Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Anger
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Analytical
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Opening Illustration:
When I was a kid I had a Nintendo.
I got pretty good at the games and one game we played was Super Mario Brothers.
I quickly learned to beat the game but then challenged myself to beat the game without dying even once.
I played the game so often that I knew exactly what would happen on every stage.
Nothing surprised me.
I knew where every enemy would be, I knew when to jump, when to duck, when to run and when to stop.
The game became very predictable to me.
I was able to beat the entire game with only one man.
To get to that place I had to die a thousand times.
Life is not like a video game.
We can’t play it over and over until we learn to breeze through it perfectly without a single mistake.
This is our first and only time we get to play this game called life.
We don’t know where every pitfall and enemy
is.
This life is unpredictable.
Ecclesiastes chapter 9 tells us about this unpredictable life we live.
1. Life is unpredictable because God is sovereign (1-6).
A. God is sovereign over the righteous and the unrighteous.
In verse 2 Solomon says, “it is the same for all”.
Then he tells us who the “all” he is referring to are.
Notice how he describes the people in this world.
The righteous and the wicked
The good and the evil
The clean and the unclean
Him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice
The good and the sinner
The one who swears and the one who refuses to make an oath
If you look closely you’ll see similarities between the two groups in these passages.
Neither know the future (1)
Neither are without sin (3)
Neither escape death (4-5)
Neither are remembered on the earth (5-6)
This crushes the Karma illusion so many in our world buy into.
The idea of if you do good things good things will happen to you is not in Scripture.
God cannot be manipulated by the righteous or the wicked.
You can’t say “God you have to fill my life with good things because I’m a good person.”
If that were true life would be predictable.
You could say “It’s going to be a great day because I have been a great person.”
Could you imagine that?
There’s a roadblock with lots of cars backed up for miles.
The officer comes out and says “All the good people, come on.
You guys get to go around.
All you wicked people stay here.
Your day is gonna stink.”
God doesn’t have to give you a great day because you’re a good person.
God doesn’t have to give a wicked person an awful day.
B. Solomon expresses his frustration (3-5).
It’s natural for us to wonder why righteous people suffer and die.
Martha was so upset with Jesus about her brother dying she said to Jesus “If you had been here He would not have died” (John 11:21).
Yet it was Jesus who decided to wait until Lazarus died to go and see him (John 11:5-6).
Jesus let Lazarus die.
That frustrated Martha.
I want to look at verses 4-5 because they have confused people.
Some have used these verses to teach people are not conscious after death.
That’s not what they’re teaching at all.
Solomon recognizes that a living dog is better than a dead lion.
He goes on in the next verse to explain why.
The living have an understanding that they will die.
In other words they can repent and enjoy life the godly way.
The dead do not have that opportunity.
When Solomon says that the dead do not know anything he is not saying that man ceases to exist at death.
His point is that he cannot use wisdom to begin living his life for the glory of God.
As well he cannot enjoy the rewards of life in general.
Let’s compare two lost people.
One is a millionaire, he is the lion.
The other is a beggar, he is the dog.
If the millionaire dies before the beggar, the beggar is better off than the millionaire.
The reason is because the beggar still has the opportunity to give his life to the Lord.
The millionaire is lost for eternity.
Have you ever been praying for a lost person, and they die without Christ?
I have.
It’s frustrating.
You know it’s over for them.
God is sovereign over the day we die and that’s true for the lost and the saved.
James said our life is like a vapor.
It’s like a puff of smoke.
It’s here one minute and gone the next.
C. The sovereignty of God only bothers us when life is uncomfortable.
Have you ever noticed that?
Something bad happens and we ask the Lord “What did I do to deserve this?
Why don’t we do that when something good happens?
Lord what did I do to deserve:
These clothes
This food
This family
This home
This health
This sunshine
If you determine whether or not God loves you by the events in your life you’re going to be confused.
One day you’ll think He loves you, the next day you’ll doubt His love.
The truth is we must be willing to accept both good and bad in this world because what happens to us in this world is not dependent upon our goodness or lack of.
It’s dependent on the sovereignty of God in our life.
2. Life is unpredictable because we are limited by time and chance (11-12).
A. Let’s define what Solomon means by time and chance.
Time- the length of your life or the length of circumstances in your life.
Chance- the events in your life.
Solomon says life is unpredictable because of time and chance (11).
Back to James.
He said we should not say what we are going to do but rather we should say “If the Lord wills….”
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