How Do You Carry On?
We all ask it at some point: How do you carry on when life feels empty? The Teacher in Ecclesiastes wrestled with this question long before us. He tested all the things people turn to for meaning—pleasure, wisdom, and work—and found them wanting.
Pleasure is fleeting. Even Solomon, with feasts and riches beyond imagination, woke up hollow. Wisdom is better than folly, but in the end, the grave does not check résumés. Hard work can be good, but what happens when your labor is wasted or forgotten? If these are our foundations, they cannot bear the weight of eternity.
Yet Ecclesiastes also points us toward hope. “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God” (2:24). Pleasure, wisdom, and work are not meaningless when received as gifts from God.
Even more, “He has set eternity in the human heart” (3:11). Deep down, we know we were made for more. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
That rest is found in Christ. Through his death and resurrection, he not only pardons sin but reconciles us to God and to the world He created. In Christ, we can receive good times, good living, and good work—not as idols, but as gifts. That is how we carry on.
Adult & Teen Table Talk:
- How can good things (like food, wisdom, or work) become dangerous when they become “little gods”?
- How does Christ’s life, death, and resurrection reframe our enjoyment of pleasure, our pursuit of wisdom, and our daily work?
Little Learners’ Table Talk:
- Who gives us good gifts like food, wisdom, and work?
Sermon Title: How Do You Carry On?
Sermon Series: Key Questions of Life
Sermon Passage: Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
Closing Scripture: Revelation 21:3-5
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