Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Welcome
Prayer
So before we dive into our text today,
I think it would be helpful to LOOK back a bit at where we’ve been...
SO THAT we might see more clearly where we are heading...
As you know, if you’ve been with us, as we’ve made our way through this book of Ecclesiastes...
..we have been consistently confronted with - LIFE UNDER THE SUN...
And what we’ve seen so far - is that THIS WRITER (most say Solomon, some aren’t sure)...
But this writer what he’s been doing is - He’s been looking at LIFE under the sun...
And he’s been walking down these different paths of life...
He has said - OK world, let’s walk down this path together...
Let’s walk down the path of - The Pursuit of Wisdom
Let’s walk down the path of - The Pursuit of Self-Indulgence
Let’s walk down the path of - The Pursuit of Toil
And what have we seen?
At the end of each of these paths…the conclusion has been - VANITY!
All of THESE THINGS are fleeting - UNDER THE SUN...
And so AS the writer has walked down these paths - he’s on one level - REMAINED very practical in what he has said...
WHY?
Because UNDER THE SUN - all the world has to hold onto is - Practicalities…!!
Here’s what I mean...
- When the world looked at 9/11 - their response was - Well that stinks....Ok, so where we going to eat?
ALL the world can comprehend is the practicality of - the BUILDING FELL DOWN...
That’s as deep as it goes for the world...
BUT FOR THE CHRISTIAN...
We look at 9/11…and our hearts HEAR the text of
So WE as Christians…we look at 9/11 and see more than JUST the practicalities...
We see a CALL that goes out to the world!!
to - REPENT!
to repent before a Holy God!
And so back to Ecclesiastes - back to those PATHS Under the Sun...
The writer is SHOWING the world - EVEN in your own worldview…Even in your own PRACTICALITIES…you end up with VANITY....HOPELESSNESS!
And so what I want to do today is this -
I want to walk through our text…keeping it in context...
But then at the end SWING back around and view the text...
in light of the Gospel of Christ...
If we were to look at this passage as a whole...
we’d see that Solomon is jumping on another one of these paths…Under the Sun
And that is the path of - INDEPENDENCE...
He decides to jump into the shoes of a lone-ranger
Now - not too long ago - a song became very popular in our society - and it was called...
Independent Women
And the reason it BECAME so popular is because - Under the Sun (as our passage points to)
There is APPARENT - Strength - in being independent
The push of this world is - Be INDEPENDENT!
Don’t let ANYONE control you...
Don’t let ANYONE or ANYTHING become your crutch...
ALONE IS THE WAY!
THIS is the message of the world...
And Solomon says - OK world - I hear ya....but let’s just see about that.
In verse 8 here - what do we see?
We see a man - with no one else depending on him...
“he is without a son, or a brother”...
And so THAT means - he’s the perfect CANDIDATE to - SECURE HIS OWN HAPPINESS!
Mr. INDEPENDENT!
NO OTHER responsibilities...
NO ONE ELSE to DRAW from ALL that he can attain!
SURELY - he’ll reach his goal -right?
But what does it say?
it says...
“this guy is IN THE PERFECT situation to SECURE his own happiness!....
…COMMA - yet there is NO END to all his toil!
Now - maybe you know someone like this...
Maybe this USED to be you....
Maybe it’s you NOW!...
No end to all his toil…WHY?
TOO many bills to pay?
Saving up for that vacation next year…and THEN he’ll be done?
NO...
“His eyes are NEVER satisfied with riches!”
What does this imply?
Money
The hardest places to reach for Christ…seemingly....
are NOT the slums of the INNER CITY!
No - it’s the GATED COMMUNITIES that surround us!
No - it’s the people from Laodicea in Revelation 3.
Last week we talked about the SIN of ENVY...
and when ENVY is our motive…we will NEVER be satisfied!
Remember the Rich Young Ruler?
Comes to Jesus and says - Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus says - You lack ONE thing...
Sell all you have...
Give it to the poor....and come follow Me
What was the response?
The Rich Young Ruler - walked away - sad
Why?
Because - BEING rich....he didn’t want to LOSE what he had...
BEING rich, he STILL wanted more!
Do you see how the world can KILL you??
It can GIVE itself to you....meaning you’re rich (wealthy)
OR
It can WITHHOLD itself from you...
meaning - you’re NOT rich, but you WANT to be!
You CRAVE IT!
The problem is - just practically speaking - The EYES are never satisfied!
Death and Destruction are NEVER satisfied!
And never satisfied are the EYES of man!
And we KNOW this to be true!
Who remembers the first time they saw:
Grand Canyon?
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