WEBVTT

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 Over 20 years ago, I remember sitting at my brother's high school graduation, which if you're in elementary school is a pretty boring event.

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! I don't remember as the graduation speaker got up. I don't remember most of what he said during his speech. I don't remember his name or what he did.

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 But I remember to this day one thing that the graduation speaker said because it really struck home to me when I was in elementary school.

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 He said, you know, when you graduate high school, you think that you know and you've learned a lot about the world.

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 When you graduate college, you realize how little you actually know about the world.

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 And when you graduate graduate school, you realize how little your professors know about the world.

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 Maybe that resonates with some of you as you've gotten various degrees in your education career.

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 This graduation speaker was articulating a great paradox about the pursuit of knowledge.

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 And it's a paradox that resonates a lot with our Old Testament reading this morning in Ecclesiastes chapter one.

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 This week, our Old Testament lesson takes a bit of a detour in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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 And we'll be making a brief pit stop there over the next two weeks.

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 If you're not familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, many people aren't, especially if you are not super familiar with going to church.

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 Ecclesiastes is a book in the Old Testament that fits within the genre of what we would call wisdom literature.

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 Wisdom literature. And in the Old Testament, there's kind of two main styles or approaches of wisdom literature.

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 The first approach would be that of the book of Proverbs, where the book of Proverbs teaches us that there are norms.

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 There are created norms in the world and in the universe.

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 And wisdom is about living according to those norms.

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 Just as wood has a grain, wisdom is about aligning ourselves with the grain of the universe.

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 But there's a second approach to wisdom literature that emphasizes that there are painful exceptions to this.

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 That in a fallen world, there are painful exceptions to the grain of the universe.

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 It acknowledges the world we live in has been deeply broken by sin and things are unfair and unjust.

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 There are all kinds of exceptions to the grain of creation.

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 And the book of Ecclesiastes fits within this second approach to wisdom.

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 So the book of Proverbs is going to sound a lot like this.

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 The righteous will prosper and the wicked will perish.

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 And Ecclesiastes is going to sound like this.

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 Yes, but sometimes, maybe often, it's the wicked who prosper and it's the righteous who are oppressed.

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 Two angles, two approaches, two styles towards wisdom literature.

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 And if you read the book of Ecclesiastes, you see that one of the central themes in the book is that life pursued under the sun,

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 life in and of itself is futile, it's empty, it's meaningless, it's a chasing after the wind.

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 And this is an honest confession of someone who pursued life for all it's worth, who pursued life for all that it has to offer.

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 The author of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, inherited his father's throne, King David's throne.

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 And he was wealthy, he was powerful, he was brilliant.

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 He knew it all, he had it all, he tried it all.

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 He experienced everything that this life could possibly offer him.

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 And at the end of the day, his conclusion was that life pursued in and of itself leaves you empty and feeling like everything is futile and meaningless.

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 And in the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, we see his story.

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 We see him recounting to us how he pursued things like wisdom and knowledge, how he pursued pleasure and happiness, how he pursued work and success.

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 And so our passage this morning focuses on Solomon's pursuit of wisdom and knowledge.

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 That's what we're going to look at this morning.

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 We're going to look at the emptiness of knowledge.

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 And then next week, we're going to look at the emptiness of success.

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 But from Ecclesiastes 1, verses 12 through 18, we're going to look at two things.

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 We're going to look at the futility of knowledge and the fullness of knowledge.

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 The futility of knowledge and the fullness of knowledge.

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 So first of all, let's look at the futility of knowledge.

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 Look at verses 12 through 13 in your bulletin or your own copy of God's word.

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 Verses 12 through 13, Solomon says this.

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 I, the teacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem.

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 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.

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 Solomon gave himself to the life of the mind.

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 This is something that we see elsewhere in 1 Kings chapter 4, verses 29 through 34.

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 It says this, that God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insights and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.

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 Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

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 He spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005.

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 He spoke about plant life from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls.

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 He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.

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 From all nations, people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom.

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 Solomon was what you might consider an ancient Renaissance man.

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 He was the world's most famous philosopher and scientist and poet.

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 He was Immanuel Kant and Stephen Hawking and Jay-Z all in one.

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 He was the Renaissance man of his day.

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 And what was his conclusion?

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 After pursuing wisdom and knowledge, we see it in verses 14 through 15.

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 He says, what a heavy burden God has laid on mankind.

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 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and all of them are meaningless.

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 A chasing after the wind.

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 And if that sounds like a bit of a Debbie Downer, welcome to the book of Ecclesiastes.

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 Why does he conclude this?

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 Well, he shares why he concludes this in two separate proverbs in chapter 1.

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 The first proverb goes like this.

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 What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

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 What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

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 What is he saying in that proverb?

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 Well, the first observation he's making about knowledge is this.

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 That the more that we know, the more we realize how much we don't know.

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 The more we know, the more we realize how much we don't know.

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 What is crooked cannot be made straight.

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 Just because we might know a lot about the world and how it works,

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 doesn't mean that we know how to fix what's wrong with it.

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 We can, for example, we can know a lot about the science of weather.

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 We could be an expert meteorologist, perhaps the smartest one in the world.

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 But we can't stop Hurricane Helene from releasing destructive floods in the southeastern United States

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 and destroying lives and families and entire towns.

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 Or think about something like poverty.

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 You could get a PhD studying the economics and the sociology and the politics of poverty.

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 But being a world expert on poverty doesn't mean that you know how to fix it.

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 For all we know about what the causes of poverty are, no one has ever been able to solve it.

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 And the second half of this proverb restates the same thing in a different way.

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 Solomon says, what is lacking cannot be counted.

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 What is lacking cannot be counted.

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 Scientists understand this proverb.

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 They understand that there are all sorts of things.

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 There are all kinds of things that we know that we don't know.

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 Let me give you an example.

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 Caleb Scharf is a senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA.

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 He taught at Columbia University.

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 And he wrote this article when the Scientific American were entitled,

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 This is what we don't know about the universe.

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 He says, it's easy for scientists to talk about all that we know about the universe,

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 but what we often don't talk about is how much we don't know.

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 And in this article he lists a lot of things about what scientists don't know.

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 Let me list three.

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 He says, first of all, we don't fully understand our own biology.

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 He said, if we actually understood everything about DNA and genetics,

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 we'd be able to totally eliminate disease.

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 Of course, we haven't been able to do that yet.

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 He said, secondly, in the field of math, we can't prove or solve many of our own mathematical conjectures or theorems.

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 There's a long list of unproven, unsolved problems and unsolved conjectures.

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 And these are things that mathematicians rely on, and yet they can't even prove them.

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 Third, he says, we don't really know what dark matter or dark energy is in the universe.

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 He says, the matter, the stuff that you and I can see and feel and touch,

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 only accounts for about 5% of what's in the universe.

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 He talks about this stuff called dark matter and dark energy,

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 which is the remaining 95% of the universe.

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 We know it's out there, but we really don't understand a lot about it or how it works.

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 We have little to no idea about 95% of what exists in the universe.

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 Now, this is incredibly humbling.

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 It's incredibly humbling if you stop and think about it for a second.

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 There are all kinds of things that we know that we don't know.

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 And this makes the pursuit of knowledge deeply elusive and deeply paradoxical.

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 It's why Solomon says to pursue knowledge in and of itself is like chasing after the wind.

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 So that's the first observation that Solomon tells us about the pursuit of knowledge,

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 that the more we know, the more we realize how much we don't know.

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 The second observation that Solomon gives us about the pursuit of knowledge comes in verses 16 through 18.

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 I invite you to look there with me.

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 Verses 16 through 18, Solomon says,

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 I said to myself,

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 Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me.

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 I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.

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 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly.

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 But I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

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 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow.

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 The more knowledge, the more grief.

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 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow.

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 The more knowledge, the more grief.

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 When I was a college student at the University of Maryland,

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 I had learned throughout middle school, high school,

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 I learned a lot about the civil rights movement.

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 I thought I knew a lot about the civil rights movement in America.

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 I learned up growing in school about MLKs.

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 I have a dream speech about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott

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 about Brown versus Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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 But then I took a class in college.

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 It was one of my favorite classes.

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 And the title of the class was called The Rhetoric of Black America.

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 And it was in that class as a 20-year-old

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 that I first learned about somebody named Emmett Till.

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 And I learned that his story was one of the primary catalysts

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 for the civil rights movement that I thought I knew a lot about.

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 If you don't know his story,

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 Emmett Till is a 14-year-old black boy who grew up in Chicago

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 who was visiting his family in Mississippi.

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 in the summer of 1955.

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 And that summer, he was kidnapped.

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 He was brutally murdered in the middle of the night.

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 And his body was dumped into a river.

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 And in that class, we read the memoir of Emmett Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley.

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 And we read her deeply moving story about what it was like to be a mother to a son

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 who was murdered because of hatred and racism

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 and her gut-wrenching decision to put the picture of this casket

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 on the front page of a newspaper

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 so the whole world could see that this is what hatred does,

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 this is what racism does.

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 It was a heart-wrenching book.

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 And it's the only book I remember reading in college

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 that I remember sitting there and crying and weeping as I read it.

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 I gained more knowledge.

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 I gained more perspective, more wisdom about the Civil Rights Movement,

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 but it was not a knowledge or a wisdom that made me happy.

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 It was a knowledge and a wisdom that made me more sorrowful.

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 That's what Solomon is saying here.

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 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,

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 and the more knowledge, the more grief.

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 Perhaps you can think of examples from your own life,

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 your own expertise, your education, your training, your work,

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 maybe classes you've taken, books that you've read,

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 training you've received in your workplace.

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 Maybe you've experienced how the more knowledge you've gained,

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 the wiser or smarter that you've become in a particular topic

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 or a particular field,

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 the more grieved you have become

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 about how unjust and sad and terribly unfair the world is.

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 I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his translation,

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 the message.

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 He puts it like this.

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 The more you know, the more you hurt.

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 The more you know, the more you hurt.

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 This is Solomon's conclusion.

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 This is why he concludes that a life pursuing knowledge

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 as merely an end in itself is an unsatisfying life.

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 It can't lead us to the kind of fullness and happiness

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 that we all long for.

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 It can't satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart alone.

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 It will lead us down an ever-increasing path of despair

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 of how little we can actually know

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 and how terribly sad the world is.

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 And so this raises some questions for us.

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 It raises questions like this.

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 Is there another way

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 to pursue wisdom and knowledge

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 in a way that doesn't end in such futility?

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 Is there a way that can actually lead us

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 to experience the fullness of what it means to be human?

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 If what Solomon concludes is true,

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 how should we think about

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 and pursue the life of the mind,

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 especially if we're followers of Jesus?

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 Does this mean that

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 knowledge is not worth pursuing at all?

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 Does this lead us to a place

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 of anti-intellectualism?

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 Or is there a way for followers of Jesus

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 to pursue the intellectual life

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 in a way that leads us away from futility

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 and towards fullness?

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 Away from futility and towards fullness.

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 And that's what I want to look at secondly.

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 We're going to look at the fullness of knowledge.

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 The fullness of knowledge.

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 If you study Ecclesiastes,

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 part of what you learn right away

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 is that part of the key to understanding this book

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 is this phrase, under the sun.

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 Under the sun or under heaven.

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 It's the most repeated phrase throughout the whole book.

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 It's even repeated twice here in our short passage.

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 And this phrase helps us to understand

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 what Solomon is saying.

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 He's saying if you look at life

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 just by itself,

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 if you look at life

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 just as it appears to be under the sun,

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 if you study it,

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 if you observe it,

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 if you experience it,

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 it eventually is going to lead you

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 to a place of despair.

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 But this should lead us to ask us,

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 this should lead us to ask an important question.

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 And the important question is this.

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 What if?

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 What if everything under the sun

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 isn't all there is?

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 What if there's more than just the material world

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 that we can hear and taste and see and touch?

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 Ecclesiastes should lead us to ask the question,

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 what if there is fullness to be found beyond the sun?

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 Every other religion and philosophy in this world

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 teaches that true knowledge and true wisdom

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 is out there somewhere

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 and it's up to us to go and pursue and find it.

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 But Christianity tells us something radically different.

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 That true wisdom and true knowledge

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 isn't just out there,

00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:22.279
 that it has come to find us.

00:17:23.779 --> 00:17:24.920
 And John chapter one,

00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:26.940
 verse one says,

00:17:27.059 --> 00:17:28.279
 in the beginning was the word,

00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:29.659
 the logos.

00:17:31.159 --> 00:17:32.980
 And the logos was with God

00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:34.539
 and the logos was God.

00:17:35.379 --> 00:17:36.379
 In the ancient world,

00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:38.019
 the logos was the great pursuit

00:17:38.019 --> 00:17:40.279
 of all of the philosophers in the known world.

00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:42.240
 It was the one unifying source

00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:43.319
 of all wisdom and knowledge

00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:45.259
 that would explain everything else in the universe.

00:17:46.339 --> 00:17:48.160
 And John is telling us in John chapter one

00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:48.779
 that the logos,

00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:50.500
 the true wisdom beyond the sun,

00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.240
 isn't just an abstract idea out there.

00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:55.920
 It's a person.

00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:57.359
 It's a person.

00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:01.299
 The apostle Paul says the same thing,

00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:03.880
 a similar thing in Colossians two,

00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:04.299
 verse three,

00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:04.680
 he says,

00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:08.640
 all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:11.539
 are hidden in Christ.

00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.440
 All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:15.259
 are hidden in Christ.

00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:16.779
 To know Jesus is to know

00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:18.980
 not only the source of all wisdom,

00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:21.480
 but wisdom itself.

00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:23.740
 He is the one who made all things,

00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:24.740
 sustains all things,

00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:25.720
 knows all things.

00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:30.200
 And he is the one who became wisdom incarnate,

00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.500
 knowledge in the flesh.

00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:37.579
 And it's in knowing Jesus as the logos,

00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:40.460
 it's in knowing Jesus as our divine wisdom

00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:45.700
 that takes the futility of the intellectual life

00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:46.839
 that Solomon describes,

00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:49.400
 that takes us away from that

00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:52.339
 and towards the fullness that is found in Christ.

00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:55.160
 And so I want to suggest three ways.

00:18:55.980 --> 00:18:57.019
 I want to suggest three ways

00:18:57.019 --> 00:18:58.980
 that knowing Jesus as the logos,

00:18:59.320 --> 00:19:01.100
 as the divine wisdom,

00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:03.540
 transforms our pursuit of knowledge

00:19:03.540 --> 00:19:04.660
 and the intellectual life.

00:19:05.620 --> 00:19:07.720
 Three ways that knowing Jesus as the logos

00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:09.779
 transforms our pursuit of knowledge

00:19:09.779 --> 00:19:10.600
 and the intellectual life.

00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:11.279
 First of all,

00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:13.900
 knowing Jesus as the logos means

00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:18.240
 that everything is worth knowing.

00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.940
 Knowing Jesus as the logos means

00:19:20.940 --> 00:19:22.220
 that everything is worth knowing.

00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:26.580
 Everybody has a starting place for their epistemology,

00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:27.840
 for how they know what they know.

00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:29.779
 Whether you're an atheist or agnostic,

00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:30.600
 whether you're religious,

00:19:31.259 --> 00:19:33.640
 nobody knows anything about the world in a vacuum.

00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:37.980
 What it means for Jesus to be our starting point,

00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:40.140
 what it means for him to be our foundation,

00:19:40.660 --> 00:19:43.460
 is that then we know that we know that everything matters.

00:19:44.539 --> 00:19:46.180
 Colossians chapter one says it like this,

00:19:46.180 --> 00:19:51.200
 that all things, all things have been made by Jesus and for Jesus.

00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:54.019
 That includes everything in the world.

00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:56.039
 We have been made in his image to know him

00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.220
 and to know about the world that he's made.

00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:02.000
 And so when we study math or science or literature or biology

00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.259
 or engineering or art,

00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:05.799
 we are not just pursuing knowledge under the sun.

00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:07.980
 We're not just pursuing knowledge for its own sake.

00:20:08.320 --> 00:20:11.240
 We are pursuing knowledge and learning about the world

00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:14.400
 so to better understand God and to commune with him.

00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.960
 Every Sunday, we read the great commandment.

00:20:18.060 --> 00:20:20.740
 We're to love the Lord our God with all of our heart

00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:24.400
 and with all our soul and with all of our mind.

00:20:25.060 --> 00:20:27.780
 This is what it means to love God with all of our minds.

00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:30.600
 If Jesus is our starting point for knowledge,

00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.180
 then we should care about the life of the mind

00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:34.320
 and intellectual pursuits

00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:36.040
 because we should expect,

00:20:36.340 --> 00:20:40.519
 we should expect to find truth and goodness and beauty

00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:41.960
 wherever it is to be found.

00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:45.079
 The fact that Jesus is the Logos

00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.120
 isn't the end of the intellectual life.

00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:49.920
 It is only the beginning.

00:20:50.819 --> 00:20:53.860
 It's the foundation for knowing and pursuing truth.

00:20:54.539 --> 00:20:55.360
 So that's the first thing.

00:20:55.460 --> 00:20:58.380
 Knowing Jesus as the Logos means everything matters.

00:20:58.579 --> 00:20:59.440
 Everything's worth knowing.

00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:03.360
 Secondly, knowing Jesus as the Logos

00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:05.100
 frees us to say,

00:21:06.100 --> 00:21:07.380
 I don't know.

00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:10.000
 It frees us to say, I don't know.

00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:13.240
 Solomon says there's this deep futility in knowledge

00:21:13.240 --> 00:21:14.120
 that the more we know,

00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:15.720
 the more we realize how much we don't know.

00:21:16.060 --> 00:21:17.920
 And for some of us, this is an incredible burden.

00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:21.260
 In some of our workplaces,

00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:22.300
 our classrooms,

00:21:23.220 --> 00:21:24.240
 among your peers,

00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:28.140
 some of us may feel the very visceral pressure

00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:30.580
 to have all the answers,

00:21:31.020 --> 00:21:33.000
 to be the smartest person in the room.

00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:36.160
 But if you feel the pressure

00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:37.759
 to be the smartest person in the room,

00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:40.220
 chances are you have made your intellect

00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:41.339
 your identity.

00:21:42.779 --> 00:21:44.700
 And if your intellect is your identity,

00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:46.259
 then you're not free to admit

00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:47.480
 what you don't know.

00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.079
 Because not knowing something crushes you.

00:21:52.059 --> 00:21:53.200
 David Foster Wallace,

00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:55.119
 in his famous graduation speech

00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.059
 at Kenyon College,

00:21:56.500 --> 00:21:57.380
 called This Is Water,

00:21:57.859 --> 00:21:59.420
 puts it beautifully like this.

00:21:59.420 --> 00:22:01.140
 He says,

00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:02.420
 if you worship your intellect,

00:22:03.019 --> 00:22:05.039
 if you worship being seen as smart,

00:22:05.860 --> 00:22:08.960
 you will always end up feeling stupid,

00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:10.600
 a fraud,

00:22:11.500 --> 00:22:13.320
 on the verge of being found out.

00:22:15.580 --> 00:22:17.800
 But if Jesus Christ has become your wisdom,

00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:19.880
 if he has become your starting place for knowledge,

00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:22.120
 then your intellect is no longer

00:22:22.120 --> 00:22:24.560
 where you get your sense of identity and self-worth.

00:22:25.560 --> 00:22:27.340
 Because there is only one,

00:22:27.339 --> 00:22:29.579
 there is only one who is wise enough

00:22:29.579 --> 00:22:31.000
 to know all things,

00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:32.159
 and it's not you.

00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:34.019
 And it's not me.

00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.159
 If Jesus Christ is the Logos,

00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:38.079
 that means that Christians

00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:40.599
 should be too radically things at once.

00:22:40.939 --> 00:22:41.759
 On one hand,

00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:42.939
 they should be deeply intellectual.

00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:46.359
 And at the same time,

00:22:46.879 --> 00:22:48.879
 they should be radically free and comfortable

00:22:48.879 --> 00:22:51.339
 to acknowledge what they don't know.

00:22:51.339 --> 00:22:54.220
 and to be open to learning

00:22:54.220 --> 00:22:56.039
 from anybody and anyone

00:22:56.039 --> 00:22:58.699
 who is pursuing goodness and truth and beauty.

00:23:00.139 --> 00:23:01.179
 Thirdly, finally,

00:23:02.439 --> 00:23:04.019
 knowing Jesus as the Logos

00:23:04.019 --> 00:23:06.099
 frees us to hope

00:23:06.099 --> 00:23:08.179
 when knowing makes us hurt.

00:23:09.259 --> 00:23:11.179
 Knowing Jesus as the Logos

00:23:11.179 --> 00:23:12.599
 frees us to hope

00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:14.699
 when knowing makes us hurt.

00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:16.500
 If it's true

00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:19.599
 what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1,

00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:20.899
 that the more wisdom,

00:23:21.379 --> 00:23:22.240
 the more sorrow.

00:23:23.459 --> 00:23:24.719
 And the more knowledge,

00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:25.459
 the more grief.

00:23:25.819 --> 00:23:26.539
 That's true.

00:23:28.339 --> 00:23:29.480
 And it's also true

00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:31.719
 that Jesus Christ

00:23:31.719 --> 00:23:33.779
 was the most sorrowful person

00:23:33.779 --> 00:23:34.399
 who ever lived.

00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:37.859
 Because he is the eternal Logos.

00:23:37.919 --> 00:23:39.219
 He is the eternal wisdom

00:23:39.219 --> 00:23:40.859
 made flesh.

00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:43.000
 And in him,

00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:43.819
 we see someone,

00:23:44.439 --> 00:23:46.000
 we see what wisdom looks like.

00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:46.500
 It's someone

00:23:46.500 --> 00:23:48.240
 who takes on flesh

00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:49.599
 to suffer and die

00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:50.899
 for the sake of the world

00:23:50.899 --> 00:23:52.219
 and to raise it up again

00:23:52.219 --> 00:23:53.779
 by his resurrection power.

00:23:54.919 --> 00:23:56.399
 And this is what has the power

00:23:56.399 --> 00:23:57.259
 to transform

00:23:57.259 --> 00:23:59.379
 the kind of despair

00:23:59.379 --> 00:24:00.079
 and futility

00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:00.699
 that we see

00:24:00.699 --> 00:24:01.839
 all over Ecclesiastes.

00:24:02.639 --> 00:24:03.559
 This futility

00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:04.799
 that the more that we know,

00:24:04.899 --> 00:24:06.159
 the more sorrowful we become.

00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:08.460
 I just want to speak

00:24:08.460 --> 00:24:09.660
 for a moment

00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:11.100
 to all of the kids

00:24:11.100 --> 00:24:11.920
 and youth in the room.

00:24:12.040 --> 00:24:13.400
 If you're in school,

00:24:13.560 --> 00:24:14.160
 elementary school,

00:24:14.259 --> 00:24:14.640
 middle school,

00:24:14.740 --> 00:24:15.200
 high school,

00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:16.220
 college,

00:24:17.300 --> 00:24:18.700
 the more time

00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:19.940
 that you spend as a student,

00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:21.200
 the more time you spend in school,

00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:22.200
 the more you learn,

00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:24.240
 the more you're going to learn

00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:25.080
 about hard things.

00:24:26.360 --> 00:24:27.200
 You're going to learn

00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:29.880
 more examples

00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:31.259
 like the story of Emmett Till.

00:24:32.040 --> 00:24:33.240
 Things that make us sad,

00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:34.259
 things that make us angry,

00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:35.360
 things that make us grieve.

00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:37.399
 Perhaps you can already

00:24:37.399 --> 00:24:37.919
 think of things

00:24:37.919 --> 00:24:38.719
 that you learned in school

00:24:38.719 --> 00:24:40.899
 that have made you grieve

00:24:40.899 --> 00:24:41.939
 or sad or angry.

00:24:43.159 --> 00:24:44.579
 But the incredibly good news,

00:24:44.679 --> 00:24:46.139
 if Jesus is our starting place

00:24:46.139 --> 00:24:46.639
 for knowledge,

00:24:46.719 --> 00:24:47.599
 if he's our Logos,

00:24:47.679 --> 00:24:48.519
 then all of those things

00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:49.619
 that we learn about in school

00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:50.500
 that make us sad,

00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:51.899
 whether it's poverty

00:24:51.899 --> 00:24:52.779
 or injustice

00:24:52.779 --> 00:24:54.359
 or wars

00:24:54.359 --> 00:24:55.619
 or hatred or violence,

00:24:57.099 --> 00:24:58.599
 we can learn about those things

00:24:58.599 --> 00:24:59.419
 from the perspective

00:24:59.419 --> 00:25:00.439
 and knowing

00:25:00.439 --> 00:25:01.679
 that one day

00:25:01.679 --> 00:25:02.979
 Jesus is going to renew

00:25:02.979 --> 00:25:03.579
 and restore

00:25:03.579 --> 00:25:04.579
 all of those things.

00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:07.299
 that even as we study

00:25:07.299 --> 00:25:08.519
 the sorrows of this world,

00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:09.319
 we don't study them

00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:09.819
 in despair,

00:25:09.819 --> 00:25:11.339
 we study them in hope

00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:14.019
 that the eternal Logos

00:25:14.019 --> 00:25:15.779
 makes all things new.

00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:19.920
 not surprisingly,

00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:21.259
 C.S. Lewis

00:25:21.259 --> 00:25:23.379
 said this a lot more eloquently

00:25:23.379 --> 00:25:24.539
 than me many years ago

00:25:24.539 --> 00:25:26.299
 in an essay

00:25:26.299 --> 00:25:28.160
 that was originally a sermon

00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:29.579
 called Learning in Wartime

00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:32.299
 where he's speaking to students

00:25:32.299 --> 00:25:33.619
 at Oxford and he's answering

00:25:33.619 --> 00:25:35.379
 very similar questions

00:25:35.379 --> 00:25:36.539
 that are being raised

00:25:36.539 --> 00:25:37.319
 in Ecclesiastes.

00:25:38.399 --> 00:25:39.159
 And he was writing

00:25:39.159 --> 00:25:41.159
 during the 1940s

00:25:41.159 --> 00:25:41.960
 in his day.

00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:44.240
 People were calling into question

00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:45.220
 the value

00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:47.099
 of a college education

00:25:47.099 --> 00:25:48.919
 while World War II

00:25:48.919 --> 00:25:49.899
 was raging on

00:25:49.899 --> 00:25:50.579
 around the world.

00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:52.000
 And people were asking

00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:52.720
 questions like this,

00:25:52.779 --> 00:25:53.859
 why study literature

00:25:53.859 --> 00:25:54.619
 and philosophy

00:25:54.619 --> 00:25:55.419
 and science

00:25:55.419 --> 00:25:56.960
 when the whole world

00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:57.519
 is in a crisis,

00:25:58.079 --> 00:25:58.919
 when the whole world

00:25:58.919 --> 00:25:59.299
 is in the middle

00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:00.000
 of a global war.

00:26:01.220 --> 00:26:02.460
 And Lewis says this

00:26:02.460 --> 00:26:03.259
 in his essay,

00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:04.200
 he says it's actually

00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:06.419
 a crisis like a global war

00:26:06.419 --> 00:26:07.700
 that reminds us

00:26:07.700 --> 00:26:08.919
 of what pursuing knowledge

00:26:08.919 --> 00:26:09.639
 is really about.

00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:11.460
 That it's not just

00:26:11.460 --> 00:26:12.180
 pursuing knowledge

00:26:12.180 --> 00:26:13.079
 for the sake of knowledge,

00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:14.440
 it's about pursuing knowledge

00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:16.139
 for the glory of God.

00:26:17.299 --> 00:26:18.839
 That the intellectual life

00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:20.339
 if humbly offered to God

00:26:20.339 --> 00:26:21.339
 can be a means

00:26:21.339 --> 00:26:22.919
 of pursuing truth

00:26:22.919 --> 00:26:24.039
 and goodness

00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:24.940
 and beauty

00:26:24.940 --> 00:26:26.500
 in a way that offers

00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:28.039
 real meaning

00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:28.899
 and hope.

00:26:29.299 --> 00:26:30.759
 to a world

00:26:30.759 --> 00:26:31.579
 that is hurting

00:26:31.579 --> 00:26:32.039
 and broken.

00:26:32.839 --> 00:26:34.259
 And here's how he ends

00:26:34.259 --> 00:26:35.500
 his sermon.

00:26:36.139 --> 00:26:36.839
 He says,

00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:39.039
 if we had un-foolish,

00:26:39.220 --> 00:26:39.539
 or sorry,

00:26:40.059 --> 00:26:41.399
 if we had foolish,

00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:42.700
 un-Christian hopes

00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:44.879
 about human culture

00:26:44.879 --> 00:26:45.779
 before the war,

00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:48.220
 they are now shattered.

00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:50.659
 If we thought

00:26:50.659 --> 00:26:51.599
 we were building up

00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:52.440
 a heaven on earth,

00:26:52.879 --> 00:26:54.859
 if we looked

00:26:54.859 --> 00:26:55.460
 for something

00:26:55.460 --> 00:26:56.139
 that would turn

00:26:56.139 --> 00:26:57.059
 the present world

00:26:57.059 --> 00:26:58.559
 from a place

00:26:58.559 --> 00:26:59.039
 of pilgrimage

00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:00.379
 into a permanent city,

00:27:00.879 --> 00:27:01.899
 satisfying the soul

00:27:01.899 --> 00:27:02.319
 of man,

00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:05.299
 we are disillusioned

00:27:05.299 --> 00:27:07.139
 and not a moment

00:27:07.139 --> 00:27:07.679
 too soon.

00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:09.500
 But,

00:27:09.619 --> 00:27:10.799
 if we thought

00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:13.119
 that for some souls

00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:15.819
 and at some times,

00:27:16.599 --> 00:27:18.899
 the life of learning

00:27:18.899 --> 00:27:22.019
 humbly offered to God

00:27:22.019 --> 00:27:23.200
 was,

00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:25.680
 was in its own small way,

00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:28.059
 one of the appointed

00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:28.619
 approaches

00:27:28.619 --> 00:27:30.759
 to the divine reality

00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:33.139
 and the divine beauty,

00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:34.839
 which we hope

00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:36.059
 to enjoy hereafter,

00:27:36.759 --> 00:27:38.539
 we can think so still.

00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:40.779
 And friends,

00:27:40.859 --> 00:27:41.700
 that is what it means

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 to have Jesus

00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:44.400
 as our logos,

00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:45.599
 as our wisdom

00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:46.359
 and our knowledge.

00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:47.440
 As Solomon reminds us,

00:27:47.480 --> 00:27:48.200
 pursuing knowledge

00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:49.079
 for its own sake,

00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:50.339
 it's going to lead you

00:27:50.339 --> 00:27:51.819
 into incredible futility

00:27:51.819 --> 00:27:52.299
 and despair.

00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:55.319
 But to pursue

00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:56.679
 the intellectual life

00:27:56.679 --> 00:27:57.379
 as a Christian

00:27:57.379 --> 00:27:59.619
 is one of the greatest

00:27:59.619 --> 00:28:01.399
 exercises in hope.

00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:03.319
 In the hope

00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:04.939
 that Jesus Christ,

00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:06.299
 the eternal logos,

00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:07.720
 makes all things new.

00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:09.079
 Pray with me.

00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:13.079
 Father in heaven,

00:28:13.179 --> 00:28:13.720
 we thank you

00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:14.439
 that in you

00:28:14.439 --> 00:28:15.079
 we see

00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:16.839
 eternal wisdom

00:28:16.839 --> 00:28:17.679
 and knowledge.

00:28:17.980 --> 00:28:18.439
 In you

00:28:18.439 --> 00:28:20.240
 is ultimate truth

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:20.659
 and goodness

00:28:20.659 --> 00:28:21.019
 and beauty.

00:28:21.099 --> 00:28:21.199
 Lord,

00:28:21.220 --> 00:28:22.399
 I pray for all of us

00:28:22.399 --> 00:28:23.059
 as we

00:28:23.059 --> 00:28:25.099
 give ourselves

00:28:25.099 --> 00:28:26.599
 to the life

00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:27.119
 of the mind,

00:28:27.379 --> 00:28:28.460
 to the pursuit

00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:28.960
 of knowledge

00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:29.779
 and wisdom

00:28:29.779 --> 00:28:30.559
 in this world.

00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:34.139
 Even as it makes us sad,

00:28:34.279 --> 00:28:35.500
 even as it shows us

00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:36.839
 how much we don't know.

00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:39.039
 Lord,

00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:39.980
 I pray that you

00:28:39.980 --> 00:28:40.480
 would help us

00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:41.799
 to understand Jesus

00:28:41.799 --> 00:28:42.459
 that you make

00:28:42.459 --> 00:28:43.099
 all things new

00:28:43.099 --> 00:28:44.720
 and therefore

00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:45.759
 that everything matters

00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:47.720
 and that we can

00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:48.539
 give ourselves,

00:28:48.699 --> 00:28:49.659
 we can give our minds

00:28:49.659 --> 00:28:50.000
 to you,

00:28:50.059 --> 00:28:50.859
 we can love you

00:28:50.859 --> 00:28:52.259
 with all of our minds

00:28:52.259 --> 00:28:54.720
 and that we can

00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:55.240
 offer this

00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:56.159
 as a humble sacrifice

00:28:56.159 --> 00:28:56.599
 to you

00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:57.779
 and offer truth

00:28:57.779 --> 00:28:58.199
 and meaning

00:28:58.199 --> 00:28:59.000
 and hope to the world.

00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:01.500
 We pray all this

00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:03.099
 in the name of the Father,

00:29:03.199 --> 00:29:03.500
 the Son,

00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:04.139
 and the Holy Spirit.

00:29:04.899 --> 00:29:05.259
 Amen.

00:29:07.659 --> 00:29:07.659


00:29:07.659 --> 00:29:07.659


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00:29:07.659 --> 00:29:08.000
 Amen.

00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:08.000


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