Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the Flesh (Ecclesiastes 12:12), and What We Can Do About It

In Ecclesiastes 12:12 Solomon said, “My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.” Solomon was making a point about the amount of information that was available, and how overwhelming – and [wearying] – it could be. In Solomon’s day information was mostly limited to books. In our day information takes many other forms. If Solomon could say this when there was no printing press, Internet, television, radio, and only a fraction of the books we have what would he say if he lived in our day? The amount of information in our day is overwhelming and untrustworthy. Plant yourself in the Bible where “the words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed; they are given by one Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11). https://youtu.be/YolWBijaKeI Ecclesiastes 12:12 says, “Much study is wearisome to the flesh," because the amount of information available is overwhelming. Table of ContentsSermon Lessons for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the FleshFamily Worship Guide for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the FleshSermon Notes for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the FleshLesson 1: man’s words can be (part 1) overwhelming.Lesson 1: man’s words can be (part 2) untrustworthy.Lesson 2: God’s Word is like a (part 1) goad that directs.Lesson 2: God’s Word is like a (part 2) stake that protects. Sermon Lessons for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the Flesh Lesson 1: Man’s words can be: (Part I) ________________________ (Ecclesiastes 12:12a). (Part II) ___________________________ (Ecclesiastes 12:12b). Lesson 2: God’s Word is like a: (Part I) ________ that ______________ (Ecclesiastes 12:11a; Psa 23:1, 80:1; John 10:11; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25, 5:4; Matt 12:42). (Part II) __________ that ________________ (Ecclesiastes 12:11b; Psa 119:89; Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:24; Matt 24:35). Family Worship Guide for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the Flesh Day 1: Ecclesiastes 12:9-12, 1 Pet 3:15, 2 Tim 2:15, and discuss: According to Solomon, what causes much weariness to the flesh? How do we have a ready answer for those who ask of the reason of the hope we have? Whose approval should we be seeking when studying the Word of God? What is the danger of taking in input from the world more that input from the Bible? How does it affect our world view? Day 2: 2 Pet 3:18, John 14:26, Ecclesiastes 12:11, and discuss: What are we to grow in according to Peter? What did Jesus promise would help us to be guided into truth? How is this a benefit to us in a world so full of information? Where did Solomon say the words of the wise come from? Why is it important to know where wisdom comes from? Day 3: Ecclesiastes 12:11, Ps 119:89, Isa 40:8, 1 Pet 1:24, and discuss: How is God’s Word like an ox goad? What direction does the Bible point toward for hope and purpose? How does the wisdom of the world compete with the Bible? Why is the Word of God more relevant today regarding the pandemic than the latest news? Sermon Notes for Why Much Study Is Wearisome to the Flesh We’re going to contrast man’s words – in verse 12 – w/ God’s Word in verses 9 through 11. But I want to look at what Solomon said about man’s words first, and then move into the discussion of God’s Word, which means we’re going to look at the verses out-of-order. First look at verse 12… Ecclesiastes 12:12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Solomon was making a point about the amount of information that was available, and how overwhelming – and [wearying] – it could be. In Solomon’s day information was mostly limited to books In our day information takes many other forms If Solomon could say this – when there was no printing press, Internet, television, radio, and only a fraction of the books we have – what would he say if he lived in our day? So here’s the truth… There is no time in all of history that these words have been more applicable…and this brings us to Lesson 1… Lesson 1: man’s words can be (part 1) overwhelming. I want to give you an idea just how overwhelming. Whenever someone sends an email, responds to an email, writes a blog, comments on a blog, posts on Facebook, responds to a post on Facebook, tweets, replies to a tweet, uploads a video, comments on a video, this creates data…and the amount of data we create each day is astonishing. By 2025, it’s estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be created each day. Most of us – myself included – don’t know how much one exabyte is, say nothing about 463 of them: A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes, or 1, with three zeroes after it. An exabyte is one quintillion kilobytes, or the number 1 with 18 zeroes after it…and that’s how much data we create each day. To give that some perspective, it’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs of data…per day! Many of us are almost creating our own DVD each day! This past week I read an article on Forbes titled, “How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read.” Let me share one quote… “[The] pace [that we create data] is only accelerating with the growth of the Internet. Over the last two years alone 90 percent of the data in the world was generated. This is worth re-reading!” So let me re-read it… Over the last two years alone 90 percent of the data in the world was generated. If Solomon lived in our day, here’s how he might write verse 12… Of making many blogs…and podcasts…and online summits…and emails…and Facebook posts…and Twitter feeds…and interviews…and news stations…and Instagrams…and Snapchats…and LinkedIn feeds…and YouTube channels…there is no end, and much studying…and watching…and reading…and listening is a weariness of the flesh. As helpful as all this information can be, there’s no end to it. We could spend thousands of lifetimes and never feel like we’ve: Read… Listened to… Studied… Or watched… Everyone and everything we think we should read, listen to, study, or watch. Now let me be perfectly clear… The point is NOT that people shouldn’t have blogs, podcasts, books, watch the news, or post on social media. The point is that the amount of information available can be overwhelming and – as Solomon said – wearying. And there’s another important point… It wasn’t that long ago that if you wanted to address a certain topic – or let’s say add data to the world – you had to have an amount of credibility. That’s the only way you could: Get invited on a radio station to be interviewed… Get invited on a television show to give your opinion… Get a deal with a book publisher… But now – within the matter of a few minutes – people can start a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel and act like an expert on anything…even if they have very little knowledge and no expertise. Be patient w/ me while I share something that will illustrate the problem w/ the Coronavirus…it will take me a minute to get to my point, but I will get to it! SEO is an acronym standing for “Search Engine Optimization.” It’s the science behind getting your product, whatever it is – a website, blog, podcast, image, book, video – to rank on search engines, and when I say search engines, I mean Google…b/c about 90% of searches take place on Google. The idea is, if you’re on the second page of Google, you might as well be on the 20th page of Google. Google uses algorithms that they keep secret to determine search rankings, and they change their algorithms to prevent people from gaming the system. For example, keywords used to be a major ranking factor. Google would crawl websites, find the most prominent words and this would increase a page – or site’s – ranking for that keyword. Google figured if people mentioned a word often, they’re probably familiar w/ that topic. When people learned this is what Google looked for when crawling websites, they started filling posts and pages w/ keywords they wanted to rank for. Maybe you’ve read something on the Internet and seen the same word, or phrase, repeated an awkward number of times. This is called, “keyword stuffing.” Then Google changed their algorithms and penalized people for “keyword stuffing.” Suddenly people who were on the front page of Google found themselves on the 20th page. In Google’s early years it focused almost entirely on relevance. Basically, Google tried to return search results that were the most relevant to the user. But over the last few years, Google has been focusing on another major ranking factor, and that’s authority, or credibility: If you write about sports, Google wants to make sure have some involvement in sports If you sell music products, Google wants to make sure you know something about quality music If you teach people how to do something, Google wants to make sure you have some experience in that area Basically: Google started wanting to make sure that people who discussed a topic had some idea what they were talking about. It’s almost like Google recognized how many people were talking about things…when they had no business talking about them. Let me tell you about one specific core update to Google’s algorithms to try to return better, more reliable results to people… In August 2018 they released one of their largest and most significant changes to their algorithms, and – as is the case every time Google changes their algorithms – there was a huge shakeup in the search rankings: highly ranked websites were suddenly dropped, and low ranking websites, were promoted. But for this update, there was one area that was hit particularly hard. Listen to this… Around 50% of all the sites that saw a loss of traffic were medical sites…and I’m using the term “medical” loosely. Get this… The update came to be known as “The Medical – or Medic – Update....