Sermon Tone Analysis

*What Do You Have to Lose?*

12~/17~/06 CC~/PM

Ecclesiastes 5:1-6:9

 

1.

You could lose it all if you are not careful in the way you worship.

a.

Watch your step as you come into church, Why?

 

b.

We must listen rather than offer the sacrifice of fools.

c.

What was the sacrifice of fools then, and what might it be now?

d.

Why is it so easy today to make foolish sacrifices?

 

e.

What is the advice given about communicating with God to keep them from becoming the sacrifices of fools?

i.

Don’t be to quick to speak.

ii.

Think it through first

 

                                                                  iii.

Don’t try to impress with your many words

 

                                                                  iv.

When making vows remember first that it was optional but upon being uttered were not revocable (Duet 23:21-23.

v.

Don’t be late in honoring your vow.

vi.

Don’t make hasty vows that you try to weasel out of.

vii.

Failure to pay your vow causes God to get angry and He may destroy everything that you have kept back for yourself.

viii.

Making vows that you never took seriously is simply dreaming and empty.

You would be well advised to fear God from the beginning.

f.

You can lose your possessions to God because you made a rash vow that you did not keep.

g.

You could also lose it to those not so high up.

2.

You could lose it all through officials who abuse the system.

V-8,9

 

a.

Solomon pictures that it was also possible to lose it all through extortion to a corrupt government.

b.

It was possible to do nothing wrong and yet have your possessions taken away by the greed of others.

c.

He seems to stress that you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to those in authority.

3.

It is also possible to lose out because of covetousness.

V.10-12

 

a.

This is a bit different because the possessions are still there, they just do not bring any satisfaction so they might as well not be there.

b.

What is the problem of having more?

 

4.

When you lose what you have hoarded the results are a miserable life.

Vv.13-17

a.

Solomon says naked you came and naked you leave, under the sun.

b.

Why do you think that bothered him so much?

c.

What did he see all his hard work accomplishing?

 

5.

Vv.18-20

What are the recommendations and observations that Solomon makes about finding enjoyment in life?

 

a.

Enjoy what God has blessed us with.

b.

Part of the reward of hard work is consuming the fruits of it.

c.

Enjoy the work with gladness of heart and it will not seem so much like work.

The years will fly by.

6.

What is the lesson on contentment that is learned from 6:1-9?

 

a.

Life without satisfaction is not worth living.

b.

Enjoy what you have not what your soul desires.

\\ Ecclesiastes 5-6:9 (KJV) \\ 1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

\\ 2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

\\ 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

\\ 4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

\\ 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

\\ 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

\\ 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

\\ 8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

\\ 9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

\\ 10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

\\ 11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

\\ 12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

\\ 13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

\\ 14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

\\ 15 As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.

\\ 16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

\\ 17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

\\ 18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

\\ 19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

\\ 20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

\\ 1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: \\ 2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

\\ 3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

\\ 4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

\\ 5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

\\ 6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

\\ 7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

\\ 8 For what hath the wise more than the fool?

what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

\\ 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.