2. Why Ecclesiastes?

3. Ecclesiastes 7:2
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

4. Why Ecclesiastes?
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”― C.S. Lewis

5. Ecclesiastes 1:1-3
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

6. Ecclesiastes 1:4-6
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

7. Ecclesiastes 1:7-8
7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

8. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

9. Ecclesiastes 1:11
11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

10. Looking for Meaning Under the Sun
Materialist – There is only that which is under the sun, so meaning must be found under the sun.
Agnostic – There might be something beyond the sun, but I can’t know for sure so meaning must be found under the sun.
Theist – There is more than that which is under the sun, but I am under the sun so I will find my meaning under the sun.

11. “There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

12. “To be human is to be a creature, and to be a creature is to be finite
“To be human is to be a creature, and to be a creature is to be finite. We are not God. We are not in control, and we will not live forever. We will die. But we avoid this reality by playing “let’s pretend.”
– David Gibson: Living Life Backwards

13. Mark 8:34-37
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?