Sunday 10 • 27 • 19

On the fact that you speak even now as your word is opened. I pray that as we read your word, the truth of your word is saturated into our souls, and that I could stand here prayerfully, Lord God, so we can extract truth to be able to live by. Speak to us. Move us to obedience, to glorify your holy name. I ask this in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Listen to these words of a US Navy radio communication. The captain of the ship got on the radio and said this: "Please divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid collision." A responder said, "Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid collision." The captain then said, "This is the captain of a US nation. I say again, divert your course." The responder said, "No. I say again, divert your course." And finally, the captain said, "This is the aircraft carrier Enterprise. We are a large warship of the US Navy. Divert your course now." And then the responder said, "This is a lighthouse. Your call."

A lighthouse is immovable. But I think as I look at these two, we are a lot like the Navy ship. We believe, I think often, that we could change the course of our lives based on what we attain in this life—that we could just think hard enough and do things such that no matter what, we could change what our lives look like. The truth is we must alter the course of our lives to submit to reality, to God's way of doing things.

Howard Thurman, one of my favorite authors, in his book Meditations of the Heart, says: "All events in life take place somehow within the divine context." Every event in life, no matter how good or how bad, every event in our lives takes place in the divine context. You see, this is encouraging for me because it reminds me that our God is in control of everything, even when we don't understand what's taking place.

And to get a great scriptural picture of that, just look at the life of Joseph in Genesis chapters 37 through 50. Also, Psalm 115 says this, and I love this scripture:

Our God is in heaven, and he does whatever he pleases. — Psalm 115:3

Even though this is true, people still seek to change the course of their lives, and money is a driving force for this change. We say things like, "If I just hit the lottery"—have you ever done that? You ride by and you see the billboard that says 999,000,000 and some change, and you're like, "That's a billion. Lord, if I just had that billion, I could pay all of my bills, all of my family's bills, get everyone a house, and make sure that everyone is doing okay."

Or we may say things like this: "If I could just get that job and make this amount of money, then my life and the life of my family would be so much better." Many times we think this, I believe, not recognizing that God is providentially ruling in our lives, that there is nothing taking place in our lives that God is not superintending. But because we don't sense his presence, we don't sense that he is there, we try to rig our lives in a way to make sure that we have our best life here and now—and often we do that around money.

Money and Idolatry

Money and materialism are big idols in our day. However, idolatry is a sin. It is taking what's created and worshiping it as the creator. Paul says in Romans:

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. — Romans 1:22–23

As Christians—and again, let me even say as Southern Christians—we would not consider ourselves as those who are not worshiping God. How dare we? We would not worship idols. We worship the one true God. But if we really look underneath the hood of our lives, I think that we have allowed what has been created often to become central in our lives, and it evokes religious-like awe from us when we have it.

A man by the name of Jacques Ellul has said this: "It is because man experiences consumption as a sacred delirium that he has plunged into the orphism of yet more and still more, and advertising arouses sympathetic vibration in him. If he obeys advertising, it is more than anything else because he has been sensitized beforehand by the worship of consumer goods."

However, when we look at Jesus and what he said in Matthew 6:24:

No one can serve two masters. For he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. — Matthew 6:24

Do we as a church buy into these lies? Do we believe that if we had more stuff, more money, then we could change the course of our lives? You see, we are no different from the people of God in scripture that were prone to idolatry. Now, instead of erecting stone or wood idols, we worship economic performance. Even inside the church, we believe that if we achieve economic prosperity, we have the security we need for us and for our families.

One person has said it this way: it is the love of the family more than anything else that fuels the fires of materialism in the West, including western Christians. Greed for more does not save us. It destroys us.

However, in this section of the text—and we're not going to go verse by verse because this is a lot of text—hopefully we could get at what this text is really bringing out. But the one thing I want us to learn here is that instead of pursuing wealth, we need to enjoy God's daily gifts. Instead of pursuing wealth, enjoy God's daily gifts.

Jesus would say it this way in the model prayer:

Give us this day our daily bread. — Matthew 6:11

God is the giver of good gifts. He knows what we need to live. And I have to think about this like, I freak out and think like, God, do you see me? Do you see what I need? But God knows exactly what I need. Jesus would say it this way in Matthew 6:33-34:

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. — Matthew 6:33-34

So this morning, as we look at this section of Ecclesiastes, I want us to see these things. The first thing I want us to see is that money never satisfies. We're going to see that in Ecclesiastes 5:10-12, and then we're going to look at chapter 6:7. Money never satisfies.

The second thing I want us to see is that we must view what comes to us as heaven sent. What comes to us as heaven sent—Ecclesiastes 5:18-20. And we gotta end with Jesus. We gotta end with him. And the last thing I want us to see is that Jesus fulfills our ultimate longing. We're going to see that in John 14:1-6.

So the question I want you to ponder as we walk through this is: what do you long for? What do you long for?

Money Never Satisfies

Let's look at our first point: money never satisfies. Chapter 5, verses 10-12 says this:

The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply. What is the profit to the owner except to gaze at them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep. — Ecclesiastes 5:10-12

And chapter 6, verse 7:

All of a person's labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied. — Ecclesiastes 6:7

Again, as we look at the book of Ecclesiastes, where the teacher simply observes life under the sun, he notices these things and draws conclusions from what he observed. Here, he observed that humans are never satisfied with money. Do you believe that this is true? That humans are never satisfied with money?

It doesn't matter how much money a person has. There is always this opportunity to desire even more. Give me a hundred. I want two hundred. Give me two hundred. I want a thousand. And it keeps going on and on.

The teacher shows us what life is like for the wealthy person disconnected from God. He shows us that a wealthy person's riches are consumed by others, and this is so true. You make more money, get more things, and you also have more bills. Is that right? Yeah. The light man keeps coming every month. Insurance comes every month. That car note comes every month. Taxes come every month. Not only that—especially if you own a business and you hire people—you have to pay more. I mean, it just keeps going and going. Other people consume this wealth, the writer says.

He also saw that wealth causes them to have sleepless nights, while the laborer or the person who has less money has good sleep. It seems like the wealthy person stays awake worrying: Is anybody going to take my money? How can I make more money? While that poorer person got their daily wages and lays down and snores. Like, yeah, I don't have all that I want, but I'm good. I am going to sleep.

If our ultimate goal is to make more and more money, this seems to be a never-ending task because we will never have enough. Wealth cannot satisfy the deepest longings of humanity.

When wealth is our highest goal, we are only concerned with life here. Greed is not a financial issue. Greed is a heart issue. It is a heart issue. And greed is certainly symbolized by the lives of many rich and famous people in our day.

See, in the past, I'm about to talk to my seasoned saints right here. How many of y'all remember the TV show Dallas? Yeah, I just know I lost a whole bunch of folk right there, especially younger. But the TV show Dallas—what did this show portray? It portrayed wealth, sex, and power struggle. Right? But we don't have to look back to old TV shows like Dallas. We can even look at movies and TV shows in our day.

One such movie is the Wolf of Wall Street that portrays high life living, corruption, and crime. But we don't have to look at the entertainment industry. We can even look at politics. It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on. People on any side of the aisle are marked by greed. How can I legalize laws in place, put legislation in place so that I can get a leg up, so that I can get what I need, what I want?

Even in Christendom, we have televangelists getting on TV telling the people who follow them that if they just sow a seed, have you ever watched those? Where's that $100 seed? Where's that $1,000 seed? If you just sow into this ministry, what they're saying is, if you sow into me, then maybe God would give you some money as well. But often we don't see that money trickling down to the person who sowed all that money. What we tend to see is that pastor living lavishly. Again, I'm not speaking for all pastors. I'm just saying we even see this greed infiltrate even Christendom. People doing what they do for financial gain.

But we don't just want to look at people out there. We even do it in our own homes. We do it with our kids. We tell them, get all you can in life. We send them off to college and we tell them, get a degree so that you can make money—lots of it. Again, I'm not saying tell your kids to go to school and don't get a degree. No, go to school, get a degree. My son is here listening. Son, get your degree. But the thing is, I think we mess up when we tell them this and we make materialism and money their ultimate goal. It's so easy for us to slip into that way of thinking. This only produces a person who worships at the altar of materialism, and at the end, it has a negative effect on us.

Brian Fickard in his latest book, Becoming Whole, shares that from the late 1930s to the present, in a period of sustained economic growth, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues among America's youth have greatly increased. Interesting. While since the nineteen thirties economic prosperity has been on the rise, simultaneously mental health issues among youth, depression, and anxiety has also been on the rise. It leads you to wonder why there is such a lack of contentment among us. Money cannot bring satisfaction.

It's like the man who said, last year my great aunt died and left me $25,000. Last week, my grandfather died and left me $58,000, but I'm so depressed. His friend said, why are you depressed? He said, because nobody died this week. If we have an attitude like this man, we will always be looking for more and more. We will never be satisfied with what we have in hand.

If we look around us and even within us, we notice that the highest goal of our day is financial stability. Every time I watch the news and I hear people talk about the state of our country, it's always explained in line with finances. Are our economy is here, and it always keeps that idea of money before us. That's how we determine how healthy we are. We are on a quest to keep up with the Joneses. I never met the Joneses, but it's almost like we try to keep up with them and surpass them. But we often find that this ambition destroys us. We don't know how to be content with what we have been given.

But there was one in scripture that I love, and I love this section of the text, where God shows us that he was content. His name is Paul, and he writes in Philippians:

I know both how to make do with little and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances, I learned the secret of being content. Whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need, I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me. — Philippians 4:12–13

I wonder if one of our reasons for the pursuit of money and more money is that we don't believe that God will provide what we need when we need it. That we doubt God. God, you ain't coming through and I need to rig my life in a way, make as much money as I can so that when you don't come through, I got something to fall back on. Money never satisfies.

View What Comes to Us as Heaven Sent

Secondly, we must view what comes to us as heaven sent. The writer says:

Here is what I have seen to be good. It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward. Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God. — Ecclesiastes 5:18–20

For he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart. This part of the text encourages us to enjoy God's daily gifts of food, work, and drink. A man by the name of Robert Gordis said, "The guarding of wealth entails anxiety and care. However, when we see what we have as gifts given to us from God, we can rest in him and enjoy what he has given."

There are countless stories of wealthy people in our day and before us who had more money than they knew what to do with, but they were some unhappy people. There are two people I'm just going to mention: Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson. I only read stories of Marilyn Monroe, but I was a young whippersnapper when Michael Jackson came along—the king of pop. But you saw that these people, especially Michael Jackson in my day, had wealth. They had a lot, but they seemed to be so unhappy, and they had problems all over the place. These were people that could buy whatever they wanted to in this life, and yet their money did not stop what ultimately happened to them. They died.

The writer of Ecclesiastes would say something like this: They came into the world naked. You had nothing when you got here, and guess what? That's what's going to happen when you leave. Again, I've said this numerous times—you have never seen a U-Haul attached to a hearse. Some people may even try to put their money in the casket with them. They could do that, but give it some time. Somebody's going to dig that casket up. They're going to open it and they're going to get that money out because you can't spend it where you're going. It does not make sense for us to put so much emphasis on this.

Wealth and Misfortune

The teacher who wrote this also observed this with the wealthy. He observed that the wealthy person who spent their money only on themselves experienced some things: frustration, sickness, and anger. He also saw that the wealthy could lose their wealth to misfortune.

Recently, a story told of a Yale graduate named Sean Pleasance. In high school, he was a valedictorian and went to Yale. He graduated and this brother started making money hand over fist. He started working with Wall Street, then left Wall Street and went to Morgan Stanley out in California. As he's making all this money and buying lavish houses, he began to start businesses. So he got multiple streams of income. He's getting money, but then he and his cofounder got into it and that siphoned off all of his money. He was left with nothing. The result: he's now homeless in California.

When we read stories like this, I know when I read it, I just thought, man, that's a tragedy. But the teacher of this book has seen this before thousands of years before. He would say something like this:

There is nothing new under the sun.

I've seen this story before. When we see it, we get caught up. He's like, that should not happen because money should protect me from all of those things happening in life. But the teacher would say, no, life happens. I've seen this story before.

When a person is able to enjoy what they have, this too is a gift from God. But if you go to the early verses of chapter six, verses one through six, the teacher also saw that many well-off people cannot have the enjoyment described in verses 18 through 20 of chapter five. It's not because they lack the resources, but the text says God would not allow them to enjoy it. God is in control here. God wouldn't allow them to enjoy it. What it shows us again is that satisfaction is not in money. Satisfaction is in the one who gave it.

Gratitude and Dependence on God

For those of us who are parents in here, you don't mind giving your kids good gifts, do you? No. And when you give it, you're so excited to see their eyes light up. But you feel even better when what your child does is not only receive that gift and love it, but they even lavish love on you because your parents gave you something that you love.

We tend to treat God like this: "Give me that. Thank you, God, for those million. I don't want nothing to do with you," and we want to go spend all that stuff on ourselves. We often do that. Again, I'm just painting a broad picture here, but it's being ungrateful.

Christian Ginsburg said, "Not only is there nothing left for man but present enjoyment, but even for this, he is dependent on God."

Normally, there is one particular meal in our day that's a balanced meal. That's typically the evening meal or dinner. The meals before that are not balanced. You know, we probably stop and get a hamburger or we just eat anything early in the day, but when we get home, we want to eat a balanced meal, which means there are vegetables on the plate.

You know, our kids are repelled by that green leafy thing, but those vegetables are purchased in a grocery store. The grocery store gets it from a farmer who has farmed and harvested these vegetables. The farmer plants seeds in the ground where the seeds sprout from rain and sunshine, but even the rain and sunshine is dependent on heaven. Rain must come down on the land so that seeds that have been planted can sprout. The farmer can then take those vegetables and deliver them to the store. We can then go to the store and buy those vegetables, go home, and prepare a meal where we can eat wonderfully either alone or with our families.

Now, if a person gets stuck appreciating the grocery store, then they have missed the source. The grocery store is simply the mechanism for delivery. Now, if God stops the sunshine and rain, stops the replication of seed, or does not allow the land to be fruitful, then there is no meal. God is the one who gives us what we have. He delights in us as his children and he knows what we need and he supplies what we need. But we could be so preoccupied with things, wondering: What am I going to eat today? What am I going to wear? What type of house can I buy so that we can live in? My point is that we could just worry about many things.

But then Jesus again—and I believe it's in Matthew chapter six—Jesus would say, "Why are y'all worrying like that?" He says, "I want you to notice something. Notice those birds. They fly, but God feeds them. When you leave out of here today and you see a bird flying, just think about this truth: that bird is flying. God knows its name. God knows exactly where it's going, and God knows exactly when he's going to give them that worm or whatever he's going to give them. He feeds them. And then the grass of the field. God clothes even the grass of the field, and you are better than the bird and the grass. Why are you worrying? God got this."

But I have to confess, like I often doubt God. If I'm honest, I've often doubted, and when God is late in my book, God, you know what I need. I sit there and I wonder, "God, do you see? Do you see the internal struggle? Do you see that I may not be able to pay that bill? God, do you see that I need to go to the grocery store and I don't have any money in the bank? God, do you see?"

But then I have to fall back and think about the fact that when I look back over my life—see, I think we have amnesia. We don't remember well. Can you think back and see how God has brought you? I wish I was in my home church right now. Somebody would holler, "Like God done brought you a mighty long way." That if you just turn and look at those altars of remembrance and see that God did it then. He met me, and it seemed like he was late, but God is never late. He is always on time. Like, he brought me up to this point, and when I remember and I look back, it should evoke joy and thanksgiving: "God, if you do nothing else, I thank you for what you've done in my life. I thank you that you care for me—not just me. You care for my wife. You care for my children. You care for my brothers and sisters. You care for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I've seen your faithfulness. God, even if I can't see anything in my life, I can look in your word and I've seen you are faithful. Let me see that everything that I have been given comes from your hand, God."

Instead of walking around disgruntled, thinking that he does not care, I want to be able to say like the psalmist every day that I get up: "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." Like, yeah, I might not feel good. Life may be kind of crazy. I may be feeling all kind of tension and anxiety, but God is still good. This is the day that he has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Jesus Fulfills Our Ultimate Longing

See, God had never intended for us to look at stuff and find significance and satisfaction in things. He is the source of our satisfaction, which brings me to my last point: that Jesus fulfills our ultimate longing.

Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and make and take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also. You know the way to where I am going. — John 14:1-4

Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?"

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." — John 14:5-6

See, we have seen in Ecclesiastes that money can never satisfy. Even if we had all of the money in this world, the reality is we can't take it with us when we die. Yet, we still long for something to give us significance. We long for that significance.

The teacher shows us that we can't find significance in money, but there is one in whom we find our significance, and his name is Jesus. In John chapter 14, Jesus is just a few hours away from his crucifixion. Now I want to say this: I'm thankful for chapter and verses in scripture, but when those scriptures were originally given, there were no chapters, there were no verses. So when you see the flow of the text, what happened right before this was that Jesus told Peter, "You're gonna deny me three times." Now keep this in mind. The disciples had walked with Jesus every day for three years. They were with him and wanted to be exactly like him. Jesus then says to him, "Peter, the dude who runs off at the mouth a lot like me, you're gonna deny me three times." Then Jesus will also say other stuff like, "Y'all, we're about to be separated. I'm about to go somewhere and y'all can't come." Think about what they would have felt. We done left everything to follow you. You mean to tell me we can't be with you? And my man Pete here? He gonna deny you three times? What we gonna do? It's almost like they were on some boats, got off the boats, burned the boats. I can't go back nowhere. And if they're walking across a bridge, they had some dynamite blow the bridge up. We can't go nowhere. We are in a bad place.

But it's in John chapter 14 that Jesus says:

Don't let your hearts be troubled. In other words, don't worry. Continue to believe in the Father and also to believe in me.

Jesus says, "I am going away to prepare a place for you." Let me pause right here. Jesus is preparing a place for us. Each and every one of you. He's preparing a place for me, y'all. I don't know what it looks like, but I know it's going to be sweet. He is preparing a place for you, and he made this promise to the disciples. He says:

I'm going away to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you would be with me always.

Thomas then says something. He says, "We don't know where you're going, and we don't know the way there." Jesus says these wonderful words:

I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

See, he is the way—meaning he is the connection between God and man. He is the truth, reminding us of the complete reliability of Jesus in all that he does and is. He is the life. This shows us that mere physical existence matters little. Let me say that again. Mere physical existence—having all this money in the world—it matters little. The only thing that matters is the life that Jesus brings. It's not found in money or material things. Life is found in Jesus because Jesus is life himself.

I love the commentary from Leon Morris on John's gospel, and he says this: "I am the way," said the one who would shortly hang impotent on the cross. "I am the truth," when the lies of evil men were about to enjoy spectacular triumph. "I am the life," when within a few hours, his corpse would be placed in a tomb.

You might think that day was dark. But three days later, Jesus dusted off his shoulders. I don't look death square in the eyes. Satan square in the eyes. Sin square in the eyes. You can't hold me. I'm victorious. I win. And he gives us—based on his finished work—he gives us significance because we are in him.

The Story of Two Farmers

The story is told of two farmers: farmer Dale and farmer Pete. This story is funny to me. They were neighbors and they loved each other. You know, you may have that neighbor that you've been knowing a long time. I can only remember that as a boy because there's so much movement now, but as a boy, we were pretty much in one spot, and you knew your neighbors. One lady was Miss Johnson and her husband, Mister Johnson. They were older, but I could tell there was love between us as neighbors.

Well, farmer Dale and farmer Pete had this kind of love, but they always were competing against one another. And farmer Pete always beat farmer Dale, and farmer Dale didn't like it. So one day farmer Dale came up with this idea: I'm gonna do something where I could win. They got horses. So they wanted to have a horse race. But this is what farmer Dale did: he hired a professional horse jockey to ride his horse when farmer Pete didn't. So he got his professional jockey. They sit down, they have their race. The horses take off. They're going. And it's almost like neck and neck. But farmer Dale is kind of excited because his horse is up a little bit. But then something happened. The horses got their legs tangled and they both fell.

But then the professional jockey—he knows about this stuff—so he gets up, gets on a horse, and he begins to take off. And so farmer Dale notices. He throws his hands in the air, and he is happy, and he is screaming. Then he starts crying. And then farmer Pete said, "Why are you crying? You finally won."

You finally beat me at something. Then farmer Dale said, but he got on the wrong horse. He finished the line riding the wrong horse.

Now wouldn't it be tragic after going so hard in this life chasing money and materialism, and you cross the finish line into eternity and realize you've been riding the wrong horse. You've been riding the wrong horse.

Wouldn't it be tragic when you realize that you trusted in the wrong thing when true life and significance has always been available to you in Jesus. Again, Jesus says:

You can't serve both God and money

But in Jesus, we find life. He is our life and he is our significance. We need to realize that everything that we have, everything that we are is a result of God's work in our lives. And whether we have a lot of money or little money, if we're in Jesus, we have all the significance we need.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your work. Even as I think about this text of scripture, Lord God, your words tell us that you own the cattle on a thousand hills. In Deuteronomy, you said that you are the one who gives your people the power to get wealth. And so the whole point is that you are ultimately our source. That we actually own nothing—we are nothing—everything that we have belongs to you. If you don't give it, we don't have it.

But I pray, Lord God, that we would turn our attention from worship of things and realize that even as we have things, we bring an open hand to the foot of the cross and say, Lord, thank you. That even if we didn't have these things, Lord, you're still good and you're still at work in our lives.

And if you have blessed us with riches and wealth, Lord God, that we would realize that you have given that to us to be a conduit, to be a blessing to others around us, and not to hoard it on ourselves. Be glorified in us, Lord God. I do pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.