Hunger Series

WISE LIVING: HUNGER

Ecclesiastes 6:1-12

#wiseliving2022

READ ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 6:1-12 [person in the congregation]

INTRODUCTION… My Week (p)

I am not going to lie. This sermon was extremely difficult.

I only began to write my sermon on Wednesday morning which is two full days after I normally begin. Usually, by Wednesday I am almost finished or at least pretty much on my way. You may not realize this, but it takes about 8 hours (give or take) to write a sermon. It actually takes all week if you count prayer and reading the Scriptures and letting the message marinate in the soul. I didn’t begin my sermon until Wednesday because I was counseling with people, talking and visiting with folks, helping a family that lost their house in a fire, serving a family in Bloomington with a funeral at Allen Funeral Chapel, doing church administration, and planning out lessons. I was busy it seemed like every moment this week.

I read and re-read Ecclesiastes 6. Most of the time when I read a passage I get a sense of where the sermon will go. I think that is the Holy Spirit. I think that is 25 years of sermon writing. I read and re-read Ecclesiastes 6 on Monday. I read the chapter in the ESV and in the NIV and then listened to it in the Message. Nothing. I prayed and read through a commentary. Nothing. In all the busyness I prepped my Wednesday lesson and my Sunday School lesson because I just wasn’t getting anywhere on my sermon. I like to feel like I am productive.

I read and re-read Ecclesiastes 6 on Tuesday. Still nothing. I read the chapter in the ESV and in the NIV and then listened to it in the Message. I was heading home Tuesday night listening to Ecclesiastes 6 over and over in the Message version when a verse grabbed my attention. I am pretty sure I was passing Don and Bonnie Greene’s house when I heard it.

READ ECCLESIASTES 6:7 (MSG)

“We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry.”

It was the word ‘appetites’ and the word ‘hungry’ that grabbed my attention. I am pretty much always hungry and it could be that I was ready for dinner which is why those words popped out at me, but I still noticed them. I got home and pulled into the garage and grabbed my phone and looked up Ecclesiastes 6:7 in the ESV.

READ ECCLESIASTES 6:7 (ESV)

“All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.”

Then I read it again in the NIV.

READ ECCLESIASTES 6:7 (NIV)

“Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.”

There is something to verse 7 for us.

Wednesday morning rolled around and I was heading to the church. My friend Jason and I are reading through the New Testament in 90 days on the Bible app and I was listening to the selection for Wednesday as I drove. Wednesday was Acts 10, 11, and 12.

I want to read from Acts 10 because Acts 10 jumped out at me just like Ecclesiastes 6:7.

READ ACTS 10:1-10 (ESV)

“At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance…”

Boom.

Full stop.

Did you catch the word mentioned in verse 10?

‘hungry’

‘wanted something to eat’

As soon as I heard the word ‘hungry’ I thought back to Ecclesiastes 6:7. I am listening to Acts 10 and Simon Peter is hungry and in his hunger something amazing happens. I am listening to Acts 10 and it sounds like to me that a man named Cornelius is a man hungry for God and God answers his desires. Simon Peter has a great desire to be a witness for God and God is going to use him to reach out to someone unexpected.