Searching For Success?

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to Thrive. It's good to have you here today. We are in our second week in this series on the book of Ecclesiastes called Catching Smoke. And the book is actually aptly named in the Hebrew, it's called Koheleth, Koheleth. And it means either teacher, professor, researcher, maybe that's the best word of all three. And we're looking at how this person, Koheleth, which probably is the best that human beings could ever be in terms of wisdom from a human perspective, from under the sun, as he will say again and again. The best that we can be is what this book is about, and yet this book is really disturbing and very puzzling and a lot of people go like, why is it in the Bible? Because it seems a bit on the despairing side, okay? So Catching Smoke. Why would we call this series Catching Smoke? Have you ever tried to catch smoke? Probably not, right? Because you're smart enough not to try. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice if we were smart enough not to try in life to catch things that we cannot grasp onto and hold onto? But time and again, I keep going for that. Whether it's the, as we say, the brass ring on the merry-go-round, always a little, or how many of you played those carnival games that you know are rigged? Or the claw, right? Anybody ever win at the claw? You did? Is she the only one? Oh, you have, okay, one, two, three, four, five, six, whoa. I'm terrible at this. I shouldn't play the claw, just like the lottery, you know, come on, right? So they make money off these things, people. There's a reason, but we're always grasping for something more, always trying to get something that does not satisfy. And today, we're going to be looking again at this. And why is it called catching smoke? Because the Hebrew word, actually, that's used 38 times in this book is hevel. And it does mean vapor or breath. Some translations say it's vanity or futility. I like the message version. It says this, smoke, nothing but smoke. That's what the quester says. There's nothing to anything. It's all smoke. Smoke and mirrors, yeah. So today, we're going to be looking at chapter two in this book and a section of it that focuses on that wonderful area called work. How many of you love your job? One. Retirement's great! Few people love your job. How many people, you are always satisfied with your job? Yeah, not the fact that, yeah, there are just days, weeks, sometimes months, who knows how long, where you just feel like it doesn't seem to be what we want it to be. Well, there's a reason, because it's never meant to be everything that we've tried to make it into. So we're going to be reading in this book, like I said, it's one of the most troubling, difficult books, but it's speaking the truth. Here it is in Ecclesiastes 2, verse 17. This is what Koheleth says, so I hated life, ooh, ouch, okay, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. Yeah, I hated life because all that is done. Now, here's the key, I think, one of the keys that we're finding in this book, if you read it enough, you start going like, ah, I get it. And the key here is that the verse 17 says, under the sun there, that occurs 30 times in this book. Koheleth has a perspective of just saying, this is it, right here, under the sun, what I see, what I can taste, touch, visualize, experience, feel, that's what I'm looking at, that's what I'm researching, and I'm finding it's all a waste, meaningless, under the sun, hold on to that. We're going to continue in reading chapter two, where he talks about the whole area of work, and see how well you relate to it. He goes on, in verse 18, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool, yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun, this is also vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil, what has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun, for all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation, even in the night his heart does not rest, this is also vanity. There is nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil, this also I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment, for to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give one to one who pleases God, this also is vanity and a striving after wind. So today we're o...