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.

The older I get, the more I'm coming to understand that one of God's richest gifts is friendship.

I remember as a boy hearing an older man say that if you could count on one hand all of your real friends.

You were a wealthy man.

And I remember thinking, oh, I have many more friends than that.

But as I've lived a little while, I've come to understand what he meant,

that there are many acquaintances, there are many people that we are friendly with.

There are many people who may even call themselves our friends, but a true friend.

I'm talking about the kind of friend that, according to Scripture,

sticks closer than a brother, the kind of friends you could lean on at any time and call in any circumstance.

Now, that is a rare blessing, and it is the gift of God.

And I believe that every good relationship, every good relationship

should be built on the foundation of friendship. And so it's for that reason that I want to

return today to Ecclesiastes 4 to the verses that we have been studying. We've talked about the

loneliness of life from these verses. We've talked about the loneliness of life from these verses. We've talked about the principle

of two. But if you'll permit me to return to verses 8 through 12 in Ecclesiastes chapter 4, I want

to talk to you about the foundation of friendship. Let me just read them again. The Bible says there is one

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