Ecclesiastes 3:16 – 4:3
The sermon text. Wickedness sitting in the seat of justice, and the oppressed with no one to comfort them. This is the darkest stretch of the book. Do not rush past it.
The Teacher moves from time to courtrooms. Who has no comforter in 4:1, and who is missing from that scene?
Asaph nearly loses his faith over this exact problem. Watch where his perspective changes and what it costs him to get there.
One phrase repeats twice in 4:1. Find it. Why would he say it twice?
A prophet asks God how long he plans to tolerate this, out loud, in Scripture. Complaint like this is not unbelief.
Habakkuk and the Teacher ask the same question. What is different about the direction each one aims it?
Whatever you feel about the injustice in 3:16, God feels more strongly. Notice what he says about worship offered by people who ignore it.
Where is there oppression you can actually see — not in the news, but within driving distance? Name one.
The Teacher says God will judge the righteous and the wicked at the appointed time. Here is that time, and what is left when the oppression is finally over.
Bring what you named yesterday to God. Ask what this church’s part in it is, then ask what yours is.
What are the Marks and the 3 Circles?
The Marks of a Disciple
Each week names one of these — the practices we are cultivating in each other.
- Daily Devotion
- Time with God every day, in the Bible and in prayer.
- Prayer
- Not only a set appointment, but a life of prayer at any hour, for anything.
- Generosity
- Giving your effort and your resources to this church and to God’s kingdom.
- Service
- Giving your time and talent to the church and its mission in the community.
- Witness
- Seeking people far from God and telling them about Jesus and about your own finding of him.
- Worship
- Weekly praise together, and a life presented daily to God’s service.
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Fasting, solitude, study, sabbath — the old practices of the faith.
The 3 Circles
How we tell someone about Jesus — simple enough to draw on a napkin. Each week names the part of it that week’s reading sits in.
- God’s Design
- The world and your life as God made them to be.
- Sin
- The arrow out. We each go our own way instead.
- Brokenness
- Where that leaves us. Ecclesiastes spends most of twelve chapters here.
- Repent & Believe
- Turning from our own way and trusting what Jesus did.
- Gospel
- Jesus lived the life we could not and died the death we deserved.
- Recover & Pursue
- The way back toward the life God designed.