"I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take, when people run in circles, it’s a very, very mad world, mad world.” This line, from the song "Mad World" sung by Gary Jules (originally a Tears for Fears song), is a fitting one for the book of Ecclesiastes, and particularly chapter 4. In this chapter, as Douglas O'Donnell helps to point out, the Preacher notices four disquieting features of our world: oppression, envy, loneliness, and impermanence. And while he gives us a few helpful ways of dealing with our world, this chapter leaves us longing for a new world in which these things no longer exist.

April 30, 2023

Helpful resources that shaped and influenced this sermon: Ecclesiastes by Derek Kidner, Ecclesiastes by Douglas O'Donnell, Ecclesiastes by Phil Ryken. 3 of the 4 headings from O'Donnell.