CONVERSATION STARTERS
Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. These prompts have been designed to help Community Groups grow in their relationship with God, with one another, and with their neighbors. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource to you. You do not have to follow them verbatim or get through them all. We trust you to know your group and to ask the questions based on your group needs.

In Ecclesiastes 1:1-18, verses 1-11 make the point that secular life apart from God is pointless for humans. He begins the book of Ecclesiastes by declaring that everything is pointless or vain under the sun in our physical world. Then, in verses 12-18, the Teacher makes the point that life is meaningless under the sun apart from God.

1. What stood out to you from Sunday’s sermon?

2. READ ECCLESIASTES 1:2-4 Why does this passage claim that everything is vain or meaningless in life?

3. Was there a time in your life when you struggled to find meaning and purpose? And how did you navigate that season?

4. What are the areas of your life now where you seek to find meaning apart from Jesus? How can you integrate the Lord Jesus into this area of your life?

PRAYER PROMPT
Pray that Jesus would show you that your life apart from His is meaningless, and that He would lead you to depend on Him in every area of your life. Also, pray that as you grow in your awareness about the brokenness of our world that you would be reminded of the hope we have in Jesus through the gospel in the midst of your sorrow.

Title: Life Up in Smoke
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18
Speaker: Tom Nelson, TomN@cckc.church

"We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher answer’– but none exists."
- Steven Jay Gould

> Three Mirages of Meaning We Chase:
- Progress Escapes Us
- Satisfaction Eludes Us

" It’s so simple, and yet its power is deeply encoded within us. Give a 3 year old the french fry she is reaching for and see her satisfaction expression. But then, after a couple of seconds, watch the wanting return. And that’s the actual problem isn’t it? The Stones’ song should really have been titled, (I Can’t Keep No) Satisfaction.” It’s almost as if our brains are programmed to prevent us from enjoying anything for very long.”
- Arthur Brooks

> Three Mirages of Meaning We Chase:
- Progress Escapes Us
- Satisfaction Eludes Us
- Understanding Evades Us