Gary Hamrick - A Full Life On Empty (01/22/2026)
- Watch
- Donate
Solomon, looking back on his life full of every possible success and pleasure, declares that everything «under the sun» is utterly meaningless—like a fleeting vapor—because nothing truly satisfies apart from God. Drawing from Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, he illustrates this with the endless cycles of nature, generations, and human effort that change nothing and leave no lasting mark. Yet the book ultimately points toward finding real purpose by fearing God and keeping His commandments, as he’ll conclude later.
Welcome and Introduction to Ecclesiastes
We’re starting a new book study together today, so turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 1. On Sundays we study the Bible cover-to-cover here at Cornerstone. We go from Genesis to Revelation, and we finished the book of Proverbs last week, so today we’re starting into the book of Ecclesiastes. If you don’t have a Bible, we’re happy to provide one for you. The ushers are coming up and down the aisles; just raise a hand, and they’ll be happy to hand you a Bible. And while you’re turning there to Ecclesiastes chapter 1, by the way, in the church Bibles that’s page 497. I want to just give a warm welcome. All of our services are streamed live, as most of you know, and we have some people today watching from Puerto Rico and Frankfurt, Germany. So let’s welcome those watching today online.
All right, who’s ready for a new book study together? Come on, you can do better than that. Who’s ready for a new book study? All right, that’s enough. Thank you very much. Whatever. All right, chapter one. Let’s look together at the first 11 verses.
Reading Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
I’ll read from chapter 1: «The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.»
Well, aren’t you glad you came to church today? Keep reading with me:
«What do people gain from all their labor at which they toil under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.»
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray. Lord, as we come before You today, we just thank You for Your Word. We open up our Bibles here to this new book, and we pray that You’ll help us to understand it. We pray, Lord, that You will help us to make sense of some things. This can be somewhat of a difficult book to study, but Lord, we just pray that You would use it to minister to our own hearts. And I thank You for all those who are here and those who are watching online. We pray that it would all bring glory to You and that it would also, at the same time, strengthen our own hearts in faith. And we just praise You in Jesus' name. And everyone said amen.
Background on the Book and Author
So, as I try to do whenever we start into a new book study in our journey straight through the Bible, I try to give a little bit of background, a little bit of context to this book. And so, for those of you who like to take notes, Ecclesiastes is from a Greek word spelled pretty similarly, just with K’s instead of C’s, and pronounced Ecclesiastes—Ecclesiastes meaning one who calls or gathers the ekklesia. Now, ekklesia is just another Greek word that means church or assembly. Ekklesia literally in Greek means the called-out ones.
That’s what the church is: we’re to be called out from the world and unto the Lord—not that we’re separate or detached from the world, because we need to be salt and light in the world, but we’re called out to live a life differently for the glory of God. That’s ekklesia in the Greek. And the ekklēsiastēs was the one who is over the ekklesia, the one who calls together the church, the one who calls together the assembly. And so the ekklēsiastēs is basically the pastor or the teacher/preacher. And if you’ll notice, we find that word in verse 1 of chapter 1. It starts: «The words of the Teacher.» Now, if you have a New King James Version or an ESV version, it’ll say «Preacher» instead of «Teacher, ” but we’re talking about the same thing. That ekklēsiastēs means teacher or preacher. We kind of anglicize that Greek word, and more so we pronounce it Ecclesiastes.
This book, if you were reading this in a Hebrew Bible—which is the original language of the Old Testament—this book is called Qoheleth. Qoheleth meaning again teacher or preacher. Now, the teacher or preacher of this book is the one who was inspired by God to write this, and this ends up being a reflection of his own life. The one writing this is writing from personal experience and being inspired by the Lord. So exactly who is this person? Well, his name is not given to us anywhere in this particular book, but we can understand who he is by looking at how he describes his identity. If you’ll notice the latter part of verse 1, it says „the words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.“ Well, there was only one son of David who ever ruled as king in Jerusalem, and that was his son Solomon. So Solomon is the one inspired by the Lord to write this. This is somewhat his journal; this is somewhat of a sermon that he’s writing from personal life experience. And as he writes this, he writes it as a testimony of the latter years of his life.
Solomon’s Writings and Perspective
Now, Solomon is the one who wrote three books of the Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. And those three books are arranged in that order in our Bibles—Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon or Song of Songs—but they are not really in the order in which they were written. Most Bible scholars believe that Solomon wrote Proverbs early in his life, giving all this wisdom while he was still young, and he wrote Ecclesiastes at the end of his life, and he wrote Song of Songs or Song of Solomon in the middle of his life. Because when you look at how Ecclesiastes unfolds, you’ll notice that this is basically a guy who’s looking at life in the rearview mirror, and he’s writing with a lot of regret. He’s looking at his life and he’s looking at the conditions of his life, and he’s looking at the fruit of his life, and he’s looking at life experience, life success, life challenges, randomness—all these various aspects of life. And he’s looking at life in the rearview mirror. And when he writes Ecclesiastes, he’s basically going to say: I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt, lived my life to its fullest, and yet I was empty. Lived life to the fullest, and yet I was empty.
I mean, this is the diary of thousands of people—people who live life to the fullest, and yet they get to some point in their life and they realize: I’ve done all this, I’ve experienced all this, I’ve accomplished all this—why do I feel so empty now?
Two Ways to Interpret Ecclesiastes
It might be curious for you, because when you think, well, okay, that might be a normal thing that people think, but why would Solomon think this? I mean, he’s the king of Israel; he follows the succession from his father King David. Why, of all people, would King Solomon write like this at the end of his life—being rather disillusioned with life, being rather jaded about life and cynical about life? Well, there’s a background story to that that I’ll get into in a minute, because I don’t think that we can appreciate Ecclesiastes unless we first understand the life of Solomon leading up to why he writes the way he does in this final book of his life.
But first, let me explain this: there are two general ways to interpret the book of Ecclesiastes—two different lenses that you can look through. And I will tell you that Bible scholars are divided about which lens is the right lens to look through in understanding and interpreting the book of Ecclesiastes. Here are those two lenses. The first lens is the idea that Solomon wrote this venting—that he is disappointed in the outcome of life, and he’s disappointed with God in the process. That he’s just completely venting about how life has been random, unpredictable, disappointing, frustrating—even though I’ve accomplished all these things, I’ve done wonderful things, have been very successful, been very wealthy—but I’m upset and frustrated at the way life has turned out. So some say that you read that book in terms of he’s venting, and that he really walked away from the Lord near the end of his life. And some scholars say we’re not even sure we’re going to see Solomon in heaven because of the way that he walked away from the Lord near the end of his life. That’s one lens.
The other lens is that he’s not really venting; he’s warning. And he’s trying to tell everybody: learn from my life, of all the mistakes and bad choices I made, because it didn’t go well for me despite the fact that I experienced tremendous success, had a lot of money, a lot of women, a lot of everything. I did it all—been there, done that—and yet I felt empty. And so I don’t want anyone else to go down that path, and learn from me and my mistakes. And then he summarizes it at the very end of this book—there’s 12 chapters to it—at the very, very end he talks аbout: here’s the final conclusion I’ve come to realize in light of all of this. And because of the closing conclusion, which is a very wonderful way that he comes all the way full circle with all of this, I believe—so my slant is—that the second lens is a better way to interpret Ecclesiastes: that he eventually does come back to God, and he writes about it at the very end of this book. But he expresses all of this other stuff to help us understand: don’t go the path I went.
So you’re going to have to endure it to get to that last little bit. You have to endure eleven and a half chapters of Solomon sounding like Eeyore in the Hundred Acre Wood. But that’s what we have to get through till we finally realize his ultimate conclusion. He came to realize something at the end of his life, but he’s going to moan a lot for 11 and a half chapters. He’s brutally honest, and I love that about this book. He’s brutally honest. He’s altogether frustrated with life, though he’s experienced everything to its fullest. He is completely frustrated by life, and he writes about that frustration. And I’m glad that this book is included in Scripture, because I think it really expresses the sentiment of a lot of people.
The Practical Challenge of the Book
You see, Solomon didn’t have a question as to whether God existed; he was not an atheist. Solomon’s question was whether God mattered. That’s a lot of people wondering: if life is kind of unpredictable and there are random things that happen—and a lot of which is not fun and happy—even for people who try to do the best they can, even for Christians who try to honor God, and yet things unravel and life has twists and turns and there’s difficulties and challenges and heartache—then what does it even matter that we follow God? And this is a very thought-provoking book, because he lays out the realities of life and how he has lived his life and the things that he’s experienced, and how he’s become a bit jaded and cynical and confused and frustrated. And he even expresses some of that frustration about God. And I think that this book is wonderfully practical, because it’s going to touch some of you right in that same place where you have been wondering similar things. You know: if God is so good, why has this happened, and why did that happen? And I tried to do my best, and still this mess resulted. And so if these things are going to happen—it’s all unpredictable and there’s no guarantees in life—then you know, why should I follow God, and why should He be a part of the equation of my life?
So I think this is a very challenging book, but in a good way. And so this is how Solomon expresses himself near the end of his life.
Understanding „Meaningless“ — Hevel
Now, how did Solomon get to that place? What’s the backstory to a guy who was one of the most powerful men on earth at the time that he lived—about 900 BC—to the place where he’s writing like this? I mean, the opening dialogue is „Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.“ So we’re going to talk about that. But in order to understand this—the meaninglessness that he talks about here—here’s another important point to recognize about this book. There are eight times in the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon uses the word „meaningless“ in English—"meaningless.» That’s in the translation I’m reading from, but in New King James and ESV it uses the word «vanity"—vanity or meaningless. But we have to understand the Hebrew, the original language, in order to get the meaning of this word. And the Hebrew word is hevel—h e v e l—and hevel literally means vapor, smoke, or mist. And figuratively, it’s referring to something transitory, fleeting, or unsatisfactory.
So when he says life is meaningless, he doesn’t mean life has no meaning; he means it is hevel—meaning it’s very fleeting, it’s transitory, and like smoke or vapor, it’s hard to grasp. Have you ever tried to really grasp life and understand it completely? And then, just when you kind of think you have a little understanding of how life works, then it just evaporates, and now you have to start all over again аbout: a lot that didn’t work out the way I thought. And I thought I understood life, and I thought I grasped it a little bit—well, it’s hevel. It is like a vapor, a mist, a smoke. And that word describes, by the way, our lives in general: that we’re here for a moment, then we’re gone. James talks about that. So we’re like a vapor; we’re like a mist. Life is very short in the scheme of things. The life you have on earth is very short, but it’s also very transitory. There’s things about life that’s hard to grasp; it’s hard to figure out. It’s like trying to grab at wind or trying to grab at vapor or smoke. And that’s the word that he uses here.
So he’s not saying, hey, life is worthless, you know, and it’s without meaning—even though «meaningless» is the word used in the NIV. He’s saying it’s hevel. In the Hebrew, it is hard to figure out sometimes; it’s hard to grasp; it doesn’t always make sense. Can you relate to that? Right—life does not always make sense. It’s hard to grasp; it’s hard to figure out; it’s certainly hard to predict, and hard to even make sense out of when you look in the rearview mirror. So that’s important to understand going into this study: that he uses this word 38 times, but he means it in the sense of life is transitory, life is fleeting, and life is hard to grasp.
Solomon’s Downfall
Now, how did he end up in this bad place? Because it is a bad place. I mean, you read this book and you think to yourself: keep all sharp items away from Solomon, because he just sounds like he’s in a bad, bad place. Here’s how we got there. Solomon started out really well, but then his life tanked. And here’s how he started. You don’t need to turn there, but back in 1 Kings chapter 2, Solomon becomes king of Israel. He becomes king of Israel after his father King David dies. Now, when you do the chronology of when Solomon was born, it is likely that Solomon became king at the age of 17 or 18. Now Josephus, the 1st-century Jewish historian, said even younger—Josephus said he was 14. So let’s cut the difference and say maybe he was 16. He’s young; he’s a young guy. And you’ve just been handed daddy’s kingdom. You’re now in charge of the most powerful kingdom on earth at this time—900 BC.
And the Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 3 that God appears to Solomon in a dream and says to Solomon: «Ask me for whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.» «Ask me for whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.» Now, can you imagine if God showed up and asked you that? Name one thing you want—what do you want? Now think—just, I want you to think for just a moment—think: what is that one thing? What’s the one thing you would ask for? And don’t over-spiritualize it—I know you’re in church: world peace and everybody to come to know Jesus. All right, well, great, we all want that. But I mean, in the moment you’re being given anything, most people would ask: give me wealth, give me fame, give me popularity, give me position, give me—or maybe practical things like: just give me my own lane on I-95, just mine, nobody else’s, just mine. So whatever it might be, think for a moment what thing you would ask for.
Now be careful—be careful what you ask for. It reminds me of the story about this older couple that was taking a stroll on the beach together, and they stumbled upon a little bottle. And they pulled the cap off the bottle, and out came a genie. It’s a true story—go with me. And the genie looked at the couple and said: «You each get one wish. Ladies first.» And so the wife said: «Well, my one wish—my one wish would be that I’d get to spend the rest of my life with my hubby here on a deserted tropical island, just the two of us.» And poof—in that moment they were both on this beautiful deserted tropical island. And then the genie turns to the husband and says: «All right, now it’s your turn.» And he says: «Well, seeing as how we’re both 60 years of age, and now that we’re alone on this tropical island just the two of us, my wish would be that my wife here would be 30 years younger.» And poof—he became 90. Be careful what you wish for, my friends.
Anyway, so Solomon here—he’s very careful about what he asks. And even though he’s like 16, 17—I mean, he barely has his driver’s license at this point—but he says: «Here’s what I want, God. What I want is wisdom and discernment so that I can properly govern these people of Yours.» He asked for wisdom and discernment. And God was so impressed by what he asked; God said: «Because you did not ask for long life, riches, or the death of your enemies, I will give you the wisdom and discernment you’re asking for, and I’ll throw in those three as well.» And that’s what God does. Solomon is a blessed man, and he has wisdom beyond his years. But how many of you understand that God can give you something and you squander it? And Solomon squandered it. He didn’t apply his own wisdom that he’d received from God. A guy who wrote the book of Proverbs didn’t even heed his own advice. And he squandered what God had given to him.
And in 1 Kings chapter 3 it tells us that he made a very unwise decision, and that was to form a political alliance with the king of Egypt—the Pharaoh of Egypt—and to seal the deal in this political alliance, he marries the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt. That was a very dangerous move, because A) he didn’t trust God to keep peace, and so he had to form this political alliance, but B) because he married a woman who was a pagan worshiper—she worshiped the gods of the Egyptians. The Jews had been delivered from the slavery of Egypt; they had forsaken those false gods. And now Solomon was, in effect, saying: I’m going to bring all those gods back into my own home by marrying this woman. And he didn’t stop there. The Bible says he had an appetite for women, and he formed all these different political alliances with all these neighboring nations by marrying the royal daughters of the kings of those neighboring nations—to the tune of 700 wives and, in addition, 300 concubines, as the Bible tells us.
And the Bible tells us that because he married these women who were worshipers of false gods, that they brought this false god influence into his home, thus into the nation. He let them into his heart, and thus it corrupted the whole nation. And the Bible says that Solomon turned his heart away from the Lord, and he started worshiping the gods of the foreign wives that he brought into his home. And there’s nothing wrong with interracial marriage or different nations marrying—it’s «foreign» in the sense of they’re worshiping pagan gods, foreign gods that aren’t real. And it corrupted his own heart. And this is what the Bible says in 1 Kings 11—you don’t need to turn; let me just read it. 1 Kings 11:1-2, 4: «King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, 'You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.' Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.»
Your attention for a moment. Question: how many wives does one guy need? I mean, if the men in the room were honest, most men don’t even properly meet the emotional needs of one woman. You don’t need to say amen, ladies, but I’m just saying. So why does he think he could do that with seven hundred plus three hundred girlfriends on the side? I mean, he’s the wisest guy in the world—not very wise. Those of you who are single, you’re thinking: I think that dude’s pretty cool, to be honest—you know, 700 wives and 300 girlfriends. But a-bing, bada-boom, you know, some of you single guys. But all the married guys in the house know that was a stupid move. Stupid. Man, can you imagine the conversations happening in that palace? «I don’t think you pay enough attention to me.» «Really? You’re always looking at her, not me.» «When was the last time we ever had quality time?» Quality time—you know, that’s one of the five love languages: quality time. «Where’s your quality time with me? Seriously, when’s the last date we had?» «I don’t think your mother really likes me.» «Does this tunic make me look fat?» I mean, I can imagine—over and over again, seven hundred times. Not a very smart guy here.
Well, their love for foreign gods and his love for these women was a deadly combination, and it brought idolatry into the nation of Israel. Solomon turned his back on God, and he introduced idolatry to its worst extent. Under Solomon’s reign, they were sacrificing children in the valley to false gods; they were sacrificing little babies to false gods right in view of the temple of God that Solomon had built—in the valley below, they’re sacrificing little kids. That’s how far Solomon has turned away from God. And the Bible says in 1 Kings 11 verse 9: «The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel.» But Solomon carries on like nothing’s ever changed. He’s making alliances with different nations, marrying, accumulating a massive amount of wealth. He’s building Jerusalem—first his palace; he spent twice as long building his palace than he did the temple of God. What does that say? Then he does build the temple of God, fortifies the city of Jerusalem, fortifies other cities and towns throughout the region of the nation of Israel, expands the border of Israel to its furthest borders under his reign, accumulates more money than anybody ever did under his reign, expands the military more than ever under his reign, starts digging quarries and opening mines. Had so much silver that 1 Kings chapter 10 says that silver was as prevalent as stones in Israel, and it became worthless—he had flooded the market with so much silver that it became worthless. And so the Bible talks about how he turns to gold. I don’t know if William Devane was in his ear about it or not, but in 1 Kings chapter 10 it says this: «All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.»
Just because he can. It’s like, you know, I mean, when you’re bored with life and you’ve got everything else—how about some apes and baboons running around the house? I mean, he’s like living the Jungle Book story. I’m thinking of Mowgli right now—just like he’s got apes and baboons, and he’s talking and skipping through the jungle and all this other stuff. Now look, you read all this, and you can see the success and the accomplishment, the achievement. I mean, Solomon was a master architect, designer, builder, entrepreneur. He was very successful. He had all the wealth and wine and women that you could possibly imagine. I mean, he had accomplished everything and accumulated so much. And yet he gets to the end of his life and he realizes just how empty he is. He realizes just how empty he is. He’s built so much; he’s bought so much; he has married so much. I mean, he has so much. And yet he looks around at all that he has—because he thought that if I just accomplished this, accumulate this, take this girl to bed, do all of this other stuff—he said: if I just, I figured if I just did all this, I’d be happy; I’d be fulfilled; life would be good. And what he ended up realizing was, at the end of his life: that I can’t get no satisfaction. I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried, but I can’t get no—I’m quoting the prophet Jagger right now—I can’t get no satisfaction. That’s what he sincerely—that’s what he realized. He’s like: I have achieved so much; I’ve done so much; I’ve bought so much; I’m at the top of my game. I mean, I can’t even improve on everything I have. And yet with all of this, I’m completely empty.
Friends, it is possible to live a full life and be completely empty. That is the story of countless people in our world. That might be your story. Some of you are going to identify with this story. As we go through the book of Ecclesiastes over the next several weeks, and you’re going to be like: yeah, I get this; I get that. I’ve tried this; I’ve tried that—and the same thing is true for me. I tried this; I tried that—didn’t really have fulfillment. Because you see, absent God in your life, those things are hevel; they’re meaningless; it’s vanity. God is the only one who brings perspective and value and purpose and meaning. And when He’s not in the equation, you can have it all and accomplish it all and be as empty as empty can be. That’s this guy’s story. And it’s a wonderful wake-up call for some and reminder to others of the importance of having God at the center of your life.
Three Observations from Chapter 1
Now, real quickly, in the closing couple of minutes we have, I’m going to rattle through three quick observations from chapter one that Solomon makes, and these are true observations. Here’s the first one he makes. He says: hey, time is marching on—like it or not, the clock is ticking, and we can’t stop it. Time is marching on. Verses 4 and 5—this is what he said: «Generations come and generations go"—that’s verse 4. In verse 5 he says: «The sun rises and the sun sets.» In verse 6 he says: «The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course"—which, by the way, is very interesting because he’s describing storm currents before we had satellite imagery. But that’s how smart he is; he understands wind currents, storm currents—south, north, circular—all of this stuff. But his point is, you know: time is marching on. Generations come, generations go; sunrises, sunsets; the wind blows to the south, turns to the north. Time is marching on, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
One of the things you’ll read with me in our study of this book is that there’s a lot of life that is completely out of our control—but we still try to control it, and then we get frustrated because we can’t. So if any of you are like control freaks, we’re starting a support group here on Sunday mornings called the book of Ecclesiastes. Because one of the things is we got to get to this place where we are just totally trusting in the Lord, because so much of life is unpredictable, random, and we have no control over it. And so one of the things he points out to us here—it’s a true observation: time is marching on. We can’t change the past, and we can’t predict the future. But all the more reason why we need God in the center of our lives—because we can give our past to God, and we can trust God with our future. See, and that’s the beauty of His role in the element of time.
Number two: he also observes here from chapter one that nothing is really new. Nothing’s really new. In verses 9 and 10 he says: «What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.» Now notice that phrase there in verse 9—or yeah, verse 9—which says «nothing new under the sun.» «Under the sun"—under the sun as a phrase he uses 29 times in the book of Ecclesiastes—29 times. And it’s very descriptive of his problem, because he talks about everything «under the sun"—meaning his complete obsession is the horizontal. It’s all about here on earth, under the sun. It’s about doing this and doing that and accomplishing this, accomplishing that. And he had no room for the vertical. See, God was not part of the equation. So all of his observations and all of his frustrations were with the horizontal—good reason, because this is a messed-up world on the horizontal. Which is why we need the vertical—because God has come to rescue us from such a messed-up world. We can’t fix it; we can’t even fix ourselves.
Look, I know a lot of self-help management books have been written at the zoo, but the reality is, at the end of the day, the only real fix for any of us is Jesus—and knowing Him and receiving His forgiveness and His transforming work that He does in our hearts and in our lives. It’s about Jesus; it’s about the Lord. We can’t change things; we can’t fix things. And as much as we think: oh, this is new; this is the latest and greatest—nothing’s really new under the sun. I mean, true, we’ll come up with new gadgets, and you know, we’re living in the information age right now, and technology is advancing, and we’re exposed to a lot more things than certainly Solomon was in his day. But things in general—it is nothing new. I mean, look at styles; look at how styles come back around. Save your bell-bottoms, friends, because every 30 years they come around. Nothing’s new. You know, your teenagers: «Look at my new outfit.» You’re like: dude, I was wearing that 40 years ago. It’s not new—40 years ago. And all these latest and greatest things that we think now we’ve become so, you know, educated about.
So I remember growing up, it was the big deal about becoming more conscious—which is a good thing—becoming more conscious about food things, things that you eat or shouldn’t eat. So I remember the big thing like when I was growing up was: butter—butter’s bad; get away from butter; let’s go to margarine. Margarine is better. And now all these studies are coming out like: margarine bad; go back to butter. You know, grandma was right. I mean, you know, my grandparents lived into their 80s and 90s. And here’s a—by the way, bacon makes everything better. It’s delicious. You know, here: it’s going to kill you—go to heaven sooner—but I’m telling you, it’s delicious. But you know how it is: you look at previous generations like: I think grandma was right. Because we went on this big kick аbout: has to be margarine. Now it’s like: too many chemicals; go back to butter. You know, grandma was right. I even read this study this week that skim milk is worse for you than whole milk—that the American Journal of Nutrition has published the fact that there are more diabetes problems for those who drink skim milk than whole milk. So grandma was right again. It’s just like now, you know, make sure though that it’s, you know, the grass-fed—why? Because now in our milk we have all the hormones and antibiotics. So go back to the way grandma—my grandma was drinking it out of the udder. I mean, it was really—it was utterly ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Some of you, you’ll get that on the way home. That’s a little bovine humor there.
But nothing is really new. We just recycle and repackage things. Nothing’s really new. And the third one—we’ll close with this: no one will really be remembered. Isn’t that a cheerful way to end the teaching? No one will really be remembered. In verse 11 he says: «There is no remembrance of former generations; even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.» It’s true. It’s like life is one big exercise bike. You know, you’re born, and you jump on the bike, and then you pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, and then you die and fall off. And someone else then gets on it, and they do the same thing: pedal, pedal, pedal, die and fall off. Someone else takes your place: pedal, pedal, pedal, die and fall off. You get a birth announcement, and you get a death announcement. And unless you do something spectacular or end up in jail, nobody cares in the middle. I mean, it’s true—nobody remembers. Nobody remembers.
Now look, obviously you’re going to always remember your friends, your loved ones, the ones you’re closest to—people that had an influential impact in your life. You’re going to remember some people. But by and large, what he’s talking about here is: as much as people, you know, achieve fame, success, popularity, whatever it might be—you know that old saying: enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, because you’ll be forgotten. I mean, it’s—how many here honestly remember George Dallas, Charles Curtis, Henry Wallace, John Garner? Those were all vice presidents, but nobody remembers those guys. I mean, how many of us can remember by name who got Olympic gold medals in the last Summer Olympics? I mean, you might remember a few—okay, I can think of a couple. But by and large, how far back can you go beyond that? How many Olympics can you remember and who got the gold? I can barely remember the names of my high school teachers. I remember they were mean—I mean, granted, I went to high school during the Civil War, but I still—I can’t. There’s only a couple. Okay, that person had a real impact: Mr. Ira. I remember Mrs. O’Donnell. I remember Mrs. O’Donnell, Mrs. Forrester. I remember some really good teachers. But by and large, don’t remember.
My wife was even asking me—as we approach the upcoming Super Bowl, she obviously asked me: who was it who played again in last year’s Super Bowl? I couldn’t—besides Patriots. I mean, ah—but besides the Patriots, I’m like: I can’t even—I had to look it up: the Falcons. Okay, it’s the Falcons. But I mean, how far back can you—some of you, obviously you could keep going back Super Bowl to Super Bowl, and you can remember the teams because you’re just that way. You’re like a walking encyclopedia of sports news. But even for those of us who like the game, you have your fifteen minutes of fame, and then you’re gone. And it’s sad, but it is true—because there’s a reality to this about life. And James said it in James 4 verse 14: he said, «What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.»
Now, for us who know Christ, we know that there’s eternal life past this earthly existence. But what James was saying was: there’s a reality to this fact—you’re here today and you’re gone tomorrow. It’s a very tiny, short window of time called life. We are basically a blink in the cosmos of time. And then the question becomes—that all of us must face—where does God fit into this short thing I’ve been given called life? And how is His relationship with me going to give me the right perspective and purpose and meaning for life that without Him I would not have? That’s where we’re heading over the next few weeks. Read ahead, because in chapter two he talks about three common ways that people try to find satisfaction in life—and those three ways fail. So we’ll talk about that from chapter two next week, Lord willing.
Closing Prayer
But for today, let’s pause now and pray. Father in heaven, as we consider what we’ve just read and the introduction of the book of Ecclesiastes, there are probably many of us that could put ourselves in this story when we’re honest enough to realize that a lot of things we’ve tried and done have disappointed. Without You, where do You fit in the equation of life for each of us? And how can we make You central so that life really has meaning and purpose and value—that without You it doesn’t? And Father, we think of many people in our world who are just trying to grasp at things, and it’s like mist—it’s like smoke; it can’t be grasped. And so many people in our world have a lot of questions about life and about You, Lord, and about how to sort out things that don’t always make sense. And I pray that over the course of the next few weeks in our study here, that people have better answers to those questions, and that they’ll come face to face with You and Your goodness and Your love for us in a very crazy world. We thank You that You are truth and You are reliable and You are faithful and You are constant and that You love us. And we praise You and thank You together in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen.