We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

Message Text: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
If we were to present an argument, we would state our proposition, give points to support it, and a conclusion to wrap. Solomon does it backwards. He gives the conclusion first (see 1:2). Solomon has written a wonderful conclusion which is this —for any person to find ultimate meaning in life, he has to go outside of himself to God.
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Have you ever been told to “get a life” by someone? It can feel both insulting and confusing. Sometimes, it implies that you’re being a pain and they think you should find something better to do than what you’re doing. But unless we have a bigger purpose in life than the mundane and humdrum, we will be a pain because the daily routine feels so pointless. It’s time for you to get a life and see the wonder again. Recover your sense of wonder.
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This Series
I’m glad we have a book like Ecclesiastes in the Bible. The culture is inundated with people who are buying into an empty, horizontal, who-needs-God perspective. Their world is strictly visible, their whole frame of reference secular – “under the sun”. Solomon decided to live this way missed the most important thing in life. Solomon thought if I can build mansions and buildings; if I could have all these wives and girlfriends (which by the way, meant that he permitted their religions to sacrifice babies; if I could acquire many exotic animals, save enormous wealth, and expand borders – then I’d have to be satisfied with power, popularity, prosperity, prestige, and pleasure. He had it all! And yet it was a washout for him. He learned how to make a living but not a life.[1] We’re never going to come close to what Solomon had, but we sure run on that hamster wheel like we’re going to catch him.
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We think that all the unfairness and suffering in the world is our biggest problem. But really, Solomon exposes a far greater problem in this book. We have pursued what we thought would satisfy, and still we are empty. And that can be very scary. That was Solomon. And this is us. Like a gerbil or hamster on a wheel, we go faster-and-faster to nowhere. Ecclesiastes is the confessions of a hamster-king.
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Do you need to get a life?
Are you spending too much time on stuff that really isn’t that important? Are you stuck in a rut? Tied to a self-centered routine. Too much gaming. Never going out. Tethered to the couch. Watching how other people spend their time. Depending on one person to entertain you all the time. No passion to pursue. Waiting to see how many likes you get. Life doesn’t always have to be so dull and routine where your days are just repeating the same cycle.
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Eventually, Solomon comes to the conclusion, after running all of these life experiments where he dabbles in everything, he finally concludes that a successful life is not wrapped up in what you do or how much you own, but to whom you belong and a living, vital connection with Him in the daily.
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Invitation
Some people think that Ecclesiastes is about the meaninglessness of human existence. Ecclesiastes is really about the meaninglessness of life without God. Solomons message is not that nothing matters, but that everything does with God in your life. This book is a record of Solomon’s repentance. Somebody said, “You need to learn from the mistakes of others; you don’t have time to make them all yourself.” When you start living for the world instead of for the will of God, you begin to look at life from the wrong perspective: “under the sun” and not “above the sun.” Instead of seeking those things which are above (Col. 3:1ff), you start majoring on the things that are below. This wrong vision soon causes you to adopt wrong values and you stop living for the eternal. The result is disappointment and defeat; the only remedy is repentance and confession of sin (1 John 1:9). Come to Christ today!