the morning, then 2 buses would drive up to the ski resort (which was about 40 minutes away from the hotel), we would ski the whole day and at 3:45 would drive back to Germany. The meeting time was set to 3:15 at the bus at the bottom of the main mount. I was there at 3:10. As I was waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, I changed my ski boots, put on my shoes and as I put my hands into my pockets walking around the bus I discovered that I had about 4-5 dollars worth of Austrian currency at that time Austrian shillings. There was a small shop right besides the parking lot where our bus was parked. And so not willing to waste any money by bringing it back to Germany where the money would be basically useless, I went to that store thinking that I would buy couple of snickers bars and a can or two of orange juice. On my way to the shop I saw people coming towards the bus, some of them even waived to me. I needed to be quick, and at the same time I wanted to spend all my Austrian money up to the last penny. And I did so. I literally had my pockets filled with chocolate, cans of orange juice and 1 Austrian penny left. As I was walking briskly towards the bus and taking pride in how I was able to wisely spend my money I saw something that changed my joyous prospective on life that day: the place where the busses were parked was empty. The busses were gone. And I was left all alone without any money, without my valet, credit cards, without my passport, bags, cell phone, without anything in a country whose language I did not speak and it was about to get dark. At that moment I realized that I just exchanged my place in the bus for 2 snickers bars, cans of orange juice and one Austrian penny, and there was nothing I could do to rollback the events. The next couple of hours I spent running around the mountain searching for the way out of this dead end, seeing the cars leaving the parking lot with no spare room for a hitchhiker, the sun quickly setting and my heart desperately pumping blood through my veins as I realize that I am in a big, big trouble. I just wished I would not have gone to that store! But I could not re-wind the time. Isn t it often the same with us in life? We pour our efforts, emotions, we invest our lives into something that at the end of the day is worth nothing and we end up in grief and despair wishing to reverse the time in order for us to avoid chasing the goal that has emptiness as its only possible outcome. I believe our text today addresses exactly this issue. TGIF

3 Prayer and Reading of the text Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26 Introduction to the book ב ל ה [hebel, habel] - the main word of the book The author starts his book with a very strong claim: 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." This claim is indeed very strong. It is echoed throughout the rest of the book all the way to the final chapter. And some would hasten to conclude that the author makes a blank statement about absolutely everything that exists under the sun and that all of this is meaningless. That in turn leads some to believe that he author is advocating a cynical approach to life (i.e. I do not care attitude). Others, trying to avoid this pitfall qualify author s statement and add to it the phrase apart from God. So they say, that the author is teaching that life is meaningless only when it is lived apart from God, even though no such statement can be found on the pages of book. The question is, what he really means here? At first glance the author seems to be saying that wisdom is vanity or meaningless (1:15) pleasure is vanity (2:1) life is vanity (7:15, 9:9) childhood and youth are vanity (11:10) And that is very surprising to us. There are 2 things I would like to draw your attention to, in order to resolve this apparent confusion. ב ל.1 The meaning of the word ה [hebel, habel] The word that most translations render as vanity and NIV as meaningless is a Hebrew word hebal. It is used 72 times throughout the whole Old Testament. Ecclesiastes uses it more than anyone else - 38 times. In Hebrew it means breath or vapor. And therefore we should think of it as something that posses the qualities of a vapor fleeting, without substance, something that you really can not get hold of, empty and quickly disappearing. The word itself does not carry a negative connotation. It is the context at times that renders this word to be negative. TGIF

4 2. Vanity (meaningless) in Ecclesiastes is always connected with some activity The confusion can be resolved when we carefully examine the usage of this word in our passage today. What exactly is declared to be vanity? It is not wisdom, pleasure and work and accomplishments that the author declares to be meaningless, but rather his efforts to obtain some gain through wisdom and pleasure and work. His efforts to obtain a lasting gain that he could put his finger on and say that was worthwhile to become wise, rich, great, etc. For example, in 2:1 1 I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless It is not the pleasure that is meaningless, but the process of testing the heart with pleasure in order to obtain that lasting profit. Let s go back to that opening statement of the book: 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Both verses introduce the reader to the theme of the whole book. The author is trying to say something in verse 2 and then in verse 3 he says the same thing using different words in order to stress his point. These two verses are tightly connected and compliment each other. They can not exist independently on the pages of the book of Ecclesiastes: the reason everything is vanity is because whatever you do, you will not be able to gain any lasting profit or gain from it. Why all this is important? Because the ultimate goal in the author s journey is not wisdom itself, but what wisdom can get you, it is not money itself, but what we perceive that money can get us, it is not relationships itself, but what you can gain from those relationships. The author (just as we all are) was in the hunt for profit, some gain in his fleeting life he does not want to see his life being empty when he surveys it.. Therefore it important to point out that author is not saying that wisdom is vanity, in fact he encourages in chapters 9-11 to obtain wisdom he is not saying that pleasure is vanity, in fact he says that God grants pleasures in life (v.2:25-26) he is not saying that work and achievements are vanity, he encourages work for example in 11:4-6 TGIF

5 What he is saying, is that our efforts to obtain any worthy profit in life by obtaining wisdom, pleasure, by working hard will only disappoint us at the end of this journey. We oftentimes are willing to sacrifice everything in order to obtain that something that we think will bring us that ultimate satisfaction. We forget about everything and everyone only to get closer to what we think is going to yield something fruitful. As a side note, this Hebrew word hebal was consistently translated into Russian to mean exactly what we ve just described: a set of events or some sort of hassle that leads to nothing profitable. An English equivalent would be probably something like spinning your wheels, i.e., not going anywhere or in the words of the book itself chasing after the wind. The author of the book Identity of the author For the sake of time, I will not go into details of identifying the author of the book. I can say only this, the number of arguments supporting that the author was Solomon is overwhelmingly larger than the number of arguments against it. I want to say this though. Whatever is important for us to know about the author of the book, is given to us in the book itself and we will look at it in a second. But prior to it, let me make just one more remark. At the end of the book, Solomon writes: 11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one Shepherd. (Ecclesiastes 12:11) And who is the only true Shepherd of Israel? By this time, David wrote his famous Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd. (See also Ps. 80:1) What Solomon is saying at the end of the book, is that the teaching of this book proceeds from God himself the Shepherd of Israel, who exercises care for His flock by giving them the teaching contained in it. Qualifications of the author To support his opening statement that everything is meaningless the author underlines the fact of the fleeting nature of all man s activity under the sun by contrasting the life of generations (which come and go and produce nothing useful) with the endless cycle of nature around us that is not impacted by human activity in any shape or form. Then he proceeds with the explanation of how he arrived at this conclusion. That is what our text for today deals with. But prior to that, he provides us with the information about himself that speaks about his credibility and ability to make such a statement. In other words, he is telling us that if anyone had qualifications to make such a statement he would be the one. TGIF

6 First of all, in 1:12 he tells us that he devoted himself to study all that is done under heaven. In other words, his goal was to study things. He did not make this statement out of the blue, he had poured effort to investigate the matter. Then he says in 1:14 that he saw everything that is done under heaven. Again, this is something that very few can do. Because he had both access and ability to many things due to his high position in the society. For example, few of us can adequately judge the satisfaction that riches bring to their owner. You have to be rich to experience it. In 1:16 He proceeds to tell us that he was the wisest of all who were before him. This requires divine intervention. In 2:9 he tells us that he was the greatest (both in riches and glory) You see what he is doing? He says I actively decided to explore things, I had wisdom to do so, I had financial resources to accomplish my task and I had access to every sphere of human life due to my high position in a society he had access to both rich and poor, happy and afflicted, wise and foolish, young and old. We can say that he was divinely appointed for the task of examining everything and declaring it to us for few of us if any at all would be capable or adequately equipped to fulfill this task. Now, although, he could have stopped right there, he proceeds to provide an explanation of how he arrived at his conclusion. More so, at the end of his investigation into things that are done under heaven, he is going to tell us what we are to do, so that at the end of our lives we would not look back and say all that I have done was just vanity. And so the author is going to tell us how are we to make the best of our lives. And he is going to do it by first telling us what pitfalls to avoid, and then by guiding on the one possible road that does not end in vanity. Steer away from the goals with dead-ends So Solomon tells us about the various avenues he went down in his search for anything that would bring a true worth or profit. All of them turned out to be failed attempts. As we noted earlier, he starts the book with the question what profit do I gain from all the work that I do under the sun and so he concludes our section with the same question (2:22). After all these things that he tried and tasted he still was not able to find anything that he could have poured his efforts into that would have brought any worth all had vanity as its end. I need to bring to your attention though that the list that he has compiled for us here, although captures many areas of our lives, it is not an exhaustive list. Throughout the rest of the book he mentions other vain pursuits. For example, competition based on envy in chapter 4, isolation in the same chapter (4:7), religious hypocrisy in chapter 8 and so on. Let s look at the first example given to us in our passage. TGIF

7 1. Student approach (1:16-18) The first thing Solomon turns to is to the understanding of wisdom and folly. I think the word understanding or know as rendered in most translations is the key word here. Solomon is not saying I decided to become wise. In fact he just said that he was the wisest of all the kings that ruled prior to him (1:16). What he is saying that he wanted to understand if that is worth striving for. Or may be one should just be content where he is, or go to the other end and embrace folly. He wanted to learn what the difference is between wisdom and folly and how either of them is capable of rendering any profit in life. Now, who would not want to be wise? Certainly we, if we are in our right mind, would love to always make wise decisions. Who would not want to make the right decision when you are buying a car or a house? Your opinion would be valued among your friends; at work your price would be high. The reply that Solomon provides in verses 17 and 18 implies that folly is not worthy to be even considered as an alternative to wisdom, for he even does not mention it. However, if we think that wisdom would bring to us the ultimate satisfaction in life, we will be grossly mistaken. Why? - Because it will only make things worse. Along with all goodies that wisdom brings, it also opens up the eyes to the things of this world that is cursed by sin. And that brings utter grief to our hearts when we understand it. We, for example, suddenly start to realize that evil that happens on this earth is not just born in a vacuum, but has its source in human hearts that are utterly deprived. Wisdom will enable us to properly interpret things around us and we will start seeing that the world is not all that pink as we thought it was. Although wisdom is a good thing to strive for, as the author will proceed to tell us in the chapters to come, it is not going to put your soul at ease and quench your thirst for drawing satisfaction out of this life. 2. Pleasure and laughter (2:1-2) Then Solomon decided to turn to pleasure and entertainment. Unfortunately, this avenue is way too close to our home. We live in the world where these two virtues are the driving factor of almost every sphere of our lives. The government is concerned when we do not go shopping often enough, because it does not drive the revenues of the corporations. So our economy depends on how often we go shopping. Our family lives are circled around big flat screen TVs and our family conversations around the recent episode of our favorite show or the latest football game. When Steelers had their week off during their last season, one guy in the elevator at work said to me: Steelers are not playing this weekend. It is like the whole weekend is wasted now! Our vacation spots become more and more exotic. We are willing to spend the last money to go to the place where we would get the highest level of pleasure. Recently we ve witnessed several catastrophes (Tsunami waves, earthquakes, hurricane Katrina, Oil Spill, etc.) The areas that get restored first are not the ones TGIF

8 that are in immediate need and have a high density of population, but the ones that are more tourist attractive. Because it brings more revenue and is in a higher demand to be restored sooner. The uncontrollable desire for pleasure forced our world to operate in backwards mode. We stopped thinking in terms what is reasonable and what is necessary and started to think in terms how much satisfaction do I get from this. We buy the best cars, TVs, houses, cell phones, we book the most expensive hotels. In order to gain bigger financial profits, we are willing to sacrifice many things that are so dear to us. As long as our salaries are climbing up and we still barely have enough time to sleep we will keep on pressing, so that we could afford more. And we tell ourselves, the only way I would be able to gain any satisfaction, the only way I am going to draw any worth out of my money and have no regrets about it in the future if I buy the best, the most expensive, with the most number of features whether I need them or not. The only problem we see in front of us is that we cannot buy it all! Well, Solomon could. He could afford what we cannot and he tells us that there is emptiness at the end of this road. 3. Do not care attitude (2:3) Next, in verse 3 of the second chapter he examines the worth of indulging in wine and folly. He does make a remark that he still remained wise during this time. I believe he says so, so that he would be able to make an adequate judgment about the worth that wine and folly bring. Because, if someone is a fool or drunk he hardly can render proper thoughts, that would carry any weight in the minds of a sober person. Now I believe that what Solomon is describing here is a I do not care about the rest of the world attitude. I will indulge in drinking and thereby forget about all problems around me, I will be totally on my own and with myself. I have to say, that I can think of at least 4 families that experienced the tragedy of drinking that were very close to me. Some of them were my close relatives. And in all these cases the behavior of the persons addicted to drinking was nothing short of I do not care attitude. Their wives suffered, their children suffered, the people around them suffered. They were draining money from their families, constantly humiliated themselves when their tongue could not put two words together, their feet could not carry them for more then two steps and their mind was spitting everything that they would not have said would they have been sober. And all of them ended up dying prematurely. And their death although brought an immediate remorse, in the long run was a relief to these suffering families. This is the only section that Solomon did not conclude with his summary that this is vanity. However, besides the fact that is it obvious, that this road at best leads to death and not to satisfaction, we have his foreword that says that everything that he tried (including wine and folly) proved to be vanity (verse 1:14). TGIF

9 4. Work and accomplishments (2:4-11) Next section is the longest section in Solomon s discourse on a life s dead-ends. I think this is because he both understood the appealing nature of that road to all of us, and the difficulty recognizing that we are walking down that path. What Solomon is describing in verses 4 to 11 is his indulgence in self through the means of work, his accomplishments and pleasure. And although he is describing noble things he has done while pursuing glory and greatness (verse 9) the primary recipient of all these accomplishment was Solomon himself. He worked for himself, he married for himself (or rather had as many wives as he wanted), he had as much gold as he needed, verse 10 says denied himself nothing his eyes desired. And we know that he could afford it all. We on the other hand are in a slightly different situation when we stop short of having it, but not because we decide to avoid it, but because we just cannot have it, although we want it so badly. Under this category falls our desires to get rich, famous, desire to be in authority, climb up the career ladder, hobbies, sexual desires everything that has me and for myself in it. Even the things that we would traditionally consider good and worthy would fall into this category (such as planting gardens and parks, working hard, marriage, etc.) if we center them around meeting our needs and for ourselves. We often find ourselves running blindly after these things forgetting everyone and everything. Think about it. For example, when we are anticipating a vacation, what is the pattern of our thoughts? Do we think something like I am going to do this and this and this!, or do we think how can I make this trip more enjoyable for my spouse, my children. Who do we think about? - Ourselves or others? Or when we chose a hobby, how often do we consider the impact that hobby is going to have on our loved ones? Do we think in terms of I worked hard the whole week now I deserve to have some time to relax and do what I like to do, or do we think I was away from my family the whole day working, I need to spend quality time with them now when I am home. It is very easy to have yourself in the center of the Universe work for your own pleasure, relax for your own pleasure. Or consider the other line of thinking. If God would have given me this, then I would be able to focus better on serving Him For example, if God would have given me this job, then I would have had more time to allocate for service in church. Or if God would have given me a spouse, then I would be able to better concentrate on my devotion to God (this is what I was thinking when I was single). Or if God would only gave me the ability to learn this, or acquire that. The problem is not in the fact that we do no have this or that; the problem is that our main motivations and goals are off target. Receiving the desires of our heart is not going to change our hearts, as a matter of fact, in most of the cases it dulls the hearts against the service to God and distracts it. A heart devoted to God is devoted at all times good and bad, in plenty and in want. And I have been blessed to know people like this among you who have demonstrated such tremendous measure of devotion despite of the circumstances. I think the message today is just another encouragement for you to keep on running, because you are running as to win. TGIF

10 5. Manner of walk in life (2:12-16) Having burned himself against everything and anything, Solomon, continued his search for ultimate profit. Maybe the issue was not in the things I was after, but rather in how I went about getting them. A well known proverb comes to mind: does the end justify the means? Maybe the issue was in those means that were employed while reaching for the goal. So Solomon considered both wisdom and folly again. However this time around he did not try to figure out if they bring any profit or gain, but rather if they are used as the means of getting something. Here too, he came to a stop. He did confirm that although, neither wise nor foolish living render any lasting yield in life, a wise walk is preferred over the foolish one. That is why he is saying: And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise man s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. (Ecclesiastes 2:13-14) This was a devastating point in his life. For he came to realize that no matter what you do, no matter how you live death renders everything useless. How often it is with us! We too forget that one day we are going to die and we live as we have eternity in our hands and we can waste our valuable time on the things that render no profit at all! If we examine our days, how many hours in a day could be counted towards something that will produce a long lasting result, a result that will flow into eternity and will not be intercepted by death? Digression: a case for biblical definition of depression (2:17-18a) Unfortunately, like many in this world, Solomon realized that anything he was striving for in his life was not worth it. It is a very dangerous situation he ended up in. He says that he started to hate life! (2:17), he hated the fruit of his labor (2:18). What Solomon is saying here, is that he fell into a deep depression even to the point of hating life. Now there are various reasons for depression. Some of them have underlying medical conditions that a man cannot control and we have to rely on the grace of God to hold the hand of that person and his family. This is not that kind of depression that Solomon is talking about here. At the root of depression described here we have a final realization that the things of this world are not worth living for. We have to be very careful to diagnose properly the root of man s condition, so that we would be able to assist him properly from this tragic state. I often heard how others prescribe a generic medicine accusing a depressed person in his high self-love. But here Solomon is not struggling with self-love. His struggle is in finding the purpose in life through the means of this world and he constantly keeps on failing. And the right medicine is to graciously lead him to that purpose as Solomon is going to do in just a minute. But before that let s look at one more thing that Solomon tested. TGIF

11 6. Legacy (2:18b-22) The author proceeds to tell us how he decided to outwit death by leaving some legacy after himself. He thought that if death is going to steal everything from him, may be he can leave the produce of his life to those who come after? This is a very popular thinking in our days. We constantly hear the words preserve, conserve, future generations, and so on. And although Solomon is not advocating careless attitude towards future generations, he does say that in that we too can not find a guaranteed profit. You may pour all your life in building a legacy and at the end of the day you still will not know if the person after you will be using it for good or bad purposes And the other problem is that you work hard and spend sleepless nights in order to pass everything that you own to someone who has not even lifted a finger for it. No profit within a man Having gone down all these paths, Solomon arrives at the final conclusion in verse 24: 24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God I have to pause here and look with you at this verse under the microscope. In the original language instead of nothing better, we find nothing good. Also instead of for the preposition that is used is in. Here is how the first part of the verse reads in original: Nothing good in man he should eat and drink and find himself good in work. Young s literal translation renders it this way: There is nothing good in a man who eateth, and hath drunk, and hath shewn his soul good in his labor. This also I have seen that it [is] from the hand of God. Russian translation renders it this way: It is not in man s ability even to eat and drink and please his soul by the fruit of his labor. Even that is from the hand of God. What Solomon is saying, that there is nothing good in a man himself that could offer him satisfaction in life. The source of satisfaction lies outside of man it is in God. It does not matter where in the universe you go, God is the only one who has the keys to happiness, purpose, satisfaction. The goal above all The problem with the earlier mentioned pursuits is not in the extent to which Solomon tried them, but with the goals themselves. It does not matter how hard or lightly you pursue them, they will never be able to produce any profit that would bring ultimate TGIF

12 satisfaction to our souls. The best thing that can happen to us is that we would realize this truth soon enough before it is too late and our life is gone. And that is exactly the point that the author makes in verse 2:24. At this point, Solomon directs our attention to the one and only goal that should consume our lives. This is the only goal that will produce a lasting yield and profit. In verse 26 he says: To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:26) Our main pursuit should be not wisdom or pleasure, but rather we should direct our efforts towards pleasing God. We have to make a conscious decision to please him. It has to be our pursuit, not something that comes and goes as the life circumstances permit. We need to seek and find the ways of pleasing God. Similar to how we look for opportunities to surprise our spouses with unexpected gifts. This is similar to when you decide to go to a store and buy a toy for your child, not because he has a birthday, but because you just want to see his eyes sparkle when he sees you pulling out of your pocket something good for him. You make efforts, you do not need to be asked or reminded, you just simply want to please the person you love. We have to cultivate the same attitude towards our God. This is what Solomon is talking about. This must be our daily pursuit in lives. To simply know God or know facts about God is not enough. Notice that Solomon is not saying that you should get to know God and then your life will be all nice and dandy. He assumes that you know Him already. He is not saying that those who know God will have all things squared away for them. He says that only those who please God will obtain the ultimate profit in this life. Now, I can imagine that some of us would understand Solomon s admonitions, his explanations and his experience and conclusion, but personally would have hard times accepting it for themselves. Some of us might be thinking, it did not work out for him, but I think it will work out for me. We might be thinking that if I would have had riches and if I would have had that position in a society or at work it probably would have worked out for me, even though it did not work out for Solomon. Add to it the voices from the rest of the world from magazine covers, news, TV shows that all promote the only true way to satisfaction is through riches, glory, wisdom, shrewdness. 2 things I want to say at this point? Yes, we all know the forbidden fruit is very sweet, but once you get the first bite you will find that a worm has eaten it from inside. We need to make a choice whom to believe the world or Solomon in this case. You see, no one ever in the history of the whole world was richer, more famous, more glorious and wiser than Solomon (except for our Lord Jesus Christ). They all can tell us good stories, but Solomon trumps them all and says it is all vanity, it is not worth wasting your life and effort on that. TGIF

13 And there is the second thing I want to point out. Notice how he ends the chapter. He says but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Even though the sinner might obtain wealth and glory at the end of the day it will all turn into chasing the wind. Conclusion We need to trust God that if we aim to please Him he has the power and capacity to bring to us both satisfaction and enjoyments. One of the main themes of the book of Ecclesiastes in the whole is the theme of God s sovereignty. God is above us all and He is the one who rules the universe and not we. Solomon wants to make sure that the reader does not loose site of God s sovereignty, for he roots his conclusion primary in that truth.. When I set out to join that ski trip to Austria I started to contemplate and pray for opportunities to share the message of the Bible with others. And as I stepped in the bus early morning on the day of departure, I looked around and saw about 40 people in my bus and I thought that there are approximately another 40 people in the other bus. And I vividly remember that I said to myself do what you can. It is not even possible to introduce yourself to all these people during the period of 3-4 days, let alone to share the gospel. God did provide me with opportunities to witness during the trip. I was able to share the good news of salvation with my room mates and the people whom I was dining with. But that was about it, and I kept referring back to my thought that I can not even manage to introduce myself to all of them. When I was left alone in the mountains, I managed to find some kind people who would allow me to use their telephone. I made a phone call to the bus (and by God s gracious providence I had a telephone number of the group leader in the back pocket of my pants). When I spoke to the guy on the phone, I could not believe what he told me he said that I was late and they knew that I was not on the bus when they left. I pleaded with him to stop the bus and wait for me while I will catch the taxi in the coming snowstorm. 2-3 hours later I set my foot on the bus that was waiting for me. My eyes sought out the only place available in the bus and as I landed there emotionally exhausted but thankful the girl next to me said something that I will never forget until I die. She said in German: Sergey, by this time every single person on this trip knows you by name. Dear friends we often, like I at that time during the ski trip, underestimate God s sovereignty. And as a result we do not take His promises seriously. He is both sovereign and faithful God who never speaks in vain. If He promised to bless those who strive to please Him He will do so. I would like to conclude my sermon today with a plea to you make all your efforts, direct all your lives, make every your desire to please Him, let no TGIF

14 other goals sidetrack you. Because He is both faithful and mighty to do what He promised to! TGIF

15 Table of contents...1 Ecclesiastes 1:12 2: Introduction...2 Prayer and Reading of the text...3 Introduction to the book book [hebel, habel] - the main word of the ה ב ל 1. The meaning of the word ה ב ל [hebel, habel] Vanity (meaningless) in Ecclesiastes is always connected with some activity...4 The author of the book...5 Identity of the author...5 Qualifications of the author...5 Steer away from the goals with dead-ends Student approach (1:16-18) Pleasure and laughter (2:1-2) Do not care attitude (2:3) Work and accomplishments (2:4-11) Manner of walk in life (2:12-16)...10 Digression: a case for biblical definition of depression (2:17-18a) Legacy (2:18b-22)...11 No profit within a man...11 The goal above all...11 Conclusion...13 TGIF