Chasing the Wind

A Message on the Book of Ecclesiastes

1. Everything Is Vanishing Mist

• Ecclesiastes 1:2 — “Vanity of vanities… all is vanity”
• Ecclesiastes 1:4-7 — creation’s endless, unarriving cycles
• Ecclesiastes 1:14 — “striving after wind”
• Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 — even wisdom brings sorrow
• Key phrase: “under the sun” (used ~30x in the book)

2. Wisdom, Pleasure, and Work Cannot Fill the Hole

• Ecclesiastes 2:1 — the pleasure experiment
• Ecclesiastes 2:4-8 — the scale of Solomon’s resources
• Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 — “nothing to be gained under the sun”
• Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 — legacy left to an unknown heir
• Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 — enjoyment as gift from God’s hand

3. A Time for Everything, But God Holds the Clock

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 — a season for everything
• Ecclesiastes 3:11 — “he has put eternity into man’s heart”

4. The Grave Levels Us All

• Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 — dust to dust
• Ecclesiastes 6:6 — a thousand years twice over, same end
• Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 — same fate for righteous and wicked

5. Don’t Waste What You’ve Been Given

• Ecclesiastes 9:7,9-10 — eat, drink, love, work with your might
• Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 — rejoice in youth, judgment is coming, put away vexation

6. Remember Your Creator Before It’s Too Late

• Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 — the aging/decline poem

7. Fear God and Keep His Commandments

• Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 — “the whole duty of man”
• Closing turn: eternity in the heart (ch. 3) answered in Christ’s resurrection over death (ch. 9)