WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
This morning, as we continue in Ecclesiastes, we’re going to discover that God never designed us to live alone. He designed us for something better. Something shared.
Hear these words from Psalm 68:6: “God sets the lonely in families” That’s not poetic language. That’s a description of what God does. He gathers. He connects. He places us in community. As we worship today, we remember: We don’t come here as individuals. We come as a people God is forming together. Let’s worship Him.
Songs
Prayer
CONFESSION:
Gracious God, we confess that we often try to carry life on our own. We compare ourselves to others, we measure our worth by achievement, and we quietly convince ourselves that strength means independence. We keep our struggles to ourselves. We hide our weariness. We allow pride, fear, or busyness to keep us from being known.
Forgive us for the ways we have settled for isolation when You created us for community. Forgive us for seeing people as competition instead of companions. Forgive us for withdrawing when we should reach out. Forgive us for believing we have to do this life alone.
By Your Spirit, soften our hearts. Give us courage to be honest and grace to receive one another as gifts from You. We bring these things before You now in quiet confession. Amen.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
Hear this good news. God does not leave us in isolation. He draws near to us in Christ, and He places us among one another as a gift. In our opening passage Scripture tells us: “God sets the lonely in families.” — Psalm 68:6
Through Jesus, we are forgiven. Through His grace, we are welcomed. Through His Spirit, we are brought together as His people. You are not meant to walk alone. You are not unseen. You are not forgotten. And that’s exactly what Ecclesiastes is about to show us. Because long before our modern world felt this tension, of loneliness Solomon looked out at his world and noticed the same thing, people trying to live life by themselves, and discovering it was never meant to work that way. Let’s turn now to Ecclesiastes 4 and see what God has to say to us today.
Don't Settle: Finding a Meaningful Life
You Were Never Meant to do This Alone
Today's Message: Pastor Dave Page
The Hidden Cost of the Chase
I want to begin today with something surprising, and if you’re watching online, I want you to notice this too. We live in a world that has more ways to connect than ever before, more social platforms, more messaging apps, more “friends” and “followers” and virtual communities, yet many people report feeling more alone than ever.
Here are a few data points we want to bring up on screen:
40% of adults report feeling chronically lonely, even though most of us are surrounded by people, screens, and activity.
(Source: Cigna U.S. Loneliness Index, 2024)
Three in five adults say they sometimes or always feel that their relationships lack meaning.
(Source: APA Stress in America survey, 2023)
And here’s something more specific to faith communities:
More than half of churchgoing adults say they rarely or never share what’s actually going on in their lives with other believers.
(Source: Barna Group research on spiritual experiences, 2024)
Let that sink in for a moment. People are more connected digitally than ever before, but many still feel alone emotionally and relationally and even within church communities, a lot of believers go through life carrying burdens quietly, never sharing what’s really going on, never letting someone walk with them. That feels like loneliness. That looks like isolation. And it often comes from a place we don’t talk about enough.
This morning, we turn to a part of Scripture that is surprisingly honest about the loneliness epidemic. We’re in Ecclesiastes, a book that asks some of the deepest, most human questions about life.
Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon looks out at the world around him and observes that no matter how much people achieve or accumulate, there is something missing when life is lived alone.
Today we’re asking:
Why does life feel so lonely even when we’re surrounded by people? And what does God invite us into instead?
If you’ve ever felt isolated in a crowd, if you’ve ever wondered why connection is so hard, if you’ve ever longed for something more than digital likes and surface-level conversations, then I want you to lean in with me, because Ecclesiastes has something honest to say that feels very relevant today. Let’s open God’s Word together.
Let’s read Ecclesiastes 4 together
Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 4
Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun:
And look! The tears of the oppressed,
But they have no comforter—
On the side of their oppressors there is power,
But they have no comforter.
2 Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead,
More than the living who are still alive.
3 Yet, better than both is he who has never existed,
Who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.The Vanity of Selfish Toil
4 Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
5 The fool folds his hands
And consumes his own flesh.
6 Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.7 Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun:
8 There is one alone, without companion:
He has neither son nor brother.
Yet there is no end to all his labors,
Nor is his eye satisfied with riches.
But he never asks,
“For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?”
This also is vanity and a grave misfortune.The Value of a Friend
9 Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.Popularity Passes Away
13 Better a poor and wise youth
Than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more.
14 For he comes out of prison to be king,
Although he was born poor in his kingdom.
15 I saw all the living who walk under the sun;
They were with the second youth who stands in his place.
16 There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king;
Yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him.
Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Solomon observes three things in the world around him:
- People oppressed, with no one to comfort them.
- People driven by rivalry and comparison.
- People working endlessly, alone, with no one to share life with.
And he looks at it and says, “This too is meaningless.” Not because people are bad but because life was never meant to be lived alone.
Rivalry Is a Lonely Way to Live
Ecclesiastes 4:4
“All toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another.” That’s uncomfortable. Solomon says much of what drives us is comparison. We don’t just want to do well. We want to do better than. And comparison isolates us.
Because when life becomes competition:
- People become threats
- Success becomes fragile
- And relationships become secondary
We can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone.
Loneliness as an Epidemic
This isn’t just ancient wisdom. This is modern reality. Recent research shows that over 40% of adults report feeling chronically lonely, even though they are digitally connected to hundreds of people. We have more ways to connect than ever, and feel more disconnected than ever. Solomon saw this coming. Rivalry and comparison don’t build community. They erode it.
Working Alone Is Exhausting
Ecclesiastes 4:7–8
“There was a man all alone, yet there was no end to his toil.”
Solomon describes someone who works endlessly, accumulates success, and still asks: “For whom am I doing this?” This is where I want to pause and speak very directly and pastorally. Because this tendency to carry life alone is often especially true for men.
Many men are taught, sometimes subtly, sometimes directly, that strength means independence. That asking for help is weakness. That you solve your own problems. That you don’t burden others. That you carry it yourself. So, what happens? You work harder. You provide more. You stay busy. You stay quiet. And slowly, you become isolated, not because you want to be, but because you’ve been trained to believe that’s what strength looks like.
But Ecclesiastes says that’s not strength. That’s exhaustion. That’s loneliness. That’s a life God never designed you to carry alone. And this is not only true for men, but many men recognize themselves here. Achievement without relationship is empty work. We were built for connection, not silent endurance.
Two Are Better Than One
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
“Two are better than one, if either of them falls, one can help the other up, A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
This is the part of Ecclesiastes most of us recognize. We’ve heard it at weddings. We’ve seen it on wall art. We know the phrase. But Solomon is doing something deeper here than giving us a nice proverb about friendship.
He uses a word that would have been very familiar to his original audience. When he says, “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken,” the word for broken is the Hebrew word chāval. And chāval is not a word for snapping a stick. It’s a rope-making word. It means to be woven, twisted, braided together into strength.
Solomon is painting a picture. A single thread is easy to pull apart. But when threads are woven together, they form something that cannot be separated without destroying the whole rope. That’s the image. And here’s what Solomon is saying: You were never meant to be a single strand. You were meant to be woven into the lives of others. Not loosely connected. Not occasionally present. Woven.
Because isolation is not just emotionally painful. It is structurally weak. God did not design you to be a strong thread. He designed you to be part of a strong rope. And this is exactly what we see in the early church.
The Early Church
In Acts 2, the first Christians are described like this:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, All the believers were together.”
They shared life. They shared meals. They shared struggles. They shared needs. They shared joy.
They didn’t just attend worship. They lived life together. That’s how they flourished, not because they were perfect, but because they were present with one another. That’s what Solomon is pointing to.
Meaning grows in shared life. And that’s exactly the kind of community the church offers today.
Research from the Barna Group shows that interaction in a church setting isn’t just surface-level activity. At least half of adult churchgoers say they engage relationally with pastors, fellow attendees, or staff each week, and these interactions often form the foundation for something deeper.
Even though our culture struggles with connection, a lot of people go through life feeling isolated even while surrounded by others, the church still remains one of the most effective places to build meaningful relationships. Being part of a community where people lift each other up, pray for each other, and share the reality of life can actually counteract the loneliness people feel.
Barna data also points to something interesting: many Christians tend to keep their faith entirely private, more than half report that their spiritual lives are almost completely personal. But the research also makes a clear connection between shared faith and relational health, suggesting that those who are open to walking with others in their faith tend to grow more and experience deeper connection.
In other words: Church isn’t just a place we gather. It’s one of the places God uses to weave our lives together, the way He designed us to live. So let me say it this way: The community you find here, the friendships, the shared life, the mutual support, is not “only optional.” It’s one of the ways God keeps us from doing life alone. And that leads us into how we live this week.
You Were Never Meant to Do This Alone
So, here’s where Ecclesiastes brings this home for us. If God designed us to be woven together, and if the early church lived that way, and if even today research shows that meaningful connection often grows through church community, then this isn’t just a nice idea. For some of you, it’s an invitation. An invitation to stop living as a single strand and to let your life be woven into others.
So let me ask you a few honest questions:
- Who here really knows the season you’re in?
- Who knows what you’re carrying right now?
- If you quietly pulled back, who would notice?
Because attending church and being woven into church life are not the same thing. One is showing up. The other is sharing life. And Ecclesiastes is inviting us into the second.
This Week — Take One Step Toward Connection
Choose one:
☐ Have a real conversation with someone here, not small talk, real talk.
☐ Join a small group, study, or gathering where life is shared.
☐ Serve alongside others instead of sitting alone.
☐ Reach out to someone you haven’t connected with yet.
☐ Let someone know what you’re actually walking through.
Because the church is not just a place you attend. It’s one of the primary ways God answers the loneliness we feel. This week, don’t just hear this and agree with it. Act on it. Take one step toward letting your life be woven into others. Ecclesiastes isn’t offering us interesting observations, it’s inviting us into a different way of living.
Next week, Pastor Marlee is going to take us into Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 with a question that feels very close to home: Are we actually listening to God or are we just talking around Him? It’s possible to be busy with church, busy with faith, busy with life, and still miss what God is trying to say to us. We’ll look at how a meaningful life is shaped when we slow down, become attentive, and learn to truly hear God.
Don’t settle.
Come back next week as we keep discovering what it means to live a meaningful life, together.
Amen.
Prayer
Let’s pray together.
Gracious God, we thank You that You do not call us to walk this life alone. You are present with us by Your Spirit, and You place us among one another as a gift. You see the ways we carry burdens quietly. You see where comparison steals our joy. You see where independence has slowly replaced connection. For those who feel unseen, remind them they are known by You.
For those who feel tired from carrying too much alone, give them courage to let someone in. For those who feel disconnected, draw them into life-giving community. Shape us as a church that reflects Your heart, a place where people are welcomed, supported, and strengthened together.
Help us to notice one another more. To listen more carefully. To reach out more intentionally, and this week, lead each of us to one small step toward shared life, trusting that You often bring meaning not only through what we do, but through who we walk beside.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, who calls us His body. Amen.
Song
Benediction
Go now, not to carry life on your own, but to walk it with God and with one another. May the Lord steady your heart, open your eyes to the people around you, and give you the courage to step toward connection. And may the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the presence of the Holy Spirit go with you into this week. Amen.