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“The Search for Meaning” Dr. Dane Boyles 05/21/2006 AM

“The Search for Meaning” Dr. Dane Boyles 05/21/2006 AM. “The Search for Meaning ”. 2 Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless! (Eccl 1:2) Is life meaningless? Life is only meaningless if life is lived without God. “The Search for Meaning ”.

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“The Search for Meaning” Dr. Dane Boyles 05/21/2006 AM

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  1. “The Search for Meaning”Dr. Dane Boyles 05/21/2006 AM

  2. “The Search for Meaning” 2 Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless! (Eccl 1:2) • Is life meaningless? • Life is only meaningless if life is lived without God.

  3. “The Search for Meaning” • When Solomon finished, he found that: • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Human Wisdom. (1:12-18) • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Wealth and Pleasure (2:1-11) • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Achievements. (2:4-6) • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Wealth and Fame. (2:7-9)

  4. “The Search for Meaning” • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Self-gratification. (2:10-11) • Fulfillment doesn’t come through Materialism. (2:12-23) So where does that leave us?

  5. “The Search for Meaning” • Solomon is saying something serious about life and how we are to live it. • If we spend the majority of our time seeking fulfillment through meaningless things, what does that say about our spiritual condition?

  6. “The Search for Meaning” • So what does Solomon tells us in this book? • For starters, he is very realistic, extremely realistic. 11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. (Eccl 1:11)

  7. “The Search for Meaning” 16 For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! (Eccl 2:16)

  8. “The Search for Meaning” 1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors—and they have no comforter. (Eccl 4:1)

  9. “The Search for Meaning” 15Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. (Eccl 5:15)

  10. “The Search for Meaning” • How do we make sense of life? • The answer is: It’s all meaningless apart from faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Heb 11:8)

  11. “The Search for Meaning”  11 Even when Sarah was too old to have children, she had faith that God would do what he had promised, and she had a son. (Heb 11:11)

  12. “The Search for Meaning” 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.(Heb 11:24-25)

  13. “The Search for Meaning” 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.(Heb 12:1)

  14. “The Search for Meaning” 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2)

  15. “The Search for Meaning” 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.(Heb 12:3)

  16. “The Search for Meaning” • To obey God is to truly be human! 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Eccl 12:13)

  17. “The Search for Meaning” • But fearing God and keeping his commandments do not represent our cultural values. • These are not to be the values of the church. • If people reject God and his commandments, people behave and act like things, and relate to each other as things.

  18. “The Search for Meaning” • People become servants of the powers of evil, doing what we hate but being unwilling or unable to resist. • This death is the death of our humanity.

  19. “The Search for Meaning” • We must look to Jesus! • He shows us that dependence on God and obedience to God are more important than securing our own survival.

  20. “The Search for Meaning” • If Jesus had put effectiveness over faithfulness, he never would have ended up at the cross. • And the cross is the direct consequence of Jesus’ resistance to the powers of death in the world.

  21. “The Search for Meaning” • Jesus teaches us how to resist internalizing death: • By fearing God and keeping his commandments. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,4for everyone born of God overcomes the world.(1 John 5:3-4)

  22. “The Search for Meaning” • This is the point! …To overcome the world. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:21) 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt 6:33)

  23. “The Search for Meaning” • You are worldly if: • You run after the wrong things. • Are concerned about the wrong things. • And are in love with the wrong things.

  24. “The Search for Meaning” • Solomon’s Final Conclusions • Live by Faith (11:1-6) 1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. (Eccl 11:1) 1Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb 11:1).

  25. “The Search for Meaning” • Life is Short (11:7-12:7) 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Eccl 12:7) • Remember You Are Human (12:8-14). • Man is still man (12:10). • Man is unable to determine what his future shall be (12:11-12).

  26. “The Search for Meaning”Dr. Dane Boyles 05/21/2006 AM

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