LIFE WITHOUT GOD | ECCLESIASTES
LIFE WITHOUT GOD | ECCLESIASTES A SERMON SERIES BY TULLIAN TCHIVIDJIAN
DISCUSSION GUIDE
ADAM MASTERSON - 2011
Life Without God
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Community Group
RECAP Life Without God: Part 1
R - Review A summary of the sermon Ecclesiastes throws down the existential gauntlet that the the greater Solomon - Jesus Christ overcomes. Jesus, the one who had it all and yet laid it aside to come and rescue those of us who never seem to have enough, from our bondage to vanity and perceived meaninglessness. Ecclesiastes unreservedly examines life, not as it was originally created, but in it’s currently fallen state. In it’s examination it lays the soul of fallen man bare, not allowing for pat answers, but instead forcing every “disinherited prince” to examine their pursuit for meaning and purpose and come face to face with where that search will or will not lead them. Only a pursuit that leads to Jesus Christ is the pursuit that can and will sustain one’s existence here under the sun.
E - Examine Taking a closer look • How is the key to getting a grasp on the book of Ecclesiastes directly tied to understanding the phrase “under the sun”? • What was the distinction Tullian made between a preacher and a teacher as it applies to the title used for the writer in verse 1? • How does the question posed in verse 3 drive all other questions and ideas presented in the book? How does this idea of “gain” so often inform our idea of significance?
C - Chat Sermon quotes to spur on conversation and interaction • “None of us crave meaningless and all of us fear nothingness and emptiness more than anything else.” • “Life is like an onion, you peel it back one layer at a time and weep as you do.” - Carl Sandburg • “When we dissect our pursuits, we find there is this deep, abiding longing for more.” • “In Ecclesiastes, God reveals to us what life is when God doesn’t reveal to us what life is.” • “If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the only explanation is that I was made for another world.” -C.S. Lewis
A - Apply Making the connection from thinking to action • How does the writer’s exclamation that there is nothing new under the sun both resonate and fly in the face of our “disposable” culture? • How does the writer’s focus on the temporality of material things and the proneness of all things to decay, challenge our idea of legacy leaving. What is the proper idea of legacy that Christians must cling to? • How does Ecclesiastes expose our nakedness? How does Jesus’s promise that he is the bread of life directly satisfy and answers the existential questions the writer of Ecclesiastes cries out?
P - Pray A time to pray for each other
Copyright © Adam Masterson and CRPC 2011
DISCUSSION GUIDE
ADAM MASTERSON - 2011
Life Without God
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Community Group
RECAP Life Without God: Part 1
R - Review A summary of the sermon Ecclesiastes throws down the existential gauntlet that the the greater Solomon - Jesus Christ overcomes. Jesus, the one who had it all and yet laid it aside to come and rescue those of us who never seem to have enough, from our bondage to vanity and perceived meaninglessness. Ecclesiastes unreservedly examines life, not as it was originally created, but in it’s currently fallen state. In it’s examination it lays the soul of fallen man bare, not allowing for pat answers, but instead forcing every “disinherited prince” to examine their pursuit for meaning and purpose and come face to face with where that search will or will not lead them. Only a pursuit that leads to Jesus Christ is the pursuit that can and will sustain one’s existence here under the sun.
E - Examine Taking a closer look • How is the key to getting a grasp on the book of Ecclesiastes directly tied to understanding the phrase “under the sun”? • What was the distinction Tullian made between a preacher and a teacher as it applies to the title used for the writer in verse 1? • How does the question posed in verse 3 drive all other questions and ideas presented in the book? How does this idea of “gain” so often inform our idea of significance?
C - Chat Sermon quotes to spur on conversation and interaction • “None of us crave meaningless and all of us fear nothingness and emptiness more than anything else.” • “Life is like an onion, you peel it back one layer at a time and weep as you do.” - Carl Sandburg • “When we dissect our pursuits, we find there is this deep, abiding longing for more.” • “In Ecclesiastes, God reveals to us what life is when God doesn’t reveal to us what life is.” • “If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the only explanation is that I was made for another world.” -C.S. Lewis
A - Apply Making the connection from thinking to action • How does the writer’s exclamation that there is nothing new under the sun both resonate and fly in the face of our “disposable” culture? • How does the writer’s focus on the temporality of material things and the proneness of all things to decay, challenge our idea of legacy leaving. What is the proper idea of legacy that Christians must cling to? • How does Ecclesiastes expose our nakedness? How does Jesus’s promise that he is the bread of life directly satisfy and answers the existential questions the writer of Ecclesiastes cries out?
P - Pray A time to pray for each other
Copyright © Adam Masterson and CRPC 2011
