Enjoy Life with the Lord's Gifts
Memory Verse: Ecclesiastes 5:19. Read it aloud and identify what God gives.
Lesson Objectives
- Identify the gifts named in Ecclesiastes 5:18–20.
- Explain why possessing wealth does not guarantee enjoyment.
- Practice gratitude while showing compassion toward those who suffer.
Thesis: Our few years, the good we receive from our labor, and the ability to enjoy it are gifts from God to receive with gratitude.
Read first: Ecclesiastes 5:10–20. Verses 10–17 expose the dissatisfaction, worry, loss, and death that wealth cannot overcome.
I. Enjoy the Good in the Life God Has Given You
Ecclesiastes 5:18. Ordinary enjoyment is good and fitting. Work still involves toil, and life remains brief, yet God gives real good within it.
1. What activities does verse 18 call good and fitting? Who gives the years in which we enjoy them?
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2. Why is waiting until every problem is settled a poor condition for enjoying today's provision?
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II. The Ability to Enjoy Is Also God's Gift
Ecclesiastes 5:19; 6:1–2; James 1:17. Having possessions and enjoying them are different things. Give thanks for provision and for the ability to receive its good.
3. Compare 5:19 with 6:2. What does the first man receive that the second man lacks?
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4. Why does this passage give us no right to accuse a grieving or ill person of failing God because enjoyment is difficult?
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III. God Gives Gladness Within Our Passing Years
Ecclesiastes 5:20. God gives gladness during a brief life. The verse does not promise that every anxious thought or painful memory disappears.
5. How does “not often” limit what we may claim about this man's thoughts concerning his years?
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6. Compare 5:10 with 5:20. What contrast do you see between the man who loves money and the man whose heart God occupies with gladness?
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Put the Text into Practice
- At home: Name a specific blessing in prayer. Put aside the phone at a meal and attend to the people with you.
- Among brethren: Share a meal, visit someone who is lonely, or help with a difficult task. Offer help without demanding that a hurting person appear cheerful.
Respond to Christ: Earthly gifts do not remove our need for forgiveness. Hear the gospel, believe in Jesus Christ, repent, confess Him, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Live faithfully. Christians who have put possessions before God must repent and renew their obedience.
Personal Response
Truth to hold: __________________________________________________
Obedience to practice: __________________________________________
Error to reject: __________________________________________________
Prayer: _________________________________________________________