Finding Meaning in Life Through Ecclesiastes

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### Quotes for Outreach

1. "The success of this series is going to be really helped if you are honest with yourself. It's going to be really beneficial if you take off your church mask. If you take off the, everybody's going to, you know, I've got to be a certain way, look a certain way, smell a certain way, stop it. If you're brutally honest, if you allow this to challenge you, if you allow it to even give you questions that you doubt what's going on, then you're probably getting there." [01:15] (36 seconds) ( | | )

2. "It's brutal at times. Brutal. It's brutally honest. It'll say something and go, see, what a waste of time. Like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Of course. It's brutal. It covers almost every aspect of life. That's why you can invite anybody, even if they've never been to church, and the things that we will talk about, they'll go, oh, yeah. That's kind of my life. Because it's everyone's life. So powerful." [02:24] (30 seconds) ( | | )

3. "What does satisfaction and fullness of life really mean? And how do we experience it? How do we get to maximize the beauty and the wonder and the gifts of God? And how do we sometimes neglect them? How is it we choose to focus on things that we should abandon and abandon the things we should choose? This is the reality and the heartbeat of Ecclesiastes. And that's why as we go through this series, that question of what matters most is key." [10:00] (35 seconds) ( | | )

4. "So seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these other things, paraphrased as, will get in divine order. All these other things. So there is a way to live life and a way to pursue life in the midst of all that's going on. What does divine order look like? You only discover it when you look over your shoulder, but it's a trust in him with what is going on." [41:17] (26 seconds) ( | | )

5. "Jesus comes and says, there is a thief who wants to steal, kill and destroy. Do your best. No, he doesn't. He says, but I have come. The reason that I'm here, is that you can have life in its fullness. You can have life in all its fullness. Even Solomon was navigating in all these things in life and people were learning, how do we have fullness? Jesus comes and says, in me. I have come, you may have life and life in all its fullness. Life more abundantly, translations say. That's why I've come." [44:34] (40 seconds) ( | | )

### Quotes for Members

1. "If you can find yourself in a spot where you can accept that it doesn't make sense, that will serve you better than trying to have an answer for everything. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we shouldn't find answers. We should. But if it's, I have to know, the answer, all the whys of why this is going on, it's not going to serve you well." [05:22] (29 seconds) ( | | )

2. "So what I decided to do is we set this up. I'm going to sit here every week and read the text. Because I want a bit of separation from Des preaching God teaching. I want a little bit of separation. I want you to imagine that you're either in your favorite coffee shop or your living room. And this wise sage, this man who has lived life in its fullness and its emptiness, who's experienced extremes of life, real power beyond measure, wealth beyond measure, pleasures beyond measure, errors beyond measure. He's gone through it all. He's been given a label of being really wise. And here he is going towards the end. He's at the end of his life. And people are going to go, hey, help us with this human condition. And so he says, okay, gather round. Let me offload what I have discovered." [12:11] (68 seconds) ( | | )

3. "So my digital version means that I can zoom in at my heart's content and see the text. It's the same. But I also just want to say this, as we enter into this and we sit down, this today marks the first Sunday of my 10th year as the pastor of this church. So 10th year. And when we arrived, I didn't need these. And now I really do for almost everything." [14:04] (38 seconds) ( | | )

4. "So to find a people who have somewhere to stand firm in the midst of that is key. That's who we are meant to be. We've no chance of getting through all this today. Okay. I went a little bit longer than nine, and I told myself I won't go as long as the 11. I'm telling myself, it's if I listen to myself. All right. Ecclesiastes, as you're reading it, is not linear. So it's not like those other Old Testament books, this happened, then this, then this, then this. It's cyclical. So what happens is, Solomon raises some things, people go, oh yeah, yeah, what, what, what? Now what? No, let's go again. Yeah, but, oh, there's something else. And it's just this revolving, cyclical motion all the time. And then at the end, he spits out his answer." [29:33] (53 seconds) ( | | )

5. "So my understanding of life is the courage to call to go. This can be different. This is not true. This is a new way. Let's lean into it, lean into it. But you'll get to a point where it will change or you'll go, okay, I've done all I can do. And then know that the serenity to be able to do that. There is something powerful there because it was Jesus who then said this, guys in life, John 10, there is a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. We are dealing in heavenly realms, spiritual forces of light and darkness. Fact. In light of all of that, there is an enemy who has strategic plans to distract. But sometimes there is a war you have to step into." [44:04] (44 seconds) ( | | )

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