Nothing New
Weekly Reading
Monday: Numbers 26, Acts 17
Tuesday: Numbers 27, Acts 18
Wednesday: Numbers 28, Acts 19
Thursday: Acts 20
Friday: Numbers 29
Saturday: Psalm 80-82
Sunday: Ecclesiastes 1-12, Song of Songs 1-7
Tuesday: Numbers 27, Acts 18
Wednesday: Numbers 28, Acts 19
Thursday: Acts 20
Friday: Numbers 29
Saturday: Psalm 80-82
Sunday: Ecclesiastes 1-12, Song of Songs 1-7
Discussion Questions
- What are 3 things about your life that you would like to change and 3 things that you would like to stay the same?
- Can you think of a change in your life that you felt that you “gained” only to realize it was less fulfilling than you thought it would be? What did you learn from that?
- If you had a “hunch” about what God would have you learn through this series in Ecclesiastes, what would it be? What area of your life or life in general do you sense that He is shining a light on?
- Re-read Matthew 11:28-30. What are one or two specific things you can do this week to respond to Jesus’ call to “come to me”?
3DQ - 3 discipleship questions to ask each other: What is God saying to you? What are you going to do about it? How can I help?
Sermon Notes
Key Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
James 4:13-16
Matthew 11:28-30
Acts 14:21-22
hebel: Proverbs 13:11, Proverbs 31:30, Psalm 39
#1: Life is momentary. It is not lasting.
#2: Life is cyclical. It is not linear.
#3: Life is (at its best) a foretaste. It never satisfies.
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” ―G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job
"Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise [...] If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
"Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same." - C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 135-137
James 4:13-16
Matthew 11:28-30
Acts 14:21-22
hebel: Proverbs 13:11, Proverbs 31:30, Psalm 39
#1: Life is momentary. It is not lasting.
#2: Life is cyclical. It is not linear.
#3: Life is (at its best) a foretaste. It never satisfies.
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” ―G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job
"Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise [...] If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
"Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same." - C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 135-137
Resources
Living Life Backwards, by David Gibson
*Some questions from above have been adapted from Chapter 1, p. 32
*Some questions from above have been adapted from Chapter 1, p. 32
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