Week 3: WISDOM AND FUTILITY
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On Sunday at church Travis preached on Wisdom and Futility. Please make sure you have watched Sunday’s sermon before Community Group.
Read this overview
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes begins with the phrase “Meaningless, meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” The Hebrew word for “meaningless” is hevel which best translates as “breath”. In other words, the author’s opening observation about life is that it’s just a breath…here for a brief moment and then it disappears. Many of have felt (or are feeling) this sense that life is fleeting and that often leads us to a place of futility and hopelessness: what does it matter what I do if nothing I do will last?
In this study, we’ll look specifically at Biblical wisdom and ask the question: What does wisdom have to say in light of the truth that life is just a breath? How are we to live, find meaning and hope when reality tells us that are lives our momentary?
Begin with silence and prayer
[5 minutes]
Sit down, get comfortable and ask someone to pray aloud for the study.
Then spend a few minutes in silence. Ask God to help us remove distractions from our minds, listen to what He is saying to and through each of us and change our lives accordingly.
DEBRIEF
Reflect on last week’s study application (smaller groups)
[10 minutes]
If you are in a Community of seven or more, divide into small groups of 3–4 people each (ideally same gender).
Last week you were challenged to deepen your vulnerability with God and with others. Kieran gave us two specific challenges (listed below):
Do one thing each day that reminds you of your vulnerability. Read a Psalm about God’s greatness. Sit at the beach and marvel at the power of God in the waves. Look at the stars and marvel at the vastness of the universe. Whatever works for you. And then in a prayer of simple faith say God “this world and its ways are too much for me to comprehend, but you are good, help me to trust you and enjoy this life as a gift from you.”
Now, in regard to our relationships. Think of one person in your life you can go deeper with and identify the next step toward a more vulnerable relationship with them. Then do it.
Spend a few minutes catching up on life and then talk about the following debrief questions:
How did you put into practice what you learned?
How have you seen God at work in and through you based on what you studied and applied from what you previously studied?
How do you need help/encouragement to live God’s truth out in your life?
DEEP DIVE
Open to the Bible together (whole group)
[15 minutes]
Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 together.
How have you experienced life as hevel... as a breath that is here today and gone tomorrow?
The author here says that no one will remember you after you’re gone. Do you think that’s true? If so, how does that make you feel?
Have you ever experienced a feeling of futility or hopelessness because life is short? How so.
Read Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 together.
If Ecclesiastes 1 begins by reminding us that life is a breath, where does it end? What wisdom is repeated several times throughout this chapter (see verses 1, 6 and 13).
How does this wisdom help us find lasting meaning in light of the reality of our life being a mist?
Travis spoke about how God’s kavod (“glory” in Hebrew) is the opposite of our hevel (life as a breath). That word kavod means “weighty” or “heavy” and indicates that unlike our lives and the decisions we make and the things we stress over, God is unmoving, permanent, eternal. The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that when we anchor our lives (even though they are hevel) in God, everything we do matters.
DISCIPLESHIP
Application for the coming week:
[5 minutes]
When we entrust our hevel (breath of a life) into the hands of God’s kavod (eternal, weighty glory), then we can have confidence that we and the choices we make and the things we do matter and will count in eternity.
Travis gave us three challenges on how we can life lives that matter in light of eternity:
Colossians 3 tells us to “set our minds on things above” and to “do everything in name of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable about two different types of people. The first group see (or perhaps don’t see) people and situations around them where there is need and they do nothing. The second group see these same people and situations and use whatever they’ve been given (their hevel) to show compassion and love. Jesus indicates that the second group are those that have used their hevel to the full…for eternal purposes. We are to be generous with whatever hevel we have.
Philippians 3 reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven and we await Jesus to transform our mortal bodies into glorious ones. If that’s the case, we should hold loosely to our triumphs and our tears. When we are able to do that, we find both joy and hope not in the stuff of this life, but in the God who writes our story into His story.
Work through these discussion questions
[10 minutes]
What attitudes or actions need to change in your life so that you are able to regularly “set your mind on things above” rather than focus on earthly things?
How can you nurture generosity of your time, talents and treasures? Where are there people or needs around you that you can demonstrate generosity in? Or more appropriately, think of one person you can show generosity to this week. Describe how you can use your hevel for the glory of God in that person’s life.
What do you need to learn to let go of? What stuff, struggles, successes are you holding onto that you need to let go of? How can you hold loosely to those things and instead cling tightly to the kavod of God?
Close in prayer
[15 minutes]