David Daniel emphasizes the importance of having a heavenly perspective versus a life lived solely under the sun, as illustrated through the teachings of Ecclesiastes. He reflects on King Solomon's observations about the vanity of earthly pursuits and the futility of living without considering eternal significance. Daniel encourages the congregation to evaluate their lives and focus on spiritual matters, reminding them that true fulfillment comes from a relationship with Christ. He warns against being ensnared by worldly philosophies and urges believers to seek a higher calling in their service to God and one another. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to live for eternal values rather than temporary gains.

Professor in the church, whether you were elected in this past election or are continuing to serve to please come forward at this time please. I'm going to ask you to repeat after me as we consider this as a matter of installation of officers for service in 2018. I'll just read a portion and ask you to repeat it after me if you would please. In agreement with the statement made in article 5 section A1 of the Church Constitution, in agreement with the statement made in article 5 section A1 of the Church Constitution, I desire to fulfill my duty as a member of Emanuel Chapel to share in the organized work of the church through my willing cooperative use of my time, talents, and substance. I will seek to maintain the integrity of the church in its testimony, ministry, unity, and spirituality. I purpose to demonstrate my spirituality by my testimony at home, at church, and in the community. Independence upon God, I will seek to glorify his name by my service. Let's pray. Father I thank you for these men and women and Lord their willingness to make themselves available to be your servants. Lord I thank you for what they have done in the past. I thank you Lord for what they will be doing going forward this year. Lord I ask your special blessing upon them as they serve you by serving one another and serving in this church. I ask father your protection because we know that once we purpose to serve you the enemy does his best to try to interfere and bring us into warfare and to try to bring us down. So Lord I thank you that greater is he that's in them than he that's in the world and that you will empower them Lord to fulfill their commitment going forward this year. Lord we ask your direction and blessing upon this ministry as we press on in 2018 and we thank you for your mercy to this point in this ministry and we praise you in Jesus name amen. Thank you. Good morning to you one and all. It's good to have you here. Pray God's blessing on our time. If you are a guest here this morning and you did not know there was going to be a church potluck you are invited to come back and join us. We've never in my memory of 46 seven years here had a shortage of food. There's always plenty and it's always good. So we would welcome anybody to come and and join us and spend that time in fellowship with us. After the potluck there will be a business meeting for the members. We'll meet back out here and in the sanctuary to review our past year. Last Sunday I began a series on the subject of Ecclesiastes and the truths that are taught there. In the morning service we looked into the life of King Solomon to get an understanding of him and in terms of what kind of a unique blessed individual he was given special gifts by God to enable him to be a ruler a governor of God's people Israel. As we looked at that in the morning then in the evening we identified a phrase that is used some ten different times two different kind of little versions of that this also is vanity and this is also vanity. We see ten different times as we go through the book that that phrase is used and we examine what those various instruments were in such situations were that reflect that this is vanity this is vanity this also is vanity and we realize that as we study in the book of Ecclesiastes that the overview of the book is this Solomon is saying this is what life looks like under the Sun as we said last Sunday that means this is what life is like on the horizontal plane when eternal things are not taken into consideration when what dominates and controls is that only on the horizontal plane the here and now the result is life is vanity and a vexation of spirit. So this morning as we proceed into chapter one I want to first begin if I might by getting a clear view for us all to consider of viewing life what it looks like under the Sun. 27 different verses use that little phrase life under the Sun so what does that mean what is that how is that described well in Colossians 2 8 let me share first what it says in the King James then I want to read what it says in the Amplified Bible because I believe this gives real understanding of a description of what life under the Sun is Colossians 2 8 beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vein deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ listen to the Amplified version see to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and his vain deceit in other words idle fancies and plain nonsense following human tradition men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding the teachings of Christ the Messiah that is a very very apt illustration and challenge to us about what is life that's lived under the Sun you are taken captive by the world's philosophy you're walking in step with the world and friends anytime you're walking in step with the world you're out of step with the Lord and anytime you're walking in step with the Lord you will likely find the world is not satisfied or pleased with your walk in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 5 through 8 we have another example I think of clarification of the difference between life under the Sun and life lived for the eternal in verse 5 it says in Jeremiah 17 thus saith the Lord cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord for he shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parts places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited I'm gonna pause if you go out 160 before you get to Mount Blanca you go through a description of what I just read even the Chico looks dead out there that's what this is describing about a person who is cursed because he trusts in man and makes flesh his arm instead of trusting the Lord verse 7 blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when he cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit the difference between desert looking dry as it is out there in the flats or that that grows along the river or at an oasis blessed is the man that is not living under the Sun on a temporal plane on a horizontal plane but has his eyes focused on the things that are eternal turn with me if you would to the book of Ephesians Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk notice that word vanity in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the bitterness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness beware watch out be careful don't walk the way the Gentiles walk is the instruction that Paul is giving there go with me to second Peter chapter 3 and in second Peter chapter 3 beginning with verse 1 it says this second epistle beloved I now write unto you in both of which I stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophets and of the commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Savior knowing this first that there shall come in the last days what scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation next verse at the beginning says this they are willingly ignorant of the description that we're looking at of life under the Sun is that that is a very vain and empty and ultimately a wasted kind of existence and Solomon as we read further about him and and his evaluation of it in the book of Ecclesiastes will show us how he tried it all life under the Sun and found it was all empty so let's look at seeking a heavenly view and let's go back to Colossians and this time go with me to Colossians chapter 3 seeking a heavenly view verse 1 of Colossians 3 says if you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are where above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory setting our affection on things above say it with me this world is not my home I'm just a passing through where are your treasures laid up somewhere beyond the blue okay setting our affection on things above is because in our identity with Christ we believe his word and his promises that our life is really not about just the here-and-now it's about eternal things far more significant than just the here-and-now Mike and Nancy gave me a little present and I appreciate the present it has this little plaque and it says TGIF now you give me life under the Sun's meaning of TGIF thanks goodness it's Friday that's the world life under the Sun I like this much better today God is first say that back with me today God is first you know that's having a heavenly perfection opinion and and a concentration and focus within our life today God's first and when we're not thinking that way we're thinking I'm first the world's first my pleasures first etc in Colossians chapter 2 turn with me there to verse 18 says let no man beguile you of your reward into a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind two things I want to emphasize the word beguile there also means defraud defraud beware let no man defraud you of your reward into what really God has available for you but instead moving into a practice of what amounts to is humanism and legalism and how the flesh is trying to accomplish it verse 19 and adds to that and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands have nourished meant together instead and knit together increases with the increase of God wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh what's addressed here is reject the notion of gnosticism reject the notion of it's all about the fleshly things and standards and and keeping those laws as opposed to living in the spirit and honoring God with your life in John chapter 14 Jesus said let not your heart be troubled neither let it what be afraid trust in God believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you so I go to do what prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also friends if our focus is on the place that's being prepared for us and upon the promise that he's going to come and take us to be with him there how long is life on this earth by comparison just barely a fly speck on the page but eternity is forever and we have great hope and promise turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens or in this life in this world we grown earnestly desiring be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked for we that are in this tabernacle do grown being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit his spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God when we're born again that's what it's talking about therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in this body we are absent from the Lord and the place that he's prepared for us there and the body that we're going to have there where we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be what present with the Lord wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done whether it be good or bad so as we consider these New Testament applications for us we're seeing life under the Sun what it looks like and life with a heavenly view and what that looks like and our challenge of course is to say where is my focus how am I living so come back with me to chapter one of Ecclesiastes and as was read in our hearing this morning notice these are the words of the preacher that preacher the script the Hebrew word for that is one who is a seeker or a gatherer one who assembles and collects and so Ecclesiastes is about a man Solomon who gathered together out of his life facts and interesting and applicable information relative to what does life look like under the Sun and is there a better option last Sunday as we concluded in the morning message we went to the last couple verses and there we read let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man because we'll all one day have to give an accounting before him and so the preacher that we're looking at right here in verse 12 is identified he says I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem he is also identified in chapter 7 verse 27 chapter 12 8 through 10 you can look those verses up on your own but through that we find that this one Solomon is communicating his evaluation of what he's seen he asks the question in verse 2 and 3 or makes a statement evaluation vanity of vanity says the preacher vanity of entities all is vanity what profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the Sun that's the question that's the question and then he begins to present his evaluation verse 4 one generation passes away and another generation cometh but the earth abideth forever yesterday I was talking to one of Don Brown's daughters after I got the call that he had passed and this daughter says well here's the good news the good news is a granddaughter that had struggled and tried to have a baby had not been able to and turns out now that she is expecting and the baby's going to be born about the same time as Dawn's birthday the latter part of June one generation passes away and what another generation comes we see that as a kind of a cycle going on and look in verse 5 and 6 and 7 we find there about the Sun we find there about the wind we find about the rivers and I just would identify and remind you of this before there were satellites monitoring all these things Solomon had wisdom about all of these cycles that God established his natural law he savvied about what happens with the water cycles what about the wind cycles he had an understanding that God give gave to him so that he is writing about that and he is taking an observation of how these things seem to go on endlessly even though he also communicates in the process that it seems that the earth is going to abide forever as I was cogitating on that I did some math won't guarantee my math is right but I think it is at 75 years of age I've gotten up in the morning and gone to bed at night twenty seven thousand three hundred and seventy five times and I didn't count naps at the rate of three meals a day and this doesn't count snacks I've eaten eighty two thousand one hundred and twenty five meals that's a lot of groceries and forty six years of preaching I have preached somewhere around ninety two hundred sermons or taught that many lessons and given about four thousand devotions in ECA when it was in operation now here's the thing I want you to think about with me when you title total all that up and whatever you want to tally up in your life when it's all said and done if it's only life under the sun so what a man so what so if all we are going to really do in our life is considered life under the sun life on the horizontal plane life in the here and now and we don't think beyond that about eternal things then that becomes a very fatalistic kind of abuse and a pretty sad kind of a life to to live in living on the ragged edge by Chuck Swindoll he borrows some information from James Dobson and if you need cheered up this morning this will do it my tongue is in my cheek the straight life for a homemaker that's a wife is washing dishes three hours a day is cleaning sinks and scouring toilets and waxing floors it is chasing toddlers and mediating fights between preschool siblings one mother said she had raised three tricycle motors and they'd about worn her out the straight life is driving your station wagon to school and back 23 times per week it is grocery shopping and banking it should be in baking cupcakes for the class Halloween party the straight life eventually means becoming the parent of an ungrateful teenager which I'm sure I assure you is no job for sissies it's difficult to let your adolescent find himself especially when you know he isn't even looking certainly the straight life for the homemaker can be an exhausting experience at times the straight life for the working man is not much simpler it is pulling your tired frame out of bed five days a week 50 weeks out of the year it is earning a two-week vacation in August and choosing a trip that will please the kids the straight life is spending your money wisely when you'd rather indulge in a new whatever it is taking your son bike riding on Saturday when you want so badly to watch the baseball game it's cleaning out the garage on your day off after working 60 hours the prior week the straight life is coping with head colds and engine tune-ups and crabgrass and income tax form it's taking your family to church on Sunday when you've heard every idea the minister has to offer it is given a portion of your income to God's work when you already wonder how ends will meet the straight life for the ordinary garden variety husband and father is everything I've listed and more much more if all there is is life lived on the horizontal plane what a bummer what a drag what a fatalistic kind of contribution God has given to us if there is a God that would do such a thing notice as you look back to our scripture there in Ecclesiastes verse 8 all things are full of labor and cannot utter it the eye is not satisfied with seeing or the ear with hearing in Proverbs chapter 30 it says in verse 15 the horse leech has two daughters crying give give there are three things that are never satisfied yay for things say not it is enough the grave and the barren womb the earth that is not filled with water and the fire that saith not it is enough in other words as we look at life if all we want to have is a pessimistic view then we're going to come up with is that all there is then forget it as we look on in verse 9 says the thing that has 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 Ray Steadman has written a book in the title of his book is this all there is to life and it's his study on the book of Ecclesiastes and I share just a quote from his writing says when a friend and I were in Hong Kong recently resting a couple days after an exhausting travel and speaking schedule we stayed at a wonderful old British pencil Peninsula hotel on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong right across the street from us was a newly built planetarium and we went there to see the search for other civilization I'm always eager to sit in those domed rooms the lights go down the stars begin to appear above like the stars on a summer night and you suddenly feel a sense of eternity you sense that greatness and man magnificence of the universe the show began by showing the great statues on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean raising these questions where did these great statues come from these monoliths are huge 20 feet or more in height made of great stones that weigh hundreds of tons who erected them where did they come from how did they get there then the show took us into areas of South America where huge geometric patterns have been worked out over acres of ground these designs have obviously been made by man or some intelligent creature yet they cannot even be seen unless they're viewed from the sky this raises the question why would any people create on the ground design so huge that they cannot be seen except from the air many have surmised that past civilizations did have ways of rising above the earth other suggested visitors from space use these patterns similar mysteries such as Stonehenge in England are pronounced and compounded as one explores the earth that planetarium shows so was a confirmation of what the searcher of Ecclesiastes declares what has been will be again what has been done will be done again other ages will repeat it there is nothing new under the Sun we wonder about some of those things and we might ask the question if the Lord were to carry 500 years from now what would they think of what we got and what's going on here well let's read on in verse 11 he says there's no remembrance of the former things neither sure there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after in other words old things become trivia how many of you are trivia buffs Reagan you're too young to be a trivia buff just teasing you what is trivia it's trough stuff that other people have forgotten right so if you can remember it that means you're good you got a better memory you've done more research you you've studied it out more and yet was we look at that then we are tempted to say that those things that have gone before are not only trivia but they're trivial but did they have meaning and purpose and value at a point in time if we look at life only as life under the Sun what a mysterious thing it is go with me to verse 12 I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under the Sun this sore travail have God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith when he says I gave myself this means that this is as it were a scientific engagement that he invests himself in this is not just a passing fancy this is talking about years of his work and of his noting of things last week we looked into first Kings 4 verse 30 and 34 and there was a description of all the different kinds of things that he was involved with that he had wisdom beyond his time that other people came to find out how what about this he cataloged he classified he had a range specific ways of really cross breeding hybrid plants putting together a hydroponic water system and on and on it goes he says I gave my heart to seek and search out all of these things verse 14 I've seen all the works that are done under the Sun I checked it all out and what does he evaluate in verse 14 be all is vanity and vexation spirits so what verse 15 that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbered as we think in terms of this though Solomon had great wisdom and resources reality is could he fix everything nope let me ask you can you fix everything no and if life is all about just fixing everything you're going to be frustrated and you're going to say I died and I didn't get a lick of things done George is happy to have people have broken down things so that he can try to fix him he keeps him busy Klaus the same way but the reality is that which is crooked man by and of himself is not able to solve the problems of the universe verse 16 I commune with mine own heart saying lo I am come to great estate and I've gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem yay my heart had great experience of wisdom Wow if your tells us Solomon was not only the wisest man in Jerusalem but what did the Queen of Sheba say when she came and visited him says the knowledge of your wisdom has gone around the world and I have heard it and I've come to evaluate and after she saw all of this that his hands that does all the people that work for him everything she said I just stand amazed and and the half has not been told you are so much wiser than anybody begin to imagine and so as she is saying that she's reinforcing just what he is saying I've come to great estate he really did have a lot of wisdom and knowledge for 17 I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly I perceive that this also is vexation of spirit now I want you to see something there I gave my heart to know wisdom but then he adds something madness and folly let me try to describe what that might look like here is an individual who was raised in a godly home he went to Sunday school in church all of his life he's come to his mid life and he's come to a conclusion that all that I've done and how I've lived and I've behaved myself and I've minded my P's and Q's and I've done all of this and now here I am and it looks like all of that is a waste and I think it's time that I had some fun I'm going to find what it's like to really live so he abandons his wife he abandons his job he abandons his family and he goes out and blows it and what's the end result regret plus a whole lot of pain and agony that he's flicked it on many many many people many people he's caused to stumble because they thought he was the real deal it now he's lived it out this way it and they're saying oh my but then listen to me guys listen to me one of the reasons why the quote-unquote mid life crisis has become a real thing in American history is because so many people have just been living life under the Sun they've just been living for the here and now they've just been going through the motions and trying to please other people and trying to get ahead by their own ambitions but they've not concluded that their life is about more than here and now it's about eternity the Lord says of us as believers occupy until I come to parables the parable of pounds and talent or demonstration demonstration of giving of responsibility and privilege in service and to one was given all of it had the same amount to another they were given according to ability and the master was gone and after he'd gone a period of time he came back to what to do what they're doing accounting and what did he find when he got back good and bad exactly right and the bad part that is very curious about that the bad part in each of those is there is this kind of response that is granted by the one who did not use what was given him for the glory of God the statement is this I know what kind of a master you are you're a master that demands more than you have a right to that you drive a hard bargain that you run too tight a ship I'm paraphrasing and so what I did was took what you gave me and I buried it here you can have what you know what the Lord's answer in both of those situation was you wicked slothful servant if you really thought I was what you said I am you would have used that far differently and as my coming I would have had my own plus the profit that could have been given so we look at materialistic America when things and things and more things seems to dominate and we find people giving their life and then they come along 40s and 50s and decide well this isn't doing what I thought it was going to do I'm going to do something else forgetting that their accounting is with the Lord that their accounting is about that which will pass the test for eternity and so as we wrestle with what Solomon is doing here we find in verse 18 he says for in much wisdom is much grief and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow simple formula he says much wisdom much grief much knowledge much sorrow the more you know the more frustrating it gets that's what he's saying you know what some people do they opt out and they say ignorance is bliss you've heard me say this before the problem with ignorance is bliss is when somebody sticks their head in the sand you see a very very inviting target amen ignorance no it's not ignorance is just delighting in the vanity of being unusable for something that's going to outlast you and so we have the challenge in chapter 1 I want to encourage you yesterday we were talking to Norma Holland and the discussion came up that I was teaching through Ecclesiastes and her confession was when Jack and I read through a class Ecclesiastes I can't wait till we get through because that's a downer my goal is not to put you down my goal is to raise you up okay and so first of all we're only in chapter 1 you say there's more yeah we're only in chapter 1 but it gets better along the way because we find God is going to be more plugged in to it along the way and Solomon's going to come to to some very reasonable and valuable war reminders for us along the way beginning of the new year is a good time for us to evaluate our life and consider what am I living for is it counting is it for the glory of God or is it just trivia that's going to be nothing on down the line but I want to close with this and friends this is the most important thing of it all to understand why vanity of vanities all is vanity why life under the Sun life on this earth on the horizontal plane is what it is you must understand this it is this way because of sin it is this way because when Adam sinned we all inherited his sin nature David said in sin did my mother conceived me in Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says before by one man meaning Adam sin in in the world and so death by sin or that all have sin the reason why this world is the pits is because of the curse of sin and with that curse of sin listen to me if Christ had not come it would be a good point right here to just say let's just forget it but because Christ came he's made it possible for us not to just live on this horizontal plate and then die but we have been enabled to live life eternally with eternal life present in this now Christ in me the hope of glory Christ as I've come that you might have life you might have it more abundantly we can live a life of joy and victory right now even though we're still here we can live above the circumstances of the world and our life can count for something every day for the glory of God and so this morning the point is if there's someone here that says my life is nothing but but living under the Sun I I don't see any hope friends there's only one hope that I can offer you and that's through Jesus Christ you must be born again and without being born again your life is not only going to be bad here but eternally you're going to be separated from God in torment that's what Scripture says but because of God's grace while we were still sinners Christ died paying our sin debt making possible forgiveness redemption salvation eternal life the scripture says if any man be in me he's what you're a new creation a new creature old things pass away behold all things become new life is worth the living when we know and live for Jesus do you know Jesus as your personal Savior are you living for him if you're only living for here and now day by day then I challenge you to raise your vision title of the message is checking your vision are you just looking on the horizontal plane are you looking on the eternal perspective that Christ has made possible let's pray Heavenly Father what an awesome God you are there's a certain side of us even as I've kind of hinted this morning they would like to just say it'd just be as well that Ecclesiastes wasn't in the book the father it has great value because it does display how even a man like Solomon who had it all when he was only looking at it on the temporal temporary horizontal life under the sun plane said it is vanity and vexation spirit thank you Lord that there's something better through Jesus Christ and father if there's somebody down and depressed and discouraged this morning I pray Lord that you might lay hold of them by your spirit and lift their vision so that they begin to set their affection on things above not on things here on the earth and Lord that they might trust in you and instead of trusting in himself or man's answers look to you for the solution that you have already provided the Lord enable us to respond honestly and honorably to your invitation that we might come and we might have life life more abundant through Jesus in whose name we pray amen you take your hymnals please