Updated: 12/2/2024

Sermon Prep

This week while writing my long-gestating book during my paternity leave, I stumbled on an old sermon I shared to the kids ministry over 2 years ago. I have no idea why I wrote it down in my ideas journal for my book, but I discovered it again and figured I’d throw it on the blog. One day I’ll add all of my sermons from when I first started preaching, but that’s a project for another day.

Either way, occasionally when I teach and lead kids ministry at church I will write up a sermon for that Sunday. To be fair, it’s a lot less prep and research then I normally would do if any at all. I usually just take current themes in the main service and distill them into a mini message they can understand better.

Looking back, that must be what I did here during Reunion Church‘s Ecclesiastes series we did in 2022. I was just a month into marriage and there was a lot going on, so I must’ve done this prep in a hurry on short notice. Also, don’t have many photos from this era in life so I’m just going to use a picture from the honeymoon archives.

Either way, it’s a cool gem and honestly I think a lot of my sermons have been scribbled down in random places that I may never recover again. So for me, this was awesome to find today. Here’s the notes:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

• What is a wise life?
• Ecclesiastes overview.

Intro

• Girls: Brother’s girlfriends.
• Gold: Grandad’s wealth.
• Glory: Mountains are more remembered.

Life is a temporary paradox.

• Everything is hevel.
  • Hevel = smoke, vapor.
• Life like smoke seems solid, but vanishes before you can get a good grasp on it.

Transition To Main Point

• Read Ecclesiastes 1:5-11.
• All of life is out of your control.

Main Point

• Read Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
• A wise life is to fear and obey God.

Why It Matters

• Read Ephesians 5:15-17.
• Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
• A wise life is made up of little moments.
  • Meaning is measured by these moments.

Transition Out

• How is the meaning of your life measured?

Final Thoughts

I vaguely remember this message and that it kind of went over the kids heads. I tend to be incredibly interactive with my messages, especially with kids so my notes are all over the place here. I must have created this sermon within a short window because I couldn’t find any drafts outside of this one.

Looks like a one-and-done sermon outline I bet I made the day before church. Anyways, neat find as I continue to press on and Lord willing finish my book sometime in the new year. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.