Sermon: Live Backwards. Ecclesiastes 1

Live Backward:

Learning to Live in Light of the End

Introduction to Ecclesiastes 

This week we are starting a new series on Ecclesiastes titled “Live Backward: learning to live in light of the end.”

The title of this series is a playful spin on Lake Nona’s motto: Live Forward. 

Ecclesiastes is one of the Bible’s great gifts to us. It helps us live in the real world. It is a lyrical lighthouse that is meant to point out the rocks of reality so you don’t shipwreck your life. 

Ecclesiastes teaches us that God has not given us a world we can completely control or fully understand. And that is good.    

Ecclesiastes teaches us that the root cause of much of our anxiety is our deep-seated desire that demands more for ourselves than we were made to possess, and more of our world than it was made to give. 

Ecclesiastes wields the hammer of reality to shatter our false ambitions to know it all or have it all.

Ecclesiastes forces us to face the fact that death and judgment are the only fixed realities in life. Everything else is uncertain, and many things simply bring frustration and sorrow. And, yet, that is good. 

This seemingly pessimistic book offers a perspective on life that is profoundly positive. It teaches us that if we want to live wisely and well we need to recognize and embrace the limitations that God has placed on our life. If we want to live well now, we must live in light of the end. 

Ecclesiastes tells us God has not given us a world we can completely control or fully understand. But he has given us a world we can enjoy, and over the next 8 weeks, we will see how. 

Sermon Notes

Live Backward: Learning to live in light of the end

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 

1. The gift we need (1:1-3) 
2. The grind we are in (1:4-11)  
   1. It never stops 
   2. There is nothing new 
   3. There is nothing remembered 
3. The gain he gives