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7:15-25, 29 Last week, Jacob walked us through the extended proverb section of Ecclesiastes, and helped understand how God can use adversity to develop wisdom within us and, with that, more Christlikeness as we grow in Humility, Patience, Gentleness, Self-Control, Contentment. The teacher continues that…

Pre-Introduction Introduction (FCF: A world that’s unjust) Example from the world Example from the church Scripture passage: Ecc 8:10-11 10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11…

Life under the sun Ecclesiastes 1-2 Prayer Through your word we might know you. knowing you we might know wisdom for life. I pray that you might give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a softened heart to see the reality of our lives and the wonderful truth of your Word. Introduction Ah… another day.…

Solomon was a prolific author. If he lived today, he would be on the New York Times best seller list, multiple times. People would be lining up to read his next book. His songs would be on the top of the charts, just because of the amount of things he wrote. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs…

Introduction Ecclesiastes represents man’s best conclusions as he searches for answers “under the sun.” It sets forth deductions based on observations and on logic but not on divine revelation. Ecclesiastes is what a wise man might think if he did not have a Bible. Transition As he wrapped up chapter…

Pre-Introduction Introduction They were vastly outnumbered, and they were out of time. The year was 1529, the Ottoman Empire, now at its peak, had a force of at least 100,000 soldiers marching to the gates of Vienna, a city that had only 21,000 defenders. They were outnumbered 5 to 1. The official in…

Torah Portion: Leviticus 26:3-27:34 Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19- 17:14 Road Map Review Shemini (8) mikvah Tzaraat lashon hara The Great Day - HaGadol Picture of Torah Readings Summary of the Passover Torah Readings The term Chol HaMo’ed Picture of the two prophecies. dry bones and Ingathering A Holy People…

Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever…

Solomon is discussing wisdom and folly in this passage. We gave the first part of this sermon two weeks ago, and basically covered the main point of the whole thing. We find our joy not in our circumstances and how we can manipulate them, but in the God who loves us. Solomon continues discussing wisdom…

Today we are wrapping up this six part study of the Good News called, “Life in 6 Words.” We get these six words by using the word “Gospel” as an acrostic. As a way of review, let’s walk through these six words one final time… G - God created us to be with Him. ( Genesis 1-2 ) O - Our sins separate us…

Understand the Times 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but…

Last week we started into a series on relationships. And I warned that this series may feel very pointed. It may feel like I am telling the whole church about your problems, and dealing with them from the pulpit in a way that doesn’t feel very fair to you. So I want to explain myself before we get to…

The Question 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the…

God’s not dead… transforming people’s lives, healing hurting people and reconciling relationships. Today, He’s blessing people’s lives and families… Some families live expecting great blessings while others need to experience great blessings. A child asked his father, "Dad, How were people born?" So…

Meaningful Wisdom

Meaninglessness of Work Without God

But we are all as an unclean thing , And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: For thou hast hid thy face from us, And…

Wisdom and Limitations Have any of you heard of something called Decision paralysis? This is something that I witnessed when I worked in restaurants. Specifically, when I worked at The Cheesecake factory. If you don’t know, The Cheesecake Factory boasts a menu of more than 200 items and 30 cheesecakes.…

Wisdom and Joy When God created humanity he created us with the capacity to gain knowledge and to put that knowledge into action. That is wisdom. As we talked about a few weeks ago there are really two types of wisdom: General worldly wisdom, like knowing a tomato is a fruit but not putting it in a fruit…

Can life have any meaning in a naturalistic universe? Physicist Steven Weinberg doesn’t think so. He writes: “The more comprehensible the universe becomes, the more it also seems pointless.” Similarly, Richard Dawkins says: In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic…

We’re continuing on in our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes. This book is written by Qoholeth, which is translated as “the Preacher” or “the Teacher” depending on your translation, but is used as a personal pronoun throughout the book. The author wants to be attributed to Solomon, the son of…

Philippians 3:7-14 Purpose is a very wonderful thing. Without purpose, a person life is without direction and ultimately without hope. When one loses hope then they lose reason for living. We live in a society today that is losing its purpose. There is a real problem, not only in America but in many…

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care…

2 “Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” 3 What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? 8 All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is…

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon adopts an "under the sun" perspective on life. He recognises that life in this world is inherently unfair--rewards don't match effort. How can we handle this? Solomon suggests several responses, but none of them are satisfying. But what if we take an "above the sun" perspective? Does that make a difference?