Redemption Life Fellowship

Transactional Worship Vs Listening Worship | Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 | Sam Jones

This sermon begins with a searching question: how do you view God? That question shapes how we worship, how we see ourselves, and how we respond when our own plans fall apart. In Ecclesiastes 5:1–7, Solomon warns that worship becomes distorted when we rush into God’s presence, full of words, vows, and self-made agendas, rather than coming humbly to listen. The central burden of the message is simple: treat God like a transaction, and worship goes crooked. What Ecclesiastes 5 Exposes * Guard your steps: God’s presence is not casual, and worship should be marked by reverence. * Listen before speaking: Solomon says drawing near to listen is better than offering the sacrifice of fools. * Beware of bargains: Vows can become attempts to manage God instead of trust Him. * Fear God: Many words, self-driven dreams, and religious performance only add to the vanity of life under the sun. From Transaction to Awe The sermon ultimately moves to the gospel. Our worship problem is a belief problem, and the answer is not better performance but the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. * Jesus welcomes us near so we no longer need to bargain for access to God. * Jesus has done what we could not do and opens the way for us to approach the throne of grace with confidence. * Jesus teaches us to listen so worship can come back into sync through awe, trust, and abiding in His presence. Response This message invites people to lay down transactional worship, bring their crumbled plans and anxious striving before God, and come with fewer words and more wonder. Instead of asking God to sign off on our story, we are called to listen for His heart, trust His grace, and build our lives on His holiness, love, and truth.

When Life Feels Meaningless… Who Is With You? | Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Ecclesiastes 4 exposes the ache of life in a broken world—oppression, striving, loneliness, and fading recognition— while pointing to the gift of companionship and the greater hope found inJesus Christ.

When Justice Fails and Death Wins… What Now? | Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 | Derek Harm

When Justice Fails and Death Wins… What Now? | Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 | Derek Harm

Time and Toil: Freedom in the Fog | Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 | Sam Jones

Feeling stuck in a season you cannot escape—whether in work, marriage, parenting, or the constant rat race? This message from Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 explores how time and toil expose our limits and our longing for eternity, not to crush us but to free us. Instead of using our schedules, careers, and relationships as tools to secure happiness or control outcomes, we learn to receive them as gifts from an eternal God who is writing a far bigger story than we can see, and to rest in Jesus who entered our hevel—our fog and vapor—to redeem our restless striving and teach us to find joy in ordinary, everyday life.

This Can’t Be All There Is | Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 | Derek Harm

In this opening message of the Ecclesiastes series at Redemption Life Fellowship, we explore Ecclesiastes 1:1–11 under the title “This Can’t Be All There Is,” tracing how life “under the sun” exposes the emptiness of work, progress, pleasure, and even human legacy when they are disconnected from God. The sermon shows that apart from the Lord, our days can feel like motion without meaning—busy, repetitive, and unsatisfying—yet this very frustration is meant to press us beyond temporary pursuits to the One who can truly make sense of it all. Ecclesiastes raises the ache; John 1 answers it by revealing Jesus as the Logos, the meaning behind everything, who stepped into our broken world, bore our folly at the cross, and broke the cycle through His resurrection. Listeners are invited to stop chasing ultimate fulfillment in things “under the sun” and instead anchor their lives in the Son, discovering that in Christ, life’s ordinary moments gain eternal weight and everything finally makes sense.