SGL Announcements
eFam Groups: If you have an apprentice that may be interested in becoming an eFam leader, direct them here: eFam Group Leader Application
Action Groups: If you have an apprentice (or someone you think may make a good action group leader) who would like to lead an Action Group, direct them here: Action Group Leader Application

WOONSOCKET PERMANENT LOCATION: As you know we have a permanent location for Woonsocket Campus – your talent is needed.  If you have any experience in carpentry, HVAC, etc., let us know.

TESTIMONIES: Looking for your testimonies!  If you have group wins to share from your Small Group, please email them to me!  maparsons@waterschurch.org
SMALL GROUP VIDEOS:  If you need members, please send me a 30-second video of you (refer to the one of the Manolios that is posted on social media – click here to watch). 
 

The Deep End Podcast: GET YOUR (FREE) TICKET TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT!
The Deep End is a weekly live simulcast hosted by Pastor Tim.  Every week we dive deeper in Faith, Politics, the Bible and the world we live in.  Be part of the audience as we study the Book of Acts on Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:00p.  You can click here to register: The Deep End. Take a Tuesday and have you and your small group register and you can all be in the audience together!
PLEAST NOTE:  ONLY THE LEADER NEEDS TO RESERVE AS MANY TICKETS AS THEY NEED.  PLEASE DO NOT HAVE MEMBERS RESERVE THEIR OWN, THIS MAY CAUSE AN OVERBOOKING..
 

Classes
Starting Point: What is Christianity all about? Is the Bible really more than just a book? Who is Jesus? No matter where we are in life, we all have questions. Starting Point is a great place to explore the Faith and have safe and open discussions about some of life’s toughest questions.
 
 
Growth Track:  This single class happens twice a month; Discover, Deepen, & Dedicate; you will get answers to the most frequently asked questions about Waters Church and have an opportunity to ask your own. This is the perfect place to get to know the “Why” behind the “What” of who we are as a church.  Takes place on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at 11:30a.
Baptism Class: 4th Sunday of every month at 11:30a.

Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon who was the son of David.  He was the successive king over Israel who had extreme wisdom.  He was the richest, craziest man that ever lived.  He was the most powerful, most pleasure filled, and most smartest.  He lived a life of more than anyone could have ever imagined and and then he writes Ecclesiastes.  


Life is full of stages.  When you are young and full of adventure, you feel like you could be anyone you want to be.


Q. What did you dream of doing, or who did you dream of being when you were younger?

Ecclesiastes 1:1–3 (ESV)

The word vanity comes from a greek word meaning emptiness, void.  Solomon had ‘been there done that.’  Under the sun means a life lived in the horizontal plane. Taking God out of the mix.

Point 1: Without God, life is EMPTY.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 (ESV)


Earth is already here and people come and go.  When we die, it is over.  Without God life is temporary.  After we die we will be forgotten.  We want to make a legacy, but we will be forgotten.  This is a reality we do not want to face.  We experience this in our lives such as people forgetting us after we graduate etc.


. 
~ Point: Without God, life doesn’tlast.


Q. What is an experience you have had where you were forgotten or perhaps you had forgotten about someone? 
Ecclesiastes 1:5-6 (ESV)


~ Point: Without God, life is redundant. 

Life gets to be routine.  

Ecclesiastes 1:8 (ESV) 

We are always thinking that something will make us happier.

~ Point: Without God, life is unfulfilling.


Q. What are some things you thought would make you happy but did not once you achieved them?

Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 (ESV)


Nothing is new, there are just new ways of doing old things. 

~ Point: Without God, life gets old.

Q. What are some things you have thought were new but were really done before in a different way (ie. Alexa)?

Ecclesiastes 1:11 (ESV)

~ Point: Without God, life is forgettable.

Point 2: Without God LIFE gets full of secondary things.
Ecclesiastes 2:1 (ESV)
Solomon could do anything he wanted.  He chased after pleasure and enjoyment.  We are terrible of knowing what really makes us happy.  We may think winning the lottery will solve our problems, so we rely on playing the numbers.  People who have won the lottery are no happier than people who have been in a horrible car accident and lost their ability to walk.  We get what we want and then realize we really did not want it and we are still not happy.

Ecclesiastes 2:12-15 (ESV)
Now he considers wisdom.  Knowledge and education are still vanity.  Even if we get a degree we can still be empty.

Ecclesiastes 2:4, Ecclesiastes 2:11 (ESV)
Some of us get the job or career we want and are still not happy.

Pastor Tim poured sand in the jar and likened that to pleasures, then he put in work, vacation, marriage, kids etc. and topped it with a giant rock (Jesus).   When we fill our life with things and pleasure but do not put God first, our lives are empty, unfulfilled.  We chase things that don’t matter.


Ecclesiastes 2:17 (ESV)
Solomon chased after things that did not matter.  He hated life.


Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 (ESV)
Solomon is trying to show us something deeper, he is saying that it is fine to enjoy work, education, and pleasures of life.  We are not called to avoid these things, but God makes them all good.  The call is to make sure we are not chasing these things apart from the One who made it for us.

Q. How did your life seem empty and unfulfilled without God?  What things did you try to fill it with other than God?

POINT 3: Put the “BIG ROCK” FIRST.
(Hint: Jesus Christ is the Rock).
Solomon realized something was missing.  We may think we are having fun but instead we are making a mess.  We may think ‘I will serve God when…’ but that just makes more of a mess. 

Q. What did you think of your life and it’s future before you built it on Jesus?

POINT 4: When the BIG ROCK is in place, secondary things find their space.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 (ESV)
Pastor Tim took an empty jar and put the Big Rock (Jesus) in first then put the sand (pleasure) and ping pong balls (vacation, work, kids, marriage etc).  
Life is good when we do it the right way.

Q. What secondary things found their place in your life after you made the decision to put Jesus first?

TRUTH: Life with God is the beginning of wisdom, work, success, and (yes) even pleasure – NOT the end of them.

James 1:5 (ESV); Joshua 1:8 (ESV); Psalm 16:11 (ESV); Matthew 6:31–33 (NLT)

G. Campbell Morgan: It is only as a man takes account of that which is over the sun as well as that which is under the sun that things under the sun are seen in their true light.”

If our heavenly Father is over the sun, then it is a good day.

John 10:10-11 (ESV)