One Minute Bible

52 Week Curriculum

When Life Seems Pointless

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Objectives

  • To gain a perspective on God’s sovereign control over the seasons and events of our lives.
  • To evaluate our current morale level…how we feel about what God is doing with us.

Overview

I’m surprised more people don’t commit suicide.

Looking at life from a Christless perspective…the viewpoint from which most of the world operates…suicide makes a lot of sense. It’s amazing that more people don’t opt for it.

Think about it: We’re made for eternity. Christians know this, but even unbelievers sense it. It’s the image of God—the spirituality of man—yearning for something more than this world has to offer. No matter where the unbeliever looks, he eventually finds himself singing the same old tune: I can’t get no satisfaction.

Even those blessed with material prosperity find that life is more pain than pleasure.

So all unbelievers everywhere live their lives in varying degrees of despair. Many search for relief all their lives, never to find it. Others give up after a time to ride out their lives enslaved to whatever addiction dulls the pain. The broad road most people travel leads to destruction, and in their hearts they know it.

So I suggest that suicide is a logical alternative. Who wants to endure a slow and painful death? Can you imagine 70 or 80 years of Christless living? The pain must be indescribable. Wouldn’t it be much better to get it over with quickly? Besides, the verdict is in on money, sex, and power…we know they don’t satisfy. But what if death does? Many have suggested that death is all love and light, warmth and peace. That sounds a lot better than the hell most people live in, doesn’t it?

Yet by the grace of God, most people hang in there—which is good because there is one other option: The God-centered life we receive through Christ. It is the only alternative to the despair of every other path. The God-centered life still comes with it’s share of pain; but it also comes with a promise of relief. It’s still difficult; but it’s also purposeful.

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of this important fact. Without God, living from event to event and season to season is an impossible burden. It’s all pointless. But when God is acknowledged as the mover behind the ebb and flow of life, a point is found.

Now, this is all pretty heady stuff. But who can resonate with this truth better than a high schooler? Most high schoolers find themselves living from weekend to weekend. And deep inside, many see life as an endless procession of ultimately pointless experiences.

This week you get to say, “Not so!” and bring a message of hope. God can bring beauty and reason to every season of a kid’s life…even those that seem most meaningless.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Outline

Ecclesiastes 3 contrasts two perspectives on life. One is God-centered and one is God-less. The key is for God-centered people—Christians—to choose the God-centered perspective. Many operate from godless principles…we sometimes call them practicing atheists…they claim faith but don’t live it.

Are You Pointless or Pointed?

The Pointless Life

BORING -- Ecclesiastes 3 contains 14 pairs of words that describe the seasons of life. Without God bringing purpose to these, life becomes BORING! (Maybe you got bored just reading these things and skimmed to verse 9…see what I mean?) If life is just an endless flow of stuff, what’s the point?

BANKRUPT -- Verse 9 contains a question: What does the worker gain from his toil? The answer is obvious so it’s left unsaid: NOTHING! That is, he gains nothing if he just goes about his business without an eternal perspective and eternal purpose behind his work. You can put in your time and make a lot of money, but you’ll still end up bankrupt spiritually.

BITTER -- Verse 10 observes, “I have seen the burden God has laid on men.” The burden is this: God lays before us a seemingly endless series of events and experiences to live through. And if we don’t have an eternal, God-centered perspective we can’t find the point of it all. That leads to despair and bitterness. We go through life trying to “get a life!”

The Pointed Life

The life the Lord gives is not pointless, it’s “pointed.” That is, it has a point because it is pointed in a certain direction: eternity. God uses the temporary stuff of life to build our thirst for heaven. At the same time, he enables us to find at least some degree of happiness and satisfaction in this life too.

BALANCE -- Instead of describing boredom, the 14 pairs of words in Ecclesiastes 3 show the balance of life in the Lord. There are at least 28 complimentary seasons in the Christian’s life. That’s not boring, it’s exciting! There’s always something new and meaningful on the horizon…an event or experience God will use to build his kingdom in and through us.

BEAUTY -- Verse 11 holds a great promise: Every season and event will prove beautiful in time. Notice that the list includes death, weeping, mourning, hate, and war. Only God can transform such powerful, negative events into things of beauty in the lives of his people. And he does it all the time. Mature believers often tell how the most excruciating experiences in their past have proved invaluable in accomplishing God’s good purposes for them.

BLESSING -- Notice the contrast between verses 9-10 and 12-13. In the pointless life, there is nothing to gain, only an incredible burden to bear. In the “pointed” life there is happiness to experience and good to do. We can eat and drink and find satisfaction in life. There’s no greater blessing than that. It is a gift of God that makes this long and difficult life bearable.

Discussion Guide

Open

Preface these discussion starters with a few words about the heaviness of this week’s topic. Some of these questions will require some thought, but this can be a significant study if kids will put some effort into it.

  • How many of you have felt like your life was pointless? How many of you know someone who seems to think their life is pointless?
  • What has made you feel this way? A bad experience…a tragic event…general boredom…or what?
  • What makes life bearable for you? Even when you’re feeling like it’s pointless, you keep going—why?

Dig In

Introduce Ecclesiastes 3. This portion of Scripture was written by a man who was struggling with the pointlessness of life. He was King Solomon. If ever there was a person who had “been there, done that” it was Solomon. His wealth and fame allowed him to do anything he wanted. Yet he found no satisfaction in money, sex, or power. So he set out to rediscover the source of true meaning in life. The passage we’re looking at presents some of his conclusions.

Read and discuss Ecclesiastes 3:1-14.

  • What do you think is the point of the list in verses 2-8? What is the author trying to communicate?
  • Verse 11 says God has made everything beautiful in its time…yet the author’s list includes words like die, kill, weep, mourn, hate, and war. How do you explain that? Can these things actually be beautiful?
  • What do you think the author means when he says God has set eternity in the hearts of men?

(It’s a sense of the spiritual; a knowledge that there’s something more; a desire to understand the eternal.)

  • Having eternity in our hearts makes us dissatisfied and discontented with life on earth. In what way is that a good thing?
  • According to Solomon, what is the point of life? What is the best we can hope to get out of it? Does this seem like enough to you?

Summarize this passage by explaining the two perspectives of life described in the teaching outline.

Close

1.Which of these times or seasons are you in right now? Have you been handling it from a God-centered or godless perspective?

2.What purpose of beauty might God be bringing out of what you’re going through right now?

3.Verse 14 makes the statement that God oversees every time and season in our lives so that we will revere or respect him. How does this work? Why does it make us respect God more?

Week 35 - Page 1