Ecclesiastes 4:4–16
The sermon text. Work driven by envy, a man with no one, and two who are better than one. Notice how quickly isolation follows ambition here.
The chapter turns from injustice to isolation. What does verse 4 say drives most of our work?
It is not good for the man to be alone. God said that before anything was broken, which means the loneliness of 4:8 is not just a personality trait.
Count the people in the scene in 4:7–8. Now count them in 4:9–12.
Better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away. Proverbs gives practical shape to what the Teacher only sketches.
What does a cord of three strands actually mean — is it about friendship, or about something harder than friendship?
The Teacher traces all labor and skill to envy of a neighbor. James traces our conflicts to the same root and names it.
Whose absence from this church would you notice? Have you ever told them that?
A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Hebrews tells you where that gets practiced and warns you against dropping out of it.
Ask God for one specific way to give your time or ability to someone in this body. Then do it before Sunday.
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.