Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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There has to be more to life than this
“There has to be more to life than this,” a man says to himself as he lies awake in bed one night.
Bill is a middle-aged man in his forties.
If you knew him, you would think he has it all together.
He has a loving wife, beautiful children, a good job, and they live in a nice home, surrounded by friends.
What else could there be?
The world says: “this is what life is all about,” “this is where happiness is found.”
Bill is grateful for all of these blessings, and yet he senses that there’s something missing.
Even though he is successful on so many levels, there is an emptiness he cannot escape.
He wonders: “What is my purpose?
Am I here for a reason?
Is my life going somewhere?
Or is this all there is?”
Bill started wrestling with these questions ever since his next door neighbor died suddenly from a major heart attack.
They had been friends.
They were about the same age, at the same place in life.
Their children played together in the back yard.
Every morning, before heading off to work, the two men waved to each other as they pulled out of their driveways.
But one evening, Bill came home and saw the flashing lights of an ambulance parked in front of his neighbor’s home.
He was not only sad to lose a friend, but he was shaken by it.
He realized, “that could have been me.”
It made him pause and consider the focus of his life.
“Why am here?”
“Is this all there is, or is there a bigger purpose I have missing?
Maybe you have wrestled with this same question.
All of us search for significance, looking for something to fill our lives with meaning.
We know instinctively that there has to be more than making it through another day.
Sometimes we lie awake at night wondering, “What is my purpose?”
“Why am I here?”
“Am I making a difference?”
It is possible to spend my entire life searching for meaning in the wrong place.
I could devote all of my time and energy in pursuits that are good, but at the end of the day are incapable of offering real or lasting significance to my life.
I don’t want that to happen.
When my time on this earth comes to an end, I don’t want to look back with regret because I have missed out on the things that matter most.
So what is the meaning of life?
The book of Ecclesiastes helps us wrestle with that question, and points us to the ultimate answer.
We must look to the Lord for purpose, because the world is unable to provide true meaning to our lives.
In the opening verses, the author calls himself as “the teacher.”
We can tell that he is an older man, with plenty of life experience.
While he doesn’t tell us his name, we get a pretty good idea of who he is by the way he describes himself.
He tells us that he is the son of David, and ruled as king in Jerusalem for many years.
He was able to grow in wisdom more than all who had come before him.
He acquired tremendous wealth, and oversaw great building projects throughout the country.
He wrote many proverbs.
There’s really only one person in the history of Israel who fits this description, and that is King Solomon.
That means the book was written at some point during his reign, between 970-930 B.C.
But like I said, we can tell that he is an older man, so he likely penned these words towards the end of his rule.
The past two weeks we have talked about the life of Solomon.
We saw how he began well.
Shortly after he became king, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream offering to grant any request.
“Tell me what you would like me to do for you, and I will do it.”
Solomon replied, “Give me a wise and discerning heart so I can govern your people.”
His answer pleased God, and the Lord was willing to grant his request.
Solomon became known throughout the world for his great wisdom.
Under his rule, Israel enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity.
His greatest accomplishment was building a beautiful temple in Jerusalem to the Lord.
Everything was going well.
And yet, later in life, Solomon lost his focus and he began to drift away from God. Scripture tells us that he married more than 700 wives ().
You don’t have to be a genius to know that wasn’t a good idea.
Most of them were political marriages.
Part of establishing a peace treaty, with another country was marrying the princess of that land.
But these wives worshipped idols, and to make them happy he built shrines where they could worship the gods of their people.
In the process, his own heart was led astray.
It was during that period of his life that Solomon struggled to find meaning.
He seemed to have everything going for him, but he wasn’t satisfied.
So he searched for significance in every pursuit he could think of.
“Maybe this will make me happy…” “Or maybe this will fill the void in my heart.”
But no matter where he looked, he knew that there was something missing.
Despite all of his success, his life felt empty.
Finally, the Lord opened his eyes, and Solomon came to realize where he went wrong.
He wrote this book to help us learn from his mistakes.
His conclusion is that everything is meaningless, apart from God.
There is nothing in this world we can substitute for the Lord… nothing else that will fill the emptiness in our heart.
If we leave God out of the picture, we will never be truly satisfied.
One commentator puts it this way, “It is as though [Solomon] were saying, ‘Come on then.
Let’s see what a life without God is really like.
What have you got if you only live for the things of the world?
Life is futile and meaningless, frustrating and miserable.
But God can make a difference!’”
(Derick Tidball, “Illustrated Survey of the Bible,” p.97)
If you came this morning hoping for a light and cheerful sermon, I’m sorry to say you’ve come to the wrong place.
But we need to hear the message of Ecclesiastes.
Its wisdom is just as relevant to our lives today as it was 3,000 years ago.
Throughout the book, Solomon talks about some of the places where he tried to find purpose.
It’s not that these were bad things; most of them were very noble and good.
But the trouble is expecting these pursuits to make us happy, or to bring true and lasting joy.
No matter how noble these things might be, when we allow them to take the place of God, we will ultimately be disappointed.
The meaning of life is not found in our work.
Look at verses 2-3: “Meaningless!
Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”
You might feel that way on Monday morning, when it’s a struggle to roll out of bed, and you’re not ready to head back to the daily grind.
Or maybe it’s the thought you have at the end of the day, when you are completely exhausted from another difficult week.
The passage isn’t saying that work is a bad thing.
Even though you may not always enjoy what you do, you can be thankful to have a job.
Work allows us to earn a living.
It teaches responsibility.
You probably become friends with some of your co-workers.
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