ECCLESIASTES 2
The Experiment.
- This Sunday, we looked straight into the mirror that Ecclesiastes holds up to us: a mirror that reflects not only our endless pursuit of happiness but also the emptiness we often find in the very things we chase. We saw the difference between theoretical knowledge and lived experience. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes invites us into an honest, personal experiment: What truly satisfies?
- What has experience shown you about what lasts and what doesn’t?
“When I considered all that I had accomplished… it was all futile and a pursuit of the wind.” – Ecclesiastes 2:11
- The Teacher’s tests—pleasure, achievement, wealth, sex, even wisdom—come up empty in the end. We saw how comedians often mask deep despair behind laughter, how wealth can only buy happiness to a point, and how even wisdom is leveled by death. All the world’s gifts, pursued as ultimate ends, leave us unsatisfied. Why? Because we were made for more. As one writer put it: “Our excesses are the best clues to our own poverty.”
- What gifts in your life are you tempted to pursue as ultimate?
- How has comparison or performance impacted your joy?
“Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.” – Luke 12:15
- And yet—there is good news. Ecclesiastes doesn’t leave us in despair. It points us toward the Giver, not just the gifts. Jesus, God’s greatest gift to us, has accomplished for us what we never could. The happiness and significance we long for aren’t earned or acquired—they’re received. The gospel calls us to rest, not strive. To see every good thing not as something to grasp, but as a grace.
- Are you learning to receive life as a gift from God instead of trying to control it for gain?
- Who around you needs to hear that real joy comes from receiving, not achieving?
“For who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him?” – Ecclesiastes 2:25
Life Application: The world is chasing satisfaction. Let’s be people who point to the One who satisfies. What will this look like today, tomorrow, and the rest of this week in the various places you find yourself?
For Prayer: Pray for the Sekamalira family, our church planting partners in Kampala, as they travel back to the US for the birth of their second child.