Sharon Church | Sermons

The Preacher has found great power in wisdom...and yet it still leaves him unsatsified. He has looked at the world and found a bitter truth - people are drawn to folly more than wisdom, but it is understandable because they often look so similar.

While we will never find satisfaction in money or honor, they do serve a purpose in our lives. How we steward them can lead us to contentment or vanity.

The Preacher shows us what true vanity is - it is choosing to continue talking when God has called us to listen and obey...to fear Him.

Unmet expectations lead us to becoming a lonely oppressor with no one to comfort us.

For everything there is a season - but we are not meant to figure out how the seasons work.

Solomon looks death in the eyes and concludes that life is a gift meant to be enjoyed.

What Solomon has laid out here are the ways we as humans distract ourselves from ultimate reality.

These are the things we chase to detach from our human circumstances...things we think will save us, even momentarily from having to feel what it feels like to be human. They are what we run to to insulate us. Ultimately, Solomon ends up at a similar understanding - it is all smoke, like chasing the wind.

As the Preacher begins his testimony of his pursuit of purpose, he lets us in on a fundamental truth he learned that carries forward through the rest of the book - knowledge and wisdom are good but not ultimate and will never satisfy our souls.

In the first verses of the book of Ecclesiastes, we find out exactly what the author is doing. He is leading us to the perils of seeking the wrong thing while here under the sun.

As the finale of his Gospel, Matthew shows us the humanity of the disciples and Jesus' unfettered call on their lives. It reminds us that God is not waiting on us to be perfect to be able to use us. He makes us faithful as we go.