An Audacious Advent: ReImagining the Heart of Advent

Giving Birth to Your Promise

The Life of Jesus Pt. 5 – Multiplying Leaders

Admonishment: Love’s Hard Conversation

Focus: Living With Clarity, Purpose, and Eternal Vision

Anticipating Christmas: An Advent Overview

A Very Matthew Christmas

Living Intentionally

Living Thankful, Living Sober

TellGate: Mobilizing the Church Through Local Missions

New International Version

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         <div class="p"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.2.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">I said to myself, &#8220;Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.&#8221; But that also proved to be meaningless. </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.2.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">&#8220;Laughter,&#8221; I said, &#8220;is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?&#8221; </span></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.2.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly&#8212;my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.2.3"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="ECC.2.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. </span></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="ECC.2.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="ECC.2.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="ECC.2.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. </span></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.2.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class=" body"><span class="fr">2:8 </span><span class="ft">The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.</span></span></span><span class="content"> as well&#8212;the delights of a man&#8217;s heart. </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="ECC.2.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="ECC.2.9"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.2.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.2.10"><span class="content">I refused my heart no pleasure.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.2.10"><span class="content">My heart took delight in all my labor,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.2.10"><span class="content">and this was the reward for all my toil.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.2.10"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.2.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.2.11"><span class="content">and what I had toiled to achieve,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.2.11"><span class="content">everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.2.11"><span class="content">nothing was gained under the sun.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless</span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.2.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.2.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.2.12"><span class="content">and also madness and folly.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.2.12"><span class="content">What more can the king&#8217;s successor do</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.2.12"><span class="content">than what has already been done?</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.2.12"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="ECC.2.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">I saw that wisdom is better than folly,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="ECC.2.13"><span class="content">just as light is better than darkness.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="ECC.2.13"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.2.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">The wise have eyes in their heads,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.2.14"><span class="content">while the fool walks in the darkness;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.2.14"><span class="content">but I came to realize</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.2.14"><span class="content">that the same fate overtakes them both.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.2.14"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">Then I said to myself,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="content">&#8220;The fate of the fool will overtake me also.</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="content">What then do I gain by being wise?&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="content">I said to myself,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="content">&#8220;This too is meaningless.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.2.15"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="ECC.2.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="ECC.2.16"><span class="content">the days have already come when both have been forgotten.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="ECC.2.16"><span class="content">Like the fool, the wise too must die!</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Toil Is Meaningless</span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="ECC.2.16"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="ECC.2.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. </span></span><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="ECC.2.18"><span class="label">18</span><span class="content">I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. </span></span><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="ECC.2.19"><span class="label">19</span><span class="content">And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. </span></span><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="ECC.2.20"><span class="label">20</span><span class="content">So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. </span></span><span class="verse v21" data-usfm="ECC.2.21"><span class="label">21</span><span class="content">For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. </span></span><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="ECC.2.22"><span class="label">22</span><span class="content">What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? </span></span><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="ECC.2.23"><span class="label">23</span><span class="content">All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="ECC.2.23"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v24" data-usfm="ECC.2.24"><span class="label">24</span><span class="content">A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, </span></span><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="ECC.2.25"><span class="label">25</span><span class="content">for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? </span></span><span class="verse v26" data-usfm="ECC.2.26"><span class="label">26</span><span class="content">To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.</span></span></div>
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