Wisdom for Seeing Sorrow

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:10
May 17, 2024

Wisdom for Seeing Sorrow

Dave Royes

A Matter of Time and Eternity

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14
May 3, 2026

A Matter of Time and Eternity

Dave Royes

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil — this is God's gift to man.

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Main characters and side characters

• Destroying the delusion that we're the main character

• Main point: We grow in worship when we learn to number our days

2. The uncomfortable reality of being bound by time

• Life is seasonal

• Everything meets its undoing

3. The ultimate reality of a sovereign God

• He rules with supremacy

• He functions independently

• He exists eternally

4. How eternal creatures should live right now

• God placed eternity into the human heart

• People cannot truly find out by natural inquiry what God is doing from beginning to end

• How do we find out what God is doing from beginning to end?

5. How do we number our days?

• Acknowledge that treasures on earth are temporary

• Adopt a posture of gratitude to God for what he gives you

Revelation 1:4b-6, 8: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come... and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

The High King With a Deep Problem

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:24
April 26, 2026

The High King With a Deep Problem

Dave Royes

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:24: I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

What is crooked cannot be made straight,
and what is lacking cannot be counted.

I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine — my heart still guiding me with wisdom — and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God…

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Deadly desert disorientation

• Only the grace of God is a match for your heart

2. The frustrating feeling of an uncontrollable life

• Who is this preacher?

• Humans have high busyness alongside low happiness

3. The futile quest of fixing your life

• Pleasure in his heart did not satisfy his heart

• The works of his hands he could not hold

• The wisdom of his mind was haunted by death

4. The Father of Grace and the joyful life

• A gain mentality versus a grace mentality

5. Applications

What’s (Actually) New?

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
April 19, 2026

What’s (Actually) New?

Dave Royes

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
    at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
    and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
    and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
    and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
    but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
    there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
    a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
    “See, this is new”?
It has been already
    in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
    nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
    among those who come after.

Sermon Outline

1. A preacher with a picture

2. A process of inquiry

3. A poem about nature

4. A person unprecedented

Ecclesiastes 12:13: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Longing for Yesterday

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Ecclesiastes 7:8-10
January 17, 2021

Longing for Yesterday

Steve Estes

A Swiss Bank Account Wrapped in Brown Paper: The Value of Contentment

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Speaker: Matt Carter
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, 5:18-20
December 3, 2017

A Swiss Bank Account Wrapped in Brown Paper: The Value of Contentment

Matt Carter

Experiencing Life

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Speaker: Ed Saadi
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1
February 7, 2010

Experiencing Life

Ed Saadi

What on Earth Is It All About?

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Speaker: Bob Hughes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes
February 12, 1989

What on Earth Is It All About?

Bob Hughes

To Those Not Yet Elderly

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
June 12, 1988

To Those Not Yet Elderly

Steve Estes