Solomon closes the book of Ecclesiastes with these words. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Each of us have been given only one life.

What will we do with it? Life. It's not a game. And in this journey through the book of Ecclesiastes, Scott Pauley will guide us to better understand the true meaning of life.

When you're young, you imagine that at some point, all the rules will go away, but I'm here to

tell you today that rules are a part of life. And nobody likes them, but you better understand

them. And they're there for a reason. To disobey the guidelines is really to put yourself at risk.

That's why God gives authority to parents over children. It's why God gives police and government

authorities who are God's ministers, the Bible says to us in that realm.

It's why in every sphere of life, God puts hedges,

hedges of grace and mercy,

not to keep us from enjoying life,

but to keep evil from us.

We've come today to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verses 8 and 9, to two of the most

fascinating verses in the entire book. Solomon writes, he that digeth a pit shall fall into it,

and whoso breaketh an hedge a serpent shall bite him, who so remove a stone shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood should be endangered

thereby. Now, what he's describing in these two verses is what we often refer to as the

law of sowing and reaping. In fact, he identifies, in Ecclesiastes 10, verse number eight, two different kinds of sins.

He talks about digging pits and breaking hedges. To dig a pit and then end up falling in it

means that you have created the means of your own destruction. You ever heard the expression

digging a hole for yourself? Well, we often

do that. We dig pits of bitterness and then we live in them. We dig pits of lust and then we're

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