Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 1/20/2024

Sermon Prep

Often times people describe the honeymoon phase as carefree and pure bliss. A short period of time where everything is perfect and nothing can go wrong. I think that Glory and I first experienced this during our dating and engagement days. Then that phase ended just over a month after our honeymoon. Never felt anything quite like that time in my life and I will always treasure that time with my Glory.

Once that mountaintop experience ended reality set in not just of ourselves, but of life overall. Not that life has been downhill since then, but rather that my wife and I entered a new phase: lament. Around mid-September of 2022, life pivoted from joy to lament. Not just for us, but others very close to us too.

For us, I grappled with how to comfort my wife’s panic attacks that didn’t just happen daily, but multiple times per day. It was emotionally brutal. I failed to understand the extent of what it meant for her to mourn moving away from her childhood home and family to be with me in our new home. Here’s an excerpt I wrote in my journal about this season:

“At a loss on how to help. How to help. What to do. Just defeated. Pretty tired too. There’s been a lot of late nights like this one. I’m worn out. Body aches. Mind races. Just drained. I relate to today’s Psalm a lot [Psalm 88]. It describes what I can’t. I’m so tired. God, help us to rest in you.”

Beyond my wife understandably feeling homesick after the honeymoon phase, other things brought about this tough timeframe. Two women within the span of a week were raped in our community. Decades-long friendships ended between people we knew due to evil in-fighting and gossip. On top of that, my once steady job was beginning to crumble as layoff rumors swirled due to an acquisition. It quickly shifted from cherished days to chaotic ones seemingly out of nowhere.

It’s with this backdrop that our church began a new series in the book of Ecclesiastes. Starting a series on the meaninglessness of life was quite good timing on God’s part. Exploring the emptiness of the season during what should the happiest time of the year leading into fall and the holidays. With that all in mind, here’s the notes from my sermon:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

• 1940s vs Disney+ Pinocchio.
• Pinocchio is a retelling of the prodigal son.
• Self-indulgence isn’t fulfilling; sacrifice is.

Intro

• Read Ecclesiastes 2

Transition To Main Point

• Pleasure, wisdom; work are meaningless without Jesus.

Main Point

• Pleasure is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)
• Wisdom is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:12-17)
• Work is meaningless (Read Ecclesiastes 2:18-23)
• Contentment is meaningful (Read Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)

Why It Matters

• Nothing created can fulfill you.
• Comforts can’t conform your heart to be like Christ, but the challenge of change will.
• True joy is in jagged transformation.
• There’s a purpose to life’s greatest pursuits.
• That grand design is to enjoy the things of Earth with Jesus.
• Life is pains and pleasures, but Jesus is our joy.
• He makes the mess make sense.
• Creation was intentionally untamed.
• “We’re not made for Disney World” as Peter Kreeft put it, but rather for the Garden of Eden.
• The adventure God has for us is this: he creates, we cultivate.
• Your aim in life should be to embark on the adventure God has for you.
• Now go and wander with the way-maker.

Final Thoughts

This one is a step above my last sermon for sure. I think with everything that was going on at the time, I leaned into the seriousness of it all a bit more in the delivery of the message. The ending wrap-up is messy and needed some refinement, but I remember the sharing of the sermon being good. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes

1. Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske. 1940. Pinocchio. Walt Disney Productions.