This Thursday, we'll all gather around tables with friends and family to celebrate a supremely Christian feast. And it matters not that Thanksgiving as a national holiday isn't commanded in the Scriptures. Christianity alone can account for and support the tradition. If there is no God, who is there to thank? So, as we prepare to roast turkeys and set tables, as we polish crystal goblets and bake pies, Psalm 21 is here to teach us how to also prepare heaping mounds of joy and gratitude.

Why is it critical to pray for national leaders? Because national leaders represent the people. They stand in for the people. They lead the people. How they conduct themselves doesn't simply reflect on the people; it actually takes the people somewhere.

Paul says our mission in life is to make the manifold wisdom of God known to spiritual authorities in the heavenly places. And how do we do that? "Wives, respect your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. Children, obey your parents. Parents, raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

For the next three weeks we're preaching a series called Parenting Tune Up for two important reasons: First, because God has blessed our congregation with many new families with young children. We want to equip and encourage you parents in the role God has assigned you.

Second, we live in a world that is pursuing high-handed rebellion to God as our Creator, designer, and purpose-giver. And in that war on the authority of God on of the hottest battlelines is that of the family. Our culture is desperately trying to redefine what the family is in such a way that anything can be a family, and eventually nothing will be a family.

Here, at the end of the book, Solomon helps us think about aging. And the headline of his teaching is this: a wise person prepares for the end from the beginning. Life is short, so how can we make the most out of it?

God is the God of Fortune 500 companies and he is the God of cleaning the dryer lint. Joy in work isn't calibrated towards the size of the work, but the size of the Lord who has called you to the task.

We live in a world of complexities and conundrums, so must resist falling into an "all or nothing" mentality. The kings of the Bible aren't neatly divided between good and bad. It's filled with great kings who are adulterers (David) and evil kings who bless the people of God (Cyrus). This means that political battles must be kept in perspective.

Flexibility and prudence are not the same things as cowardice.

As we seek to understand who God is, what this world is and what is our place in this world, Solomon warns of some practical barriers which impede our understanding. Surprisingly, the first potential barrier to understanding God is worship—if you are not worshipping rightly.

We ought to think of Ecclesiastes 2 as a series of highly sophisticated and calculated experiments. Solomon begins with the words, "I said in my heart, 'Come now, I will test you…" Solomon wants to find meaning in life and he's going about his quest in a thoughtful manner.