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Your Text HereDog-Eat-Dog World

Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:6

Road Trip with Preacher

Your Text HereThis world is broken, polluted, ruined.

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And I saw something else under the sun:In the place of judgment — wickedness was there, in the place of justice — wickedness was there.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Injustice Reigns in the Courts

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Injustice Reigns in the Courts

• Injustice steals satisfaction from life.

• There is no true justice under the sun.

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I thought in my heart, “God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”

Ecclesiastes 3:17

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Injustice Reigns in the Courts

• Injustice steals satisfaction from life.

• There is no true justice under the sun.

• In time God will bring ultimate justice.

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Ecclesiastes 3:18-22

I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return

to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you

will return.”

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Ecclesiastes 3:18-22

22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

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John 3:13-17

“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

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Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:I saw the tears of the oppressed — and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors — and they have no comforter. 2 And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

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Power is Used to Oppress

• Oppression is deliberately crushing others.

• Oppression leads to despair.

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Power is Used to Oppress

• Oppression is deliberately crushing others.

• Oppression leads to despair.

• You can find enjoyment in oppression.

Ecclesiastes 3:22 “So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his

work, because that is his lot.”

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Envy Drives our Society.

• This is a disease of the heart.

“And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:4

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Envy Drives our Society.

• This is a disease of the heart.

• Avoid both surrender and greed.

• Contentment is the secret to peace.

“The fool folds his hands and ruins himself. 6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:5-6

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Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."”

1 Timothy 6:6-8 “But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

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Challenge: God calls us to redeem his creation.