SUNDAY (LIVE) - March 8, 2026 | The Grind - Ecclesiastes 1:4-18 - Matt Heverly

A lot of people get caught up in novelty, newness, that they're excited about something because it's new, and new things are always exciting. And you can learn a lot in the beginning stages like, wow, you can get to 50% like that. But then it becomes monotonous. And what a lot of people do after a month or two months or a year or whatever, they give up. They're like, ah. The newness, the new smell has wore off. I'm out. But experts in any field, they're not for novelty. Experts in any field, I don't care what it is, cooking, or baking, or mechanics, or engineering, or writing books, or speeches, whatever it is, experts always move from novelty to nuance. [01:08:26] (46 seconds)  #FromNoveltyToNuance

And history changed forever at the resurrection, that the most monotonous terrible thing ever called death has been defeated. That's what Solomon did not know. That's what we do know. [01:15:09] (15 seconds)  #ResurrectionDefeatsDeath

And I think sometimes we use acquisition to numb the fact that life is circular. I got a new, fill in the blank, truck, house, car, toy. I got a new trinket, and it numbs just for a minute the fact that life is very cyclical and monotonous. And here's why. Here's the biggest problem in us. It's verse eight. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Our wanter's broken. [00:47:28] (33 seconds)  #NeverSatisfied

And if you stop for a moment and just back up from what Solomon has said, a modern way to put it is life is like a sweaty guy at the gym on a treadmill. Just running away, sweat pouring off of him, creating his own weather system, lots of motion, no movement. Nothing changed. Just a cycle. [00:50:37] (29 seconds)  #MotionWithoutMovement

There are problems and there are needs so gigantic that you can get overwhelmed by it. This crooked thing, I'm never gonna make it straight. The lacks that I see all around, we're never gonna solve it. It's like the fabric of the universe is twisted and broken in such a way that, yeah, you can't fix that. You can see it in your own life, like, whose house is 100% perfect? You're like, I wouldn't change a thing. My house is perfect. Nobody. [00:54:25] (35 seconds)  #OverwhelmedByBrokenness

So if you're here with us last week, we introduced Ecclesiastes. It's a fascinating book. I think it's the oldest book on philosophy in existence. And what Solomon is gonna do for the, really, first half of the book is this. I'm going to look at how to get back the golden ball just using my five senses. Life under the sun. Ignoring God, ignoring that way of life, what I can taste, what I can see, what I can touch, what I can smell. That's the only senses I'm gonna use. I'm gonna experiment around. Is life worth living if there is no God? [00:39:59] (39 seconds)  #LifeUnderTheSun

For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Solomon would say ignorance is bliss, actually. Because the more you learn about anything, the more vexation and the more sorrow it brings. [01:00:40] (23 seconds)  #KnowledgeBringsSorrow

But here's what a snow day was. It was the night before we went to the snow, I'm spending three or four hours getting all the gear together, making sure everyone has all their pieces, loading up the Suburban with all the gear. Then, the next morning, everyone wakes up early. I wake the kids up early. We feed them breakfast. We get the right clothes on them to get them in the car to get them ready. Right? Then you drive a couple hours to Mount Shasta or Bachelor. Then you go all day skiing. Then you get the kids back in. You take another change of clothes. You get them out of their wet, soppy clothes. You put them into a fresh pair of clothes, you get them home, you get them out of the car because they're kinda cranky, you feed them, you put them to bed, and then you go to the Suburban, you unload the Suburban, you get everything out of it, then you take all the clothes and you gotta wash them and dry them and put them away. Then you gotta clean up and dry out the Suburban because it's soaking wet. It's like a forty hour work week for a hobby. [00:48:43] (47 seconds)  #HobbyFeelsLikeWork

And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agi, the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils. And the men fled from the Philistines, but he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and Yahweh worked a great victory. [01:05:32] (30 seconds)  #StandLikeShammah

I don't care what group you're in, what thing you start looking into. The more that you know, the more vexation and the more sorrow you'll know. Or an organization, a nonprofit, a church, a business, a school, does it you name it, the more you get into it, into the nitty gritty, the more you're like, vexation. Sorrow. Because life is monotonous, and unhappy and unsolvable, and it's a growing enigma. The more you know, the more vexation and sorrow. Ecclesiastes one. And if this is your first time at Edgewater, I am sorry. [01:02:03] (52 seconds)  #KnowledgeBreedsVexation

Like, you have a little kid, he's tells you, watch me go down the slide. If you do watch him go down the slide, what does that mean? You're gonna watch him do it again, and again, and again, and again. And, they don't tire of it. We do, but they don't. About that time I read a GK Chesterton book, and he actually writes on monotony. And this is what he says. Quote, because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore, want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, do it again, and the grown up person does it again until he is nearly dead. [01:11:56] (53 seconds)  #ChildlikeRepeatJoy

You'll brush your teeth. Your coworkers hope you brush your teeth. You'll eat. You'll get dressed. You'll get in your car. You'll fight some traffic. You'll stop by Dutch roast for just a little bit of joy. You'll get to whatever you're doing, office, cubicle, workplace. You'll do what you always do, check emails, print something off, fix things, build things. You'll take a lunch. You'll do some more work. You'll leave at 04:45 to beat the sixth street traffic. You'll get home. You'll eat dinner. You'll watch some TV, and you'll go to bed. [00:41:21] (38 seconds)  #EverydayMonotony

He went academic, man. Studied. Learned. He also said, I I did madness and folly. He went both ends. He went high brow, hanging out with the elites, playing polo, wearing really, really deep v neck t shirts. Eight albino beluga caviar with some Grey Poupon on it. Right? Drink Dom Perignon with his pinky out. So good. Hung out with billionaires. But he also says, I also did the mad folly thing. Goes, I also hung out with a bunch of rednecks. We went four wheeling. We shot up deer crossing signs, just blew them up. We burned stuff in the woods. I watched NASCAR drink Milwaukee's Best. I ate Hamburger Helper out of a big aluminum pot with my bare hands. I went that way too, so I know both sides. [00:59:51] (70 seconds)  #TriedBothExtremes

And you walk, it's a couple of city blocks, and it's 700,000 people packed into this area. And you've seen pictures. It's overwhelming. We walk by this creek, and the creek, even though you're fifty, sixty feet away from it, it's so bad smelling that it feels like your head is in a septic tank the whole time. Just reeks. And there was these kids playing soccer kind of as we're walking, we're keeping pace with them. They're like eight, nine year old, 10 year old boys. They're just playing soccer, kicking this soccer ball, and then one of them kicked it. It bounced off something, and then ran ran right in Poop Creek. And I'm like, oh. And it's going about the same speed as and they're throwing these rocks trying to get waves to kinda get it to to splash over towards them, but it wouldn't were trying to get it with sticks. They couldn't get it. And it was about ready to go into this tunnel and disappear. They'd lose the soccer ball, and this kid just kicks off his flip flops, hikes up his shorts, and goes in, grabs the ball. And I'm like, oh, that's why they've got skin problems. [00:56:30] (69 seconds)  #ChildlikeFearlessness

When I was a new pastor and I would help people with some biblical guidance, they'd come in and I'd hear their story. And at some point, some of them would say this, bro, you don't wanna know this part. Now, I'm 54. If I'm talking with someone and they say, you don't wanna know this part, I say, okay. Thanks. Yeah. I probably don't. Appreciate that. I don't wanna know anymore. I'm happy not knowing because with it comes vexation. With it comes sorrow. Yeah. Please don't tell me. [01:01:29] (35 seconds)  #SomeThingsBetterUnknown

And here's what Solomon finds in chapter one. If you look at life that way, Solomon's gonna say this. Life is monotonous, unhappy, unsolvable, and it's a growing enigma. That's chapter one. Monotonous, unhappy, unsolvable, growing enigma. Are you ready? Let's go. So, first is monotonous. Think about tomorrow for most of us. You'll wake up. You'll take a shower. At least, I hope you take a shower. [00:40:43] (38 seconds)  #LifeIsAMonotonousEnigma

And then we think we can beat the system. Like, we're gonna gain the system. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fall in this monotony. I'm not gonna get that. I'm gonna be smarter than that. I've got common sense. I challenge you. If you believe you can beat the system, just try this little test. Today, after service, go to Fred Meyer, buy one thing, and then when you get to the shopping lines, choose which shopping line will be the fastest and get in line. [00:52:21] (25 seconds)  #YouCantBeatTheSystem

So many years ago, my mom had terminal cancer, and she was over at RVMC. And I took my daughter, who was five at the time, Chris, who was five years old, and I took her to go visit my mom. And we're walking up to the cancer part of the RVMC. We're walking over to it, and outside, there's this little area where you can kinda be. You could there were some seats around and stuff, and there are two nurses out there, and guess what both of them were doing? Smoking cigarettes. And my daughter, Carissa, who's five, you know, and they they they just they're like, dad, they're smoking cigarettes. I'm like, I know. Know. Know. Right? Outside voice pointing her finger. Like, she just couldn't believe it. Don't they know? Yeah. They know. Yeah. And, I mean, they deal with it all. Smart people can do stupid things. It doesn't save us. It's unhappy. Monotonous. It's unhappy. It's unsolvable. Verse 15. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. [00:53:48] (67 seconds)  #SmartPeopleDoStupidThings

Life is monotonous. Life is unhappy. Verse 12, I, the preacher, have been king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that's done under the 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 the wind. I love how Solomon reintroduces himself. He already did that, if you're here last week. [00:50:02] (34 seconds)  #AllIsVanity

He does it again. I think he figures, you know what? You probably read these 11 verses, and then you just put the book down for a week or a month. You got depressed. Now you're picking it back up. By the way, I'm Solomon again, and I'm on this quest, on this quest to look at life under the sun without God. And if you stop for a moment and just back up from what Solomon has said, a modern way to put it is life is like a sweaty guy at the gym on a treadmill. [00:50:37] (31 seconds)  #TreadmillExistence