27 Oct “The Emptiness Experiment | Part 4 ‘Long Term living in a short term world’
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LIFE GROUP LEADER MEETING: November 4 from 6-8:30p . Go to the Events page on the HUB to register.
DEEP END PODCAST: Tuesday nights at 7:00p.. Come out and be a part of the audience. You can get your free tickets HERE
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-deep-end-with-tim-hatch-season-3-acts-tickets-69301718305
CLASSES; Baptism class is every 4th Sunday of the Month. at 11:30 / Growth Track runs the first 3 Sundays every month at 11:30 – this is a one and done registrants only need to attend one session / Starting Point runs every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 11:30 – details and descriptions can be found on the registrations which are located under Events on the HUB.
PROVIDENCE RESCUE MISSION: We go out there as a team on the 4th Sunday of every month to minister, cook and serve. See Christ MacEwen (chris@waterschurch.org) if your group is interested in helping on a given Sunday.
Solomon chased money, fortune, and accomplishments and came up empty. The first 6 chapters of Ecclesiastes are him chasing after things. Chapter 7 has the answer. It is the turning point, the ‘now what’. The ‘now what’ is wisdom.
If life without God is MEANINGLESS, it stands to reason LIFE with GOD is MEANINGFUL.
Why is this true? Because of all the benefits God brings to our lives. He is not a killjoy, but he is a loving, caring Father and he loves us. Like any good Father, we get benefits of doing life with him.
Ice-breaker question:
Q. What have you thought of as a killjoy but in reality was the result having loving parents and/or having a loving heavenly Father?
Life WITH God brings us the WISDOM of God.
Ecclesiastes 7:11 (ESV)
God is the source.
Colossians 2:3 (NLT)
3 BIG POINTS about WISDOM:
- Wisdom SEPARATES God’s BEST from what seems GOOD.
Wisdom draws two things together and says ‘this is better than that’. There are a lot of gray areas in life and there is not a specific verse for every area of our lives. Wisdom say it seems good, but it is not God’s best.
Q. What have been some ‘gray’ areas in your life where your solution seemed right but in hind sight it really was not God’s best?
2. Wisdom PREPARES us to choose the HARD ROAD instead of the EASY escape.
If we want to be wise, we should be prepared to do the hard thing. Many times we want to avoid the hard thing, but wisdom prepares us.
Q. What hard road have you forfeited to take the easy escape but realized you would have benefited more from the hard road (you could reverse this question and ask what hard road did you take knowing it would pay off rather than taking the easy road)?
3. Wisdom GROUNDS us in REALITY instead of FANTASY.
Ecclesiastes 7:7-12 ESV
Wisdom is reality driven. It is about who we see ourselves becoming. Establishing our identity is the wisdom of God over the long term, knowing who we really are in God’s eyes. We need Gods perspective and he wants us to live a long term life in the short term.
Q. How have you established your identity in God’s wisdom (re-read the above verses, how do any or all apply to you)?
Ecclesiastes 7: Establishing our IDENTITY in the wisdom of God over the LONG TERM.
Pastor Tim gave the example of Aron Carter. He peaked too early. We can get to a place talent can take us but character can’t keep us. If we do not have character, it collapses.
Godly Wisdom embraces LONG TERM LIVING in a SHORT TERM WORLD.
1. Long term living seeks to make INVESTMENTS not IMPRESSIONS.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 (ESV)
Long term reputation takes time to build. How we finish in life is more important than how we began. It does not matter how we start, it is how we finish. Our death is a reality, we need to see that life is precious and we have limited time. We need to live with the end in mind.
Q. In reference to the above statement, can you give personal examples?
IMPRESSIONS impress temporarily, INVESTMENTS invest in you eternally.
2. Long term living leans into ADMONISHMENT not APPLAUSE.
Ecclesiastes 7:5 (ESV); Ecclesiastes 7:21 (ESV)
Get around people who can admonish you. We need people to tell us we are doing things that are destroying us. We need people that speak into our lives. Those that praise us today will crucify us tomorrow. Applause does not last.
Q. What example can you give where someone applauded you or praised you and then turned their back on you? How has admonishment from others shaped your character?
3. Long term living looks FORWARD with PATIENCE instead of BACKWARD with REGRET/RESENTMENT.
Ecclesiastes 7:7-9 (ESV)
God is big on small and slow beginnings.
He is incubating us. Abraham was 75 years old when God sent him out. Moses was 80. The greatest He wants to use us, the longer he incubates us.
Zechariah 4:10 (NLT); Ecclesiastes 7:10 (ESV)
Times that we are in the incubation period we often say ‘it was better then’, but when we get through the trial we will be stronger.
“The good old days are often the combination of a bad memory and a good imagination.” – Warren Wiersbe
Q. What trials have made you stronger?
4. Long term living acknowledges GOD has CONTROL TODAY.
This is easy to say when things are good, but when things are bad we need to remind ourselves that God is in control.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 (ESV)
5. Long term living finds “RIGHT STANDING” from the RIGHTEOUS ONE.
This is the Gospel point.
Ecclesiastes 7:15 (ESV); Ecclesiastes 7:16 (ESV); Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV)
Sometimes the good guy gets what the bad guy deserves and vice versa. We are not to be overly righteous in human centered righteousness or works righteousness. We are not to get so full of our goodness the we think God owes us something. We are not righteous ourselves, but without His righteousness we do not get to stand before God.
“Righteousness” = right standing with God.
It is not doing good, it is being in right standing with God.
1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV) And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption
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