Ecclesiastes 4 reads like a really hard day. The writer sees people crushed by injustice, coworkers driven by envy, wealth that leaves a person lonely, and leaders who promise change but cannot solve our deepest problems. These ordinary sources of despair reveal how easily life can feel meaningless when we forget to live with God and listen to his voice. Jesus entered this same troubled world and showed another way. He comforted people who suffered instead of looking away. He worked ordinary days without envy. He offered friendship rather than using people for his own gain. And though public opinion turned against him, he became the King who will make all things new. The sermon invites us to bring Jesus into the moments that weigh us down. We can respond to injustice with compassionate action and hope, work with contentment, offer friendship and forgiveness, and trust Christ above changing political leaders. The question is not whether hard days will come, but whether every troubling thought will carry us into cynicism. Remembering who Jesus is and following his example helps us meet each day with purpose and hope instead of despair, even when the world feels unbearably heavy.

The more you seek pleasure, the more of it you have to have to feel satisfied. This "Pleasure Paradox" will not lead you to satisfaction, but rather to slavery. But this pleasure seeking is the worldly wisdom referred to in Ecclesiastes 2. Godly wisdom shows us that we will only be satisfied when we submit our desires to God instead of trying to satisfy them ourselves.

In Ecclesiastes, the author is searching for the meaning of life. The book takes us on a journey through the author's search for meaning and all the things he tried and all the places he looked to satisfy the deepest longings of his existence. It opens with his great question: "For what does a man gain for all his toil under the sun?"

There is an unavoidable despair you can feel as you read it, but that's good. You're actually supposed to feel that way, that's why the Lord gave us this book. Because Ecclesiastes is part of the wisdom literature of the Bible, and true wisdom begins when our hope in the things of this world ends. 

That's a hard lesson to learn, but Ecclesiastes is a wake up call to not have to learn that lesson the hard way. 

While the author invites into the depths of life's heaviness and hopelessness, Christ meets us in those depths. In each chapter, Ecclesiastes will help us see Jesus in a new light and come to him in a new way. For while there is nothing new under the sun, the incarnation is God introducing something new. Meaning itself took on flesh and blood, and it's in him the search comes to an end. 

Once we were at war with God, but now we have peace with God. How do we live in this world and age of anxiety and experience that peace? Usually we try to remove things that destroy our peace or numb ourselves to our anxiety with medicine. But the only way to experience the peace of God is to "Stand firm in the Lord". And how you "Stand firm in the Lord" is what this sermon on Philippians 4 is all about.

Paul was an elite in his culture he was born in the right country. He was born to an affluent family. He had power and influence. And here in this passage Paul makes one of the most offensive statements in the word of God. Paul says that all these things are worthless in comparison to knowing God.

The church must face suffering together in unity and love. This requires rejecting selfish ambition and the hunger for personal glory, humbly valuing others and attending to their interests. Jesus provides the supreme pattern: although God, he emptied himself, became a servant, and endured death on a cross.

His humiliation, however, was not the story’s end; God highly exalted him.

Those united to Christ likewise share both his sufferings and his future glory. Therefore, believers can embrace humble service, face trials together, and surrender their plans with hope. Remembering their promised resurrection and exaltation gives them courage to follow Christ’s pattern: humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

This sermon explores how Christians develop an uncircumstantial faith rooted in Christ rather than changing conditions. Paul models this faith while imprisoned, declaring that living is Christ and dying is gain. His confidence rests in union with Jesus: God is transforming believers into Christ’s image, not apart from life’s circumstances but through them.

Therefore, hardship is neither meaningless nor evidence that God has stopped working. Even opposition and suffering can become instruments of grace, shaping Christians to share Christ’s story and likeness. Paul calls the church to live as citizens of the gospel, standing firm and striving together without fear.

The sermon challenges a comfortable, diluted gospel that treats belief as a path around suffering, reminding listeners that following Jesus includes taking up their cross. Believers can face each circumstance by trusting God’s ongoing work, surrendering to his purposes, and praying, “Help me live Christ.”

How does Paul speak of an uncircumstantial joy while locked in a Roman in prison? It's because of how the gospel has taught him to see his circumstances and trust that God put him there. Paul's joy was not tethered to his comfort. Rather then asking God "why is this happening to me?", he learned to ask, "How can I be a part of what God is doing here?" So if you want joy that isn't tied to your circumstances, then we must learn to say: "Lord use me today, my life is at your disposal."

Paul writes to a struggling church and encourages them that God is at work in them in the midst of their hardship. He urges them to see beyond circumstances, to move towards one another, and trust that God is going to finish what he started.

Rest may feel impossible, but Hebrews announces hope: an unending Sabbath still awaits God’s people. This rest is more than relief from work; it is the completion of striving and joy in God’s presence—humanity’s created purpose. Sabbath offers a foretaste of that future, while exposing the taskmasters, desires, fears, and false identities that keep our hearts restless. Its difficulty is part of its gift: it reveals our bondage and invites us to trust God rather than manufacture rest ourselves.

Jesus displays God’s commitment to that promise. Throughout his ministry and Holy Week, he released people from bondage, trusted the Father through rejection and suffering, completed his work on the cross, and rested in the grave. His resurrection opened the way into God’s eternal rest. Believers strive to enter that rest by holding to their confession, remembering that their identity is hidden with Christ, and approaching the throne of grace.

When anxiety and weariness rise, we can trust the Sabbath Keeper who finished his work, defeated death, and promises to bring his people home.

What if we struggle to rest because of unforgiveness? The Bible teaches us that if we want to experience the rest of God, we need to release those who have sinned against us. In the same way that Christ forgave us and released us from our bondage, we are called to do the same for others. So who do you need to forgive?

Luke tells us about Jesus in a very unique way. It's all through the lens of "sabbath". Jesus defines, and begins his own ministry in terms of sabbath. Our God is committed to giving rest. If that is what Jesus was doing then.... Isn't that what Jesus would be doing now?

Sabbath is war against anything that would take God's place in your life. In the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath command comes immediately after the commands about God’s place in our lives. In Sabbath rest, we are remembering who God is and we are being like him and giving rest to others.

We can only rest if we trust God. In Exodus 16 God teaches his people how to trust him by giving them the Sabbath and teaching them how to rest. They had to let go of their anxiety about what they would eat tomorrow and trust that he would provide for them. What if the Sabbath would you rest from your anxiety?

Rest is an act of war in the cosmic realm, because when we try to rest we realize there is a war all around us. When we try to rest that’s when our taskmasters go to work. In this sermon we look at four snapshots from Exodus that show us who the taskmaster is and how he tries to keep us in bondage.

This sermon explores how our view of work affects our ability to receive God’s gift of Sabbath rest. Work is good, reflecting God’s activity and contributing to flourishing, but sin distorts it into an object of worship. Whether someone is driven by ambition or trapped in an unfulfilling job, the same lies operate beneath the surface: “You are not enough” and “You do not possess enough.”

Work carries the burden of providing identity, significance, security, and meaning—gifts only God can give. The inability to rest reveals what occupies the heart’s throne. God therefore commands Sabbath after commandments concerning worship, teaching that honoring him begins with trusting him enough to stop.

Sabbath restores identity by reminding believers that they are not their jobs, income, performance, or accomplishments; they belong to God. The sermon encourages Christians to stop working, to offer their jobs and surrender their worth to God, and thank him for his magnificent provision.

Rest is intertwined into creation as God established his divine rhythm of time. In creation we learn that we were created for rest. But it's hard to rest when there's so much to do! It's easy to trade rest for escape. But God wants us to worship Him by resting.

Is it worth it follow Jesus? Ruth thinks so. To the degree that she commits herself to what she knows will be a life of destitution and poverty with her mother in law Naomi. Jesus is calling you to follow Him. Will you?

Five women are named in Jesus' genealogy. Tamar is the first. Why is she included in Jesus's genealogy and what does her story teach us about redemption? Her story is placed right in the middle of the Joseph story and appears to not make much sense. But you can't understand Joseph unless you understand Judah, and you can't understand Judah without Tamar. This is her story.

James gets at the heart of what "true faith" is. James remind you that what you do matters! Remember that God has not called you to a moment of faith, but rather a life of faith!