Sunday, August 16, 2026
Vapor & Wind (Hevel/Ruach) Part VIV: “Tending the Soul When Bullies Prevail”
Steve Davis delivers the message “Tending the Soul When Bullies Prevail” with music from Kathleen Sieck and the music team.
SCRIPTURE
Selected Readings from Ecclesiastes 7-19
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18
I’ve seen it all in my brief and pointless life—here a good person cut down in the middle of doing good, there a bad person living a long life of sheer evil. So don’t knock yourself out being good, and don’t go overboard being wise. Believe me, you won’t get anything out of it. But don’t press your luck by being bad, either. And don’t be reckless. Why die needlessly?
It’s best to stay in touch with both sides of an issue. A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it.
Ecclesiastes 8:10
One time I saw wicked men given a solemn burial in holy ground. When the people returned to the city, they delivered flowery eulogies—and in the very place where wicked acts were done by those very men! More smoke. Indeed.
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder.
Ecclesiastes 8:12-13
Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I’m still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence, and that the evil person will not experience a “good” life. No matter how many days he lives, they’ll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow—because he doesn’t fear God.
Ecclesiastes 8:14
Here’s something that happens all the time and makes no sense at all: Good people get what’s coming to the wicked, and bad people get what’s coming to the good. I tell you, this makes no sense. It’s smoke.
Ecclesiastes 9:2-3
Anything’s possible. It’s one fate for everybody—righteous and wicked, good people, bad people, the nice and the nasty, worshipers and non-worshipers, committed and uncommitted. I find this outrageous—the worst thing about living on this earth—that everyone’s lumped together in one fate. Is it any wonder that so many people are obsessed with evil? Is it any wonder that people go crazy right and left?
Ecclesiastes 9:17
The quiet words of the wise are more effective
Than the ranting of a king of fools.
Ecclesiastes 9:18
Wisdom is better than warheads,
But one hothead can ruin the good earth.
Leader: This is the Word of our Lord.
All: Praise be to God!