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The Vanity of Striving After Great Accomplishments

Sermon Title: The Vanity of Striving After Great Accomplishments

Sermon Text: Ecclesiastes 2:4-17

Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to avoid the futility of seeking possessions to find meaning and purpose in life.

Sermon Proposition: There are 3 facts about the meaninglessness of possessions in light of the fact of death.

 
I.          The record of the king’s great accomplishments. V.4-10
 

            A.        The record of his property. V.4-6 (1 Kings 7:1-11)

 
            B.        The record of his possessions. V.7-8a

1 Kings 10:5 the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.

1 Kings 10:14 The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 15 besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.

1 Kings 10:27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland.

Mark 10:43 "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 "And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Luke 9:24 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. 27 "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."

 

            C.        The record of his passions. V.8b

1 Kings 11:1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites -- 2 from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, "You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

1 Kings 9:28 And they went to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

 

            D.        The record of his prestige. V.9-10

 

II.        The review of the king’s great accomplishments. V.11

 

III.       The reflection of the king’s great accomplishments. V.12-17 (Luke 12:13-21)