Remember Your Creator – Pt 4
Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 (NLT)
1 A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume. And the day you die is better than the day you are born.
2 Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies—so the living should take this to heart.
Ecclesiastes 9:1-6 (NLT)
1 This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. 2 The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t.
3 It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway. 4 There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”
5 The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. 6 Whatever they did in their lifetime—loving, hating, envying—is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth.
Matthew 10:28 (NLT)
28 “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Life is unpredictable. Death is unavoidable.
Our time on earth is a training ground for how we’ll live for eternity.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-10 (NLT)
1 Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you. 2 But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down. Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.
6 Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.
7 Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
8 When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.
9 Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. 10 So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.
WISDOM FOR HOW TO FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS MOST FOR ETERNITY:
1. Be generous.
2. Build your life on the things that never change.
John 8:12 (NLT)
12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
3. Don’t be idle.
4. Don’t get stuck on what you don’t understand.
Isaiah 55:8-11 (NLT)
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. 11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
5. Start every day with deep gratitude.
1 Corinthians 15:53-58 (NLT)
53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
SMALL GROUP MEETING OUTLINE
Where your faith intersects with real life!
Reconnect:
Each person shares a recent high and low from their life.
Explore:
Review the message notes.
Big Idea: Life is unpredictable. Death is unavoidable. Our time on earth is a training ground for how we’ll live for eternity.
Consider:
Choose one or two questions for your Group to discuss as time allows.
▶ Read Ecclesiastes 11:1-6. Make a list together of generous investments worthy of making a priority.
▶Read Ecclesiastes 9:1-6. Which of the ways to focus on what matters for eternity comes easiest for you and which one takes more focus?
– Be generous.
– Build your life on the things that never change.
– Don’t be idle.
– Don’t get stuck on what you don’t understand.
– Start every day with deep gratitude.
Activate:
Spend a moment in silence to consider your response, then share with the Group.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:53-58. Ask God to help you identify a time, talent, and treasure that God has entrusted to you and what it would take to invest in it.
Prayer:
Thank God for the highs and lift up the lows.
Ask God to help our focus be on what we can invest in life.