Be sure to mark your calendar!
Transform: Teaching to Change Lives, September 28
This is the one major fall training event that we are expecting every teacher to try and attend if at all possible. More info to follow.
BIBLE STUDY SESSION
This is one of those rare occasions when I believe the target and the teaching plan needed to be completely revised. I feared redundancy in the study, and I also felt there was more we could focus upon than what the material offered. I hope this helps. If you prefer the direction in the material, that is fine. This is only a suggestion. Thanks!
Target: Focus on what adults should leave knowing, understanding and doing.
Adults will understand how Solomon's wisdom revealed the larger picture of man's need for a Savior. Learners will be able to explain to others how true contentment is only found through a relationship with Christ.
Suggested Resources:
- Optional Video Clip: http://youtu.be/SERiABqsmyA . Use with Ecclesiastes 9:3-6
- Handout: What's the Secret to Being Content in Life? Use with each element of the teaching plan. I have a copy in each of your Connect Group boxes. Here is a preview of the handout: Handout Link
- Illustration: I have attached a copy of a news story about the young minister who died a few weeks ago in the bus accident in Indiana. Consider using it as the final illustration for the LOOK OUT conclusion. Use the PowerPoint slide or simply read the story. Click to Preview or Download
LOOK UP: "Soft methods" to draw attention to the study as adults are arriving, visiting, and gathering for Bible study.
- Place the Handout: What's the Secret to Being Content in Life? in each chair.
- Write the question, "What's the secret for being content in life?" on the markerboard.
Context:
Solomon, the wisest of men, was still limited in his understanding of life. Yet, the wisdom God gave him about living, dying, and life after death was directing his readers toward a time in the future when Christ would come and bring the complete meaning of living a full and abundant life. That life is only available through a relationship with Christ who conquered death and sin by dying on the cross for our sins.
The passages this week need to be looked at in the context of the complete gospel picture given to us through Christ. It is through our relationship with Christ that contentment can be discovered. We all face disappointments and difficult times. We also have periods of peace and prosperity. But, it is only through Christ that we can be content in whatever situations we might encounter. The first step in discovering contentment is embracing Christ.
LOOK IN: Ideas for unpacking the text.
Contentment Comes By Realizing Our Need for a Savior
Activity:
Refer to the first box on the Handout: What's the Secret to Being Content in Life? Ask everyone to work in groups of three or four and to identify how Ecclesiastes 9:3-6 correlates with the set of New Testament passages.
Discuss:
- What is the realization concerning death that we have to come to before accepting Christ? (we know we will die because of sin.)
- How is someone who refuses to accept Christ like "the dead who don't know anything?" (They only live for today)
- Do you know someone who equates success with acquiring more material things and getting the most out of life right now? If this person came to you and asked for advice on achieving contentment, what would you say?
- (Study Question 1 from ETB Personal Study Guide, pp. 101,107) How can the acceptance of the reality of physical death become a spark of hope for God’s people?
Explain:
Solomon quoted a “better-than” proverb in verse 4 to underscore that being alive was to be preferred over being dead. To ancient Israelites, dogs primarily were wild and nasty scavengers. Lions were the ultimate predators. Nevertheless, being alive was so much preferred over being dead that the proverb declared it was better to be a live dog than to be a dead lion.
Optional Video: show Video Clip: http://youtu.be/SERiABqsmyA
Direct group to complete the statement in the second box on the handout: "I'd rather be alive and ________ than dead and _____________."
Transition:
Our lives in Christ should give us the contentment to live our lives now to the fullest in spite of the reality of death. Neither good deeds nor wicked behavior can prevent death. Since life is brief, believers should live wisely and enjoy that which God provided them through salvation. A wise and sovereign God can be trusted to bring about His purposes in all of this. As believers, death has no sting. We can celebrate our lives as believers!
Contentment Comes When We Celebrate our Lives as Believers
Read Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
Explain:
These verses indicate a life of celebration that comes from contentment or that leads to contentment.
- Eat Bread with Pleasure: We need to interpret the Teacher’s words in the light of the entirety of Scripture. His instruction to enjoy food is not a license for gluttony. Gluttony makes an individual lazy, which in turn leads to poverty (see Prov. 23:21). On the other hand, we need not deny ourselves the joy of eating food, since God made our bodies to require sustenance.
- Drink your wine with a cheerful heart: Solomon’s encouragement to drink wine with a cheerful heart needs to be understood alongside biblical warnings in other places about alcohol’s dangers (see Prov. 23:29-35; Eph. 5:18). Wine was a common drink at meals in Bible times, especially at banquets. As it is to this day, clean drinking water was critical to life, but wine often was considered cleaner.
- Clothes be white all the time . . .: White clothing and hair oil symbolized the opposite of sackcloth and ashes—the former representing joyful celebration and the latter representing grief and repentance. Combined with the directive of 9:7, these images suggested a festive occasion. This euphoric joy is possible when a person is in a right relationship with the Lord, when our sins are as white as snow - Read Isaiah 1:18.
- Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life: Be faithful and content.
- Whatever your hands find to do . . . : work hard because life is short.
Although life is relatively short, God’s presence in one’s life makes a marked difference in one’s perspective of a given situation.
Direct the group to complete the statement in the third box on the handout: "As a follower of Christ, living an abundant life means . . ."
Transition:
Before our death, we are to do our best to reflect the relationship with Christ by the way we live, the way we love, and the way we work. We should do this out of a heart of joy, motivated by our relationship with Christ, not so we might earn any more favor with God but because we have been forgiven! If we are living in this way then we will experience contentment, even if we aren't rewarded in this present world.
Our Contentment Can't be Found in what we Receive from Others
Read Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
Explain:
Solomon once observed a small town besieged by a powerful enemy army. During the siege the wisdom of one of the town’s poor citizens delivered it from destruction. We are not told if the poor man’s wisdom involved military strategy, battlefield valor, or political diplomacy. The manner was irrelevant. The man was responsible for his town’s survival. Nevertheless, his town failed to show him appropriate appreciation. The hero was not remembered for his heroic deed. Solomon went on to explain that the poor man’s wisdom was used in the hour of need, but once the victory was secured, he was forgotten. Perhaps if the man had possessed more power or wealth, the community might not have dared treat him so badly.
Discuss:
- If you had been that man, how would you have felt? If you might have felt unrewarded, unrecognized, or less important, how might that lead to discontentment?
- What if our commitment to live for Christ doesn't bring us recognition? Would we still be content?
- Read 1 Corinthians 1:28-30 (see fourth box on handout). How do these passages relate to what Solomon was saying?
Transition:
Regardless of diligent work, we may experience defeat, deprivation, or disfavor. Merit is not always rewarded. Our contentment can't be found in what we receive from others in this life, only in what we give, especially Godly wisdom!
LOOK OUT: Hitting the Target and Applying it to Daily Living
Illustration:
In January of 1815, a crack British army of 10,000 troops faced a hodgepodge American force of 4,000 near New Orleans, Louisiana. The British soldiers were seasoned veterans of England’s victorious war against Napoleon’s French forces. Some of the “redcoats” also had taken part recently in the sack and burning of Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, most of the American troops in New Orleans had never served together before the battle. Few of them were professional soldiers or had combat experience. They had assembled solely for the defense of this pivotal port city. The Battle of New Orleans was one of the most lop-sided victories in history. After suffering nearly 4,000 casualties including its commanding general, the British army was forced to retreat. The Americans' losses included only eight soldiers killed and 13 wounded. The battle didn’t go to “the strong” in this case.
Illustration Option:
Display or read the story about David Phelps, the student minister killed in the bus crash while returning from student camp. He was living his life to the fullest to the very end. It was because of his relationship with Christ. His life here is over, and will soon be forgotten, but he is remembered by Christ because he was one of His children!
Action:
Call attention to the final box on the Handout. Direct the group to summarize their conclusions based on Solomon's observations.
