Ecclesiastes 8:1–17
The sermon text. Living under authority you cannot control, and watching the wicked get what the righteous deserve. Verse 12 is the hinge.
Who holds power in this chapter, and what can the wise man actually do about it?
A man who honored his king and feared God more, and what it cost him when the two collided.
Mark every “no one knows” and “cannot discover” in chapter 8. What is the Teacher admitting?
Paul on submitting to governing authorities, written to Christians living under Rome. He knew what he was asking.
Verse 12 says it will go well with those who fear God. Verse 14 says the opposite happens. How do both stand in one chapter?
Peter goes further and speaks to those suffering unjustly, pointing them to a Christ who entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
Where are you under an authority you did not choose? What does honoring it look like without pretending it is right?
Teach us to number our days so that we may develop wisdom. The right prayer for the first morning of a year.
Pray Psalm 90:12 over the year ahead, and name one thing you want to number your days by.
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.