Greater Than: "Jesus is Greater Than the American Dream"
I. The Pursuit of Pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)
“God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”
(John Piper)
2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
Psalm 147:11 – “but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.”
Psalm 16:11 – “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Ecclesiastes 9:7 – “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.”
Ecclesiastes 10:19 –“Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.”
James 4:14 – “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
II. The Waste of Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 2:12-17)
1 Peter 3:10 – “For ‘Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;’”
John 1:4 – “In him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men.”
John 5:26 – “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
John 11:25 – “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’”
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 6:35 – “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’”
III. The Wretch of Work (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23)
1 Timothy 6:6-7 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”
IV. God Gives Meaning to Life (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)
Ephesians 2:4-6 – “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”