Resilient #6 - Faith and Fear

The book of Ecclesiastes is tough book for a lot of reasons. As the table talk starts, Solomon wonders aloud what the meaning of life is. He investigates with us and keeps on asking, “What is the point of all this life under the sun?” The good and the bad, the righteous and the wicked, they all die in the end. We all suffer the same. People endure the same unbearable life under the sun that animals do. It’s a tough book because he pushes us to ask, “What’s the point?”

It’s also tough because you have to read the whole book before you really get the point. Solomon must have been a great joke teller because he saves the punch line for the very end. Oh, he leaves hints along the way, but he doesn’t really drop the mic, so-to-speak, until this last chapter.

I hope you’ve stuck around through this whole series and you’ve maybe even cracked open the book of Ecclesiastes to look at what we didn’t study together. I pray that it’s a book and a series that sticks with you the rest of your life and maybe even sticks you, as a goad with a sharp nail in the end of it.

Solomon has been doing something to us this whole time and it’s time we get to the bottom of what he’s doing. We’ll be looking at the final chapter of Ecclesiastes this weekend, chapter 12. It will help us live as God’s people in this country we call America.

Resilient #5 - Grace Colored Glasses

This weekend, we want to return to our childish roots and see things from God’s perspective and from his point of view. We want to learn to live with a simple, childlike faith, that enjoys all of the things that God gives us in this life that we live under the sun. Let’s smile more and laugh louder. Let’s whistle while we work and enjoy some fun in the sun with our spouse and our kids. Let’s enjoy this life that God gives us because… “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” We’ll be looking at Ecclesiastes 9:1-12.

Resilient #4 - The Journey Together

From the beginning of our life to our dying day, our Father makes sure that we are never alone. In our lives, he connects us to family and friends. In the church, he connects us to himself and to his body. In this way, we are never alone in this journey toward heaven. A sermon on Ecclesiastes 4:8-12.

Resilient #3 - The Daily Grind

Work: A Sacred Calling. Do you agree? Do you disagree? How exactly do you feel about the work that you do? And I’m not just talking about work you get paid for. I’m talking about your work as a mother or a father. I’m talking about the labor of the retiree. I’m talking about the toil of a teen and the chores of a child. All of us work even if we don’t get a paycheck for us.

Do you see your work as a sacred calling or is it more of a grind? Do you find yourself wondering if your work even matters? Do you find your work mundane or ordinary, without any sense of true meaning?

This weekend, we’ll be looking at Ecclesiastes 2:17-26. Here Solomon struggles with his own work and wonders what the point is. It seemed so meaningless to him. We want to reclaim what is special and sacred and holy about the work that God gives us to do.

Resilient #2 - Why so Serious?

I normally don’t like to do this and say something that I’ll say in a sermon before the sermon happens. But this time, I’m going to. I want to ponder this question: Where does God fit in your life? The way you answer this question matters. In fact, the way you think about this question; that matters as well. Where does God fit in your life?

Ecclesiastes is a wonderful little book that is going to force us to think about things that we may not think that often about. It is going to help us evaluate things that we may not evaluate that often. So, ask the question and think carefully, even deeply, about how you think about this question and how you answer this question. We’ll do it together during the sermon. (Also, read Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:11.).

Resilient #1 - Under the Sun

“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” That’s how the Teacher starts his talk around the table. He says it and everyone nods. We do too. We nod because we have experienced the sorrow, the frustration, the pain, even the emptiness of life under the sun. This is how he starts his table talk, but this is not his end. The Teacher helps us live with a childlike faith to honestly face the quandaries of existence in this fallen world. We can enjoy life’s little pleasures as gifts from our gracious God. We can roll with the punches and look realistically at the problems of earthly life. We can even laugh in the face of such trouble. The faith inspired by the Teacher is resilient. Even death cannot shake us. We learn to live resiliently with the simple faith of a child.

This weekend we’ll be looking at Ecclesiastes 1:1-11. The sermon will, in a way, serve as an introduction the life of faith God calls us to live. What is this life? It is not a life under the sun. That is meaningless. It is, rather, a life above and beyond the sun that God invites us to live. Can’t wait! I won’t be empty or vanity or meaningless.