Ecclesiastes 5: Living and Leaving

“And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?”

Ecclesiastes 5:16

Sermon notes:

The preacher sees many methods people try to keep them from leaving life the way they came. The irony is, that unless a man is willing to give away what he is, has, and does, he will remain unchanged. Only the interception of one Man will allow men to leave differently than they came.

• Like a clothing store, in order to get a new suit, you must be willing to part with what you have on
• You must be willing to pay the price for something it
• You must actually put it on

I love the holy day of rest
When Jesus meets his gathered saints
Sweet Day! Of all the week the best;
For its return my spirit pants.
Yet often, through my unbelief, 
It proves a day of guilt and grief.

--John Newton

I. The Methods of Attempted Change

A. Trying to Be Something You Are Not (vv. 1-7)

1. Commitment to promises you cannot keep
2. Control through positive reinforcements

B. Trying to Feel Something You Do Not (v. 8)

1. Compassion
2. Any kind of feeling (remorse, sympathy, stress) falsely assures us that we are good people

“The great evil is… that the people who are the hardest on other people’s sins are the ones doing the best job of concealing their own.”

C. Trying to Have Something You Have Not (vv. 9-14)

1. Compounding money, influence, or charity
2. Love of money, whether it be much or little, breeds all evils, great and small

II. The Madness of Attempted Change

• Cursed is the man who lives, and leaves unchanged.
• Change is obvious when we realize we cannot afford it, we look to One who already purchased it, and offers it as a gift.

III. The Man of All Comeliness (vv. 15-17)

“And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?“

Ecclesiastes 5:16

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.“

Hebrews 4:15

• Jesus Christ left the way I want to leave
• Everything changed in His life, except for his Holiness and Purity
• His life is the only way and truth that can change a man

"A friend once said that farming made no sense to him at all. He stated that, "The farmer keeps a horse to plow the corn, to raise the corn, to feed the horse to plow the corn, to raise the corn to feed the horse, and so on endlessly." So man is caught up in a vicious whirl of living, earning a wage today, so that he can go back to the job tomorrow, to be able to live for the next day, and so on. This is nearly true. Men wear themselves out through life, trying to get something laid by in store for old age, and then die, and leave what little possessions they've accumulated to their relatives to fight over!
Christ died to redeem our souls, and also to deliver us from such a monotonous existence while we are yet on this earth. There is more to life than just living for the present. Christians who know Gods will, live for a genuine purpose in life, and have continual joy and hope within their hearts as they look forward to a better life and a better world.
Now, the natural man does not believe this to be true. That is why natural man continues to sin. He feels that the world, and all that the word "world" entails is the most important thing of life. Proof of this is that  man will work and slave, cheat and steal, barter and fight for this world's possessions, and neglect his own soul, and go into eternity unprepared to meet God."

-Dr. Bruce D. Cummons

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