Heading toward the finish line of both his life and this book, Solomon as a remorseful burned out old man urges us to seek God while we are young and stick close to Him all the days of our life because apart from God life is meaningless

The teacher of Ecclesiastes genuinely cares about the practical parts of our lives and so he sits us down to share with us something essential for living it wisely. He opens today’s passage by sharing a story from his past that illustrates the lesson. Then he points out three clues that will help us both understand and move towards living it out more fully in different areas of life. What are those clues? They are; dead flies, venomous snakes, and talking birds.

We can observe two key realities when we look at life under the sun. First, the reality of death is inevitable. Secondly, life can be confusingly unpredictable. How are we to make sense of this in our lives and live in the middle of it all? In the center of the unpredictability of life and the inevitability of death God wisely commands us to something. The conclusion helps mature our Christianity. What is it? The answer may surprise.

Jesus says: “The humble are in and the proud are out.” (Luke 18:14) James 4:6-“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Beware of toxic teachers (Matt23:4), toxic churches (1Cor) and toxic beliefs (Col2:8) because they are more about bondage making than bondage breaking (John8:31-32; 1Tim4:16). A lie about God, believed to be true, will affect your life as if it were true.

If you have a relationship with God and walk with Him over time you will more and more put off folly and put on wisdom. Wisdom is seeing and responding to life from God’s perspective. Your perspective about the events in life will not only determine how you feel about those events but also how you will respond to those events (Pro23:7 NASB).

We live in a society that defines wealth as…How much money you make? What neighborhood you live in? How big your house is? What kind of car do you drive?
“When our contentment is in Christ, it’s as durable as he is dependable. When our happiness is in Christ, we can’t lose our happiness, because we can’t lose Christ.” (Phil4:10-13) –Randy Alcorn “Happiness”

2 Kinds of Rich: Righteous Rich & Unrighteous Rich
2 Kinds of Poor: Righteous Poor & Unrighteous Poor

We are worshipers by nature and when we worship created things more the than the Creator it sets us up inevitably for inordinate anxiety, anger and depression. Our mission at db for 25 years has been to help unchurched people to relocate their ultimate love, hope and trust away from created things onto the Creator. Nothing will heal your heart, free your soul and fortify your faith like giving Christ your heart’s deepest loyalties and affections.

There is no way you will be able to survive or even thrive spiritually apart from a deep involvement in a Biblically functioning community of believers (Acts2:42-47).