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Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
4One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
5The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
6The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
7All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
8All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
11There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

I. LISTEN UP (1)
A. Solomon, the wisest man to ever live is the author of Ecclesiastes. (1 Kings 3:1-15)
B. Solomon had a supernatural gift of wisdom. Knew how to use what he knew to figure out new things. (1 Kings 3:16-28)
C. Solomon writes as teacher, not king. And as a preacher, making these the words of God.

II. THE WORLD JUST KEEPS TURNING (2-7)
A. Our lives are so busy with important stuff yet we never seem to get ahead.
B. Our lives are so busy and important yet when we die, no one notices and the world moves on from us quickly.

III. DISAPPOINTED IN THE GRAND CANYON (8)
A. Life turns out to be especially bitter when we believe the answer to life is found within life itself.
B. We never arrive in life because no matter how good it is we always assume it can get better.

IV. SOMETHING OLD IS NOT SOMETHING NEW (9-11)
A. The pursuit of satisfaction from within life is not new. It is as old as the human species.
B. We assume we are greater than those before us but we have yet to solve the fundamental human problem of sin.

NEXT STEPS:
1. See the vanity of life. (James 4:14, Gen 3:19, Job 1:21)
2. Don’t waste your life. Find the answers you seek in Jesus alone. (Col 1:16)