Ecclesiastes 7:1–29
First half of the sermon text. The house of mourning teaches more than the house of feasting. Sit with that during a week of parties instead of arguing with it.
What does the Teacher say the house of mourning teaches that the house of feasting cannot?
Second half. There is no one righteous on earth who does good and never sins. That is the Teacher’s verdict on all of us, himself included.
Find verse 20. Who does it include?
Paul reaches the same verdict, quoting the Old Testament to get there. Then he writes two words Ecclesiastes never gets to say: but now.
Paul says “but now.” What happened in between that let him say it?
A light for people walking in darkness. After three days in Ecclesiastes 7, you will feel why that language was chosen.
If 7:20 is true of you, what does the light in Isaiah 9 become — a nice image, or a rescue?
The house of mourning got a visitor. Read it out loud with whoever is in the room.
Read it aloud to whoever is there. Then thank God that the answer to Ecclesiastes arrived as a person.
A lighter week on purpose.
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.