July 14, 2024 Life to the Fullest

Part 1 | Why I Feel Empty

From Ecclesiastes 1-2

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:1 ESV The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

📖 Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Earthly cannot a hole.

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 ESV Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

“Vanity” – in Hebrew: “Hebel” – “smoke/vapor”.

“What am I ?”

Option 1: .

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:16-17 ESV I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:13-14 ESV It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:15 ESV What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

📖 Ecclesiastes 1:18 ESV For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Option 2: .

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:1 ESV I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:2-3 ESV I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:11 ESV Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:17 ESV So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:24 ESV There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.

The Key: Limited in temporary .

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:24b-25 ESV This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

📖 Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV For to the one who pleases Him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.

📖 Hebrews 11:6 ESV And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The that leads to of Life

1. that Jesus Christ for .

📖 Romans 5:6-8 ESV For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

2. that God is .

📖 Romans 8:31-32 ESV What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

3. to more and more of .

📖 Romans 8:35-37 ESV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Sermon in a Sentence:

In Christ alone, I have limited in temporal because I’m made with , who is over all .