The following is the (less) rough manuscript of the sermon I am going to preach this Sunday.

Things to keep in mind while writing and reviewing:

• Don't plan come up with things (e.g. list members) on the fly. Always make note of specific things that you will speak about.
• Try to get in gut punches. That's how you make a message. (Thinking of speaking like boxing is a surprisingly helpful analogy)
• Alliteration sticks.
• Don't assume they know stuff.

Here it is:

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

• Many people have a favorite Bible verse, like John 3:16 or Jeremiah 29:11, but this isn't one you usually see people put on the back of their minivans.

• In your Bible, this word 'vanity' might be translated as 'meaningless'.

  • "Meaningless, meaningless!" says the Teacher, "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (NIV, Ecc. 1:2)
  • ...in case it wasn't depressing enough.

• The hebrew word used in the original text is hevel.

  • So, what does hevel mean?
  • It means mist or vapor.
  • It's this idea of something fleeting, ephemeral, temporary.
  • It appears solid yet you can't grab onto it.

• Did you ever want to jump on a cloud as kid?

  • Well, spoiler alert (in case you haven't figured it out by now), you can't actually do that.
  • Even though it looks solid, it's just a bunch of water vapor.

• Now, bear with me for a moment.

  • Do you remember New Year's Eve?
  • If you were driving anywhere, then you know it was really foggy.
  • That night I was giving my good friend a ride home from this New Year's party we were having.

  • On the way back, it started to fog up and it got to the point where we couldn't see anything.

    • We had the top down, sticking our heads out the sides, brights on, going 5mph, etc. just so we could see 5 feet in front of us.
    • I tried turning onto a road that didn't exist and almost added a tree as part of my vehicle.
    • Granted, I was a teenager driving a mustang, so this was probably normal behavior.
  • Eventually we made it and I had to stay the night it was so bad outside.

• Physically speaking, that's the same cloud you wanted to jump on as a kid.

  • That cloud is hevel.

• When you prioritize the things of this world, your direction is obscured, becuase those things are hevel.

  • Making more money, training up your body in the gym, creating art or building things, etc.
  • While these things are not bad, none of them are permanent. They all pass away because they are all under the sun.
• And that's what the author of Ecclesiastes is trying to tell us. That it's all hevel.
• Now, you're probably thinking - alright, who is this kid? Who is this kid talk?
• Well, don't listen to what I have to say. Let's pick back up in verse #12

Ecclesiastes 1:12-14

• This is Solomon.
• And I get it, you might not know who Solomon is...
• Solomon is considered to be one of the wealthiest, wisest most influental kings to ever walk the earth.

• He's the guy who had it all. Anything you could think of, he did it, he had it.

  • All the money, all the girls, all the food, all the houses, etc.
  • Solomon was basically living a rap video.
• He lived that life, he had all the stuff, and yet what he came to find is that everything he laid his hands on, on this side of eternity, was just a mist. That it was just hevel.
• But there's got to be more, right?
• Well, this is what the teacher says a few verses later.

Ecclesiastes 2:4-10

• How much of this did you want to do?
• Yet, this is what Solomon has to say about all this:

Ecclesiastes 2:11

• He got all of the things anyone could ever possibly want, and what he's found is that they're all vanity, they're all meaningless, they're all just hevel - grasping for the wind. There's no ultimate fulfillment.

• Now before you get too anxious or existential about this, these things aren't bad things.

  • God created all those things too!
  • Solomon says later on that our work is our lot in life - we can still get these things and enjoy them.

• The problem is when we try to put our lives and build our lives upon them - they're just a mist in the wind.

  • You can't build a house on hevel and you can't live a life on mist.

• My story

  • Before I was Christian, I couldn't find meaning in my life.

  • I tried to build up my life by getting good at certain things.

    • Making more money, working out more, getting better with girls, etc.

  • This led me down a path where I ended up sacrificing my friendships and morals in pursuit of these things under the sun that I put on a pedestal.

    • Hurt people who didn't 'support' what I wanted.
    • Lost something much more meaningful.
  • I accomplished these things (to an extent) but my life still didn't have meaning. I knew deep down that it was all temporary. That it was all hevel.
• Everything in this world, everything under the sun, is hevel.

• So what isn't meaningless? What isn't hevel? What isn't under the sun? What doesn't pass away? What is always there?

  • By the end of this book, this is what Solomon figured out. After the entire book of meaninglessness, this is what he concludes.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

• The uncreated creator, the Alpha and the Omega, God of the universe
• He puts meaning into the mist and provides us with true completion and purpose.
• He's the anchor who grounds us, the light who guides us out of the world full of fog.
• He brings everything into judgement. He is the source of eternity and the source of meaning.

On Sunday... The ending here will mainly be improvised. Be prayerful.

• Ask the congregation reflective questions

  • Do you feel lost in the fog?
  • Do you feel empty deep down?

• Pray together

  • This happens in the moment. Can't plan this (says Nick)

Lord have mercy. Glory be to Jesus Christ.