Ecclesiastes 5:8 – 6:12
First half of the sermon text. Whoever loves money is never satisfied with money. Then read verse 18 and notice the Teacher’s word for enjoyment: a gift.
These two chapters circle one subject. Name it in a single word, then find the verse that names it best.
Second half. A man who has everything and no ability to enjoy it. The Teacher calls that a sickness, not a blessing.
Set 5:19 beside 6:2. The two men own the same things. What does one have that the other does not?
If wealth increases, do not set your heart on it. The psalmist gives you somewhere else to set it.
The ability to enjoy your work is called a gift of God. If it is a gift, what does that say about the man in 6:2?
A man with everything and a man with nothing, and the moment the two of them trade places permanently.
What amount would finally feel like enough? Write the number down, then read 5:10 again.
Read the whole sermon text again, then read a man in prison say he has learned to be content. That is the answer this passage has been reaching for.
Give something away this week that you would rather keep, and tell no one but God.
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.