Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Over the last 9 months we have been looking at this overarching biblical theme that we are on a journey.

We’ve looked at the beginning.

We’ve looked at the path, the guide, the map, the speed-bumps.

But if you’ve watched Avengers End Game (or even just the trailer) you may have heard a quote from Tony Stark (Iron Man)....”Part of the Journey is the End.”

And for the next 4 weeks as we finish The Journey, we look to the journey’s end.

And we are going to be answer the question, “What happens when this life ends and eternity begins?”

And in so doing, we have to ask how does our Journey now ultimately affect the end.

For many of us this issue of eternity is pretty close to our hearts.

We’ve lost people that we long to see in eternity.

Family friends.

Heroes of faith.

But more than anything we get to see Jesus.

But in order for us to do that we have to correct some misconceptions about eternity and also the journey that we are on.

Turn in you Bibles to

Introduction to Scripture:

Ecclesiastes is a book of the Bible that deals with the perspective we have with regard to our lives.

Solomon was a king that had wasted the prime of his life rebelling against God and worshiping idols.

So in the twilight of his life in he realizes that he’s made a grievous error in the way he lives his life and gets some perspective.

He realizes what life is really about and writes us this beautiful book so that his son as well as us will not make the same mistakes that we do.

Now the second we will be reading follows the lyrics to a very popular 70s beegee’s song about how everything happens in it’s season.

Now Solomon turns to productivity, eternity and God’s sovereignty.

Let’s read the Word of God as spoken through the Preacher-King.

Ecc 3:9-14

Transition to Big Idea: You pretty much have to read this through the eyes of a guy that has wasted his life chasing down things he thinks will please him only to find that the only thing that satisfies was there all along.

It was God.

And in spite of all that he had done, God was bringing Solomon back to Himself..

And in

In the emd, Solomon gained an eternal perspective.

And he instructs his children and the people of God to never lose that eternal perspective.

Big Idea: Keep an Eternal Perspective

Transition to Points: Now for most of his life, Solomon had viewed everything through the lens of the present.

Now.

And now, he is looking at things through a much different lens.

Things that we do begin to look different.

Things we think are important becoming, in the words of Solomon, “vanity” or “meaningless.”

Things we thought weren’t important actually have an eternal impact.

Take work for example...

#1 - We were Created to be Productive.

Explanation: There are a couple things that we get wrong about the Christian faith. 1 thing is that nothing matters so long as we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, say a prayer.

All that matters is the end.

The rest is just a waiting game.

And why?

Because we have made religion and Christianity a personal thing.

It’s all about me.

So long as I have my parachute, when the plane goes down I’ll be find.

We forget that there are others who won’t be so lucky.

God always expected His children to be productive. 1 as an example of what a relationship with God is like. 2 to tell others about the wonderful God that we serve.

Even before Jesus, God expected the Jewish people to be a blessing to the nations.

That’s actually what he story of the prodigal son is about.

The older brother shouldn’t have waited for the younger brother to come home, but should have gone out and brought him home.

And that’s exactly what Jesus expects His followers to do.

Be productive in leading many people back to Him, by any means necessary.

So get busy.

The second misconception is that work is bad and must be endured as a punishment.

A lot of people draw the false conclusion that work is a curse and that had Adam and Eve not sinned we would have never had to work and we could sit around eating whatever we wanted without gaining wait binge watching Veggietales.

But the truth is that we were created to work.

The second is that work is bad and must be endured as a punishment.

A lot of people draw the false conclusion that work is a curse and that had Adam and Eve not sinned we would have never had to work and we could sit around eating whatever we wanted without gaining wait binge watching Veggietales.

But the truth is that we were created to work.

If you were to go back to Chapter 2, you would see that Solomon laments work as vanity when you are finding your identity in it.

That’s because we have work in a fallen world and work simply becomes a means to an end.

But in verse 9, he asks the question again.

And verse 10 answers by saying that toil or work is given to man by God.

Verse 14 even calls our work a gift.

And the first part of vs. 11 even calls it beautiful.

This should remind us of

Notice that this is before the fall.

We were created to toil not as a means to an end, but an end in itself.

Work is good and if you think you won’t work in eternity you are wrong.

But the difference is that you will reap the rewards of your work.

The hope is that if we understand this now, we can redeem the work that we do so that can see it’s effects in eternity.

Illustration: Have you ever been working on a project.

Maybe it was at work or just a hobby.

You finish it and step back and you are wowed by what you have done.

Sometimes it just feels great to finish something that you started.

Other times you feel like you are wowed by your own work.

People have an innate desire to be productive.

This is why losing your job can be so soul crushing.

It’s like you lose your humanity.

Application: Now, Solomon shows us that the problem is finding your identity in your work.

However, if we find our identity in God, then we find beautiful joy in doing what we were created to do.

Be productive.

An eternal perspective on work shows us that God is in control of it all.

So do it all for Him.

This is what Paul means when he says in

We were created to be productive.

But our productivity should echo through eternity.

And it’s not necessarily the work that you do, but the relationships you build in doing your work.

Join with other people.

Invite people into your journey at work, in your hobbies, in your day to day activities.

You may not be whatever you do in eternity, but you can use your job to influence people to have an eternal perspective.

So what....well if we were created to be productive, then in this life, we’re not just waiting for heaven.

We have a job to do.

Because....

#2 - We were Created for Eternity

Explanation: Verse 11 is a beautiful picture of how God has created us.

“Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

We have to remember that when God created Adam and Eve, he created them to live forever with Him.

It wasn’t until sin entered the world that death entered.

But we were created with a soul that will live forever.