Ecclesiastes 5 - Fresh Perspectives on Prosperity
Tom Shrader teaches from Ecclesiastes 5:10-17 in this session on financial prosperity, examining Solomon's warnings that loving money leads to perpetual dissatisfaction. He emphasizes that godliness plus contentment equals great gain, challenging listeners to define their material needs and find joy through relationship with God rather than accumulation of wealth.
“Happiness is a by-product. Peace is a by-product. Those things we want so desperately are not worthy goals in and of themselves, they're the by-product of a life that's lived in pursuit of the one true God, through His Son, Jesus Christ.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Reflections From the Top of the Heap (2002)
Recorded: October 24, 2002
Duration: 40 min
Themes: money, contentment, prosperity, wealth, materialism, greed, satisfaction, wisdom, struggling with greed, seeking contentment, wealthy individual, materialistic person, business owner, financial planner, young professional, middle-aged adult
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:10-17, 1 Kings 3:5, 1 Kings 3:10, 1 Timothy 6:6, Hebrews 13:5
Theological Themes: stewardship, godliness, biblical wisdom, ecclesiastes, solomon, worldliness, spiritual maturity, discernment
Full Transcript
Solomon's Unique Perspective on Life
This is today's session five, so we're just crossing the halfway point in this eight-session series entitled, Reflections from the Top of the Heap. What we're looking at is excerpts from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is written by Solomon, and Solomon is talking to us about life.
Let me read to you just a little bit about Solomon. First Kings chapter 3, verse 5: "The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, ask what you wish me to give you." Solomon has all sorts of options obviously that are available to him, and ultimately it's understanding and wisdom he asked for.
In First Kings chapter 3, verse 10, God answers. He said, "It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said to him, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. And also I have given you what you have not asked for, riches and honor, so that there will not be anyone among the kings like you in all your days."
The Assembled Facts from Experience
That's Solomon. Solomon is a unique fellow. Solomon is a guy who, we have said along the way here, was allowed by God to experience life in its fullest. By that we mean as we look under the sun, as we look horizontally, we look at Solomon and we look at the extraordinary life that he's lived.
He sits down at the end of his life, a book called Ecclesiastes, it means literally the one who has assembled the facts. He said, "I'm sitting at the end of life, and I'm writing back to you, and I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you how it really is."
Learning from Advice vs. Experience
Last night, I went into a meeting yesterday morning at 9, and left the room yesterday night at 5:15. It was a long meeting, and then I went down and just had a bunch of stuff from the day to clear out. Since I was there, our Wednesday night group, rock.com, our junior high and high schoolers are there, so I thought I'd grab my earplugs and head over there and just listen and watch.
I was watching our guy, Tim Maugean, teach, and he was talking about choices. He was talking about choices you'll have in your life, just all these choices that you have ahead of you. I thought, this is extraordinary insight in a room full of 400 kids who won't listen probably to one word that's being said. I projected myself into them, and yet some of these kids are extraordinary, and they're making great choices.
But it's one thing to hear good advice, it's another thing to take it. I know my mom and dad over the years, in my junior high and high school years, gave me great advice, but I had no idea what they were saying, and it certainly didn't match up with what I wanted to do, so I decided I'd just put that advice on hold for a while.
Solomon's Warning About Life's Empty Pursuits
It's the same thing here. If you are wise enough to listen, and you will implement this stuff into your life, your life will change radically. Solomon is saying, "I'm telling you, I've been there and work won't make you happy, money won't make you happy, sex isn't going to fulfill you, booze isn't going to, a new house isn't, the arts." We've looked at all of them, and Solomon says, "Listen, it isn't going to happen. You aren't going to be happy with this stuff."
I used to drive for 10 years down to Tucson and teach down there. It's interesting, there was one of the guys, when I decided not to do that, there were some very unhappy people with me, and I certainly understand that. One of them is now taking a class up here, and once a week drives up here for a class, has to do it for two years. He said, "I did it for exactly one quarter, and I called all of the guys I knew that were critical of you when you quit, and I said, you don't have any idea what he was going through. It was really hard."
The Planned Happiness Fallacy
But it was great illustrations and great time and some great things. One morning, I'm driving over Ina Road, trying to get to La Paloma, and I see a sign. There's a guy running a business out of his house, and there's this sign there. I went by it real quickly, and I thought I caught it, but I wasn't sure, so I went, did the lesson, came back. When I was done, I wanted to stop, and there was this sign, and the sign said, "Planned Happiness Institute."
I'm sure what this meant was, you came in, paid this guy a lot of money, and he was planning to be happy. That's all I could think of, because I had no idea. There it was, "Planned Happiness Institute." I thought, that's exactly how you'll never find happiness. You don't plan it.
Happiness is a by-product. Peace is a by-product. Those things we want so desperately are not worthy goals in and of themselves, they're the by-product of a life that's lived in pursuit of the one true God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. But if you sit down and say, "I'm going to be happy," can you listen to Solomon? Because that's what he said. "I'm going to be happy." He goes from thing to thing to thing. He goes from girls to girls to girls. He goes through this whole gamut, and he says, "It isn't going to make you happy. It isn't going to do that in the end."
Previous Lessons: Work and Religion
As we break it down, we've looked in the last two weeks, he really focused on work, and he said, "Listen, that isn't going to make you happy." Last week, kind of an odd switch, he talks about religion, and he says, "That isn't going to make you happy. Just being a spiritual person isn't going to make you happy. Just going through the motions, just involved in some ritual where after 15 minutes or a half hour"
Understanding True Financial Prosperity
When we talk about financial prosperity, you'll walk out and say, "I don't have the foggiest idea what we did, but we've done it so much that it must be the okay thing to do." Solomon said that isn't going to make you happy. Today he talks about financial prosperity, at least in our outline.
When we talk about financial prosperity, here's what we're talking about: having enough money to support the lifestyle you choose to maintain, and enough money left over to invest for a lifetime of financial security. So when we're talking about financial prosperity, we're talking about two things. You've got that on your outline.
The Frustrating Reality of Christian Living
This today is a very frustrating lesson. The reason it's frustrating is I can't give you a single answer. When you become a Christian, at least this is my experience, when you become a Christian and now salvation is secure, then the question becomes, "How then do I live as a Christian?"
For most people that I've been around, at least I'll talk about men—I don't know about the women in this thing because I can't—but for the men, most of the men that I've been around who are converted, who start to wrestle with this stuff, one of the issues that they wrestle with is lifestyle. I wrestle with it too.
The Lifestyle Dilemma
Remember, years ago, this guy called and he said, "Hey, I've got this deal. I've got a car. This is a great car." I went down and looked at it and I mean, it was a great car. He said, "You can buy this thing $3,000 or $4,000 under market. This is a great car." I said, "Man, it's a great car." I bought it. I drove it home. I put it in the garage. I drove it to work the next day.
Driving over, I said, "This is just too much. I look like a pimp in this thing. I mean, I got to get out of this thing." So I bought it on a Monday and sold it. Of course, I knew I got a great deal that I'm $3,000 or $4,000 ahead. So on Wednesday, I sell it for $2,000 less than I bought it for on Monday. But it wasn't the car—it was all about what I thought the message it sent about lifestyle.
Now, the last thing I'm going to do is impose that on you. That's what I'm saying to you. It's not that. It's the exact opposite of this.
The Questions We All Face
But it is those questions: Where do I live? What do I drive? What do I wear? Is it okay to join the club? Is it not okay to join the club? I'm going to work out—I can go to this gym at $30 a month or this gym at $150 a month. What's all right? All these questions.
The last thing I'm going to do is judge you. Listen, we're way past that. What we're saying is you need to judge yourself. The reason this lesson is so hard is when you start to judge yourself, you cannot resist what seems to be instinctively human, and that is the temptation to start evaluating yourself in a comparison mode.
So you look at your life, God begins to convict you, and you say, "I don't know about this." Then all of a sudden, you see somebody else and go, "Oh, well, I'm not doing what they're doing. I guess it's okay." Or, "I'm living this, but look at what they have. That's okay." No, it's not okay.
The Comparison Trap
That's the game we play over and over again. We start just comparing ourselves. We're looking around, and we just see this, and then we say, "Was it all right to have that? Is it okay to have that?" Then you say, "Well, this guy has that, and then this guy has that, and then that guy has this." Somehow at the top is Bill Gates, and he's screwed in every one of these discussions because he can't point to anybody else. He and Warren Buffett just go like this all the time, I guess. But that's how we do it. We keep rationalizing it.
That's what we're talking about: enough money to support the lifestyle you choose, and then what's left for prosperity, for protection, financial planning.
Biblical Responsibility and Modern Reality
We had a guy the other day—he's working through some New Testament stuff, and he's absolutely convinced about our responsibility to support the widows, and that's biblical. You know what we're finding, though? At least we are, at our church, anyway. Most of the widows in the culture we're involved in have been pretty well taken care of. Guys have provided life insurance, and guys have planned. Now, there are emotional things and other things that come along, but that's what we're talking about—planning, taking care of people.
Three Key Questions About Financial Prosperity
Here you go: three questions about financial prosperity that we're asking today. Number one, how do you get it? Number two, how do you secure it or protect it? Number three, how do you enjoy it?
How Do You Achieve Financial Prosperity?
Number one, how do you achieve it? Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 10, 11, and 12. I'm telling you, if there's any question that this guy doesn't understand human nature, they should all go away right here. These verses, especially to those of you that are engaged in business, especially those of you that may be in management, or entrepreneurs, or owners—this stuff is so good. I remember the first time I read this, and I said, "This is incredible."
Listen: "Whoever loves money never has money enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."
This is just incredible stuff. He says, "Look, whoever loves money, when you're trying to achieve here, one of the things you're vulnerable to are misplaced affections." He said, "If you love money, you'll never have enough of it. And whoever loves money is never satisfied with their income."
Take the second part first. We've talked about this before. Study after study after study says the same thing. Those who are making 50 grand a year said they'd be happy if they're making 65. Those making 65 said they'd be happy if they're making 80. Those making 80 said 100. It just goes on and on.
If you love money, and that's what you're all about, you're never going to be satisfied with that income. It's always going to be $1 more. There's never a time at which you stop. I used to look at that in some real estate things, and I'd say, here's a guy that's got $10, $15, $20 million, and he's out doing a deal where he's personally guaranteeing it, and he's risking $4, $5, or $6, or $7 million. Why would you do that?
Now, I understand the hunt and the deal, but many of it is the money, and I'm not critical of any of that. I'm just saying if that's the drive, you're never going to be satisfied. That's what he's saying. You're never going to be happy with your income. If you love money, you will never have enough of it.
The Missing Ingredient: Contentment
I'm going to ask you to open, if you've got your Bibles, keep your finger there in Ecclesiastes and go to the New Testament, to the book of 1 Timothy. Every Bible I have virtually falls open to this passage, because I go there time and time again. If you've been around Priority Living for any length of time, you have heard me talk about this passage.
I remember one time talking to Larry, and I said, Larry, I can take any tape where you're teaching any topic. I don't care. You pick the tape, you pick the passage, you pick the topic. I guarantee you, in the 45 minutes, you will talk about marriage somewhere. I was listening to one of Larry's tapes the other day, just to kind of hear his voice. I can't remember what he was talking about, and it's somebody over here, and all of a sudden he said, it's like marriage. No, it isn't. It's nothing like marriage, but you're going to get it in there, because that's the passion. That's your heart. That's what makes you tick.
This is one of those things that I'm going to come to again, and again, and again. And that's the missing ingredient in most people's lives, in this culture we live in, and that's contentment. It's just not there.
And yet, Paul says, it's essential if I want to be rich in God's economy. First Timothy 6:6, "but godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment." So godliness brings me great gain in God's economy when it's attached to contentment.
Godliness Plus Contentment Equals Great Gain
Now, I'm not sure these things are separate. I think godliness demands, in and of itself, contentment. When I'm godly, and I'm living for Him, and I have my life in His perspective, there will be contentment.
Then he writes this, "for we brought nothing into the world, so we can't take anything out of it either." We'll look at Solomon's use of a similar passage in a minute. "If we have food and covering, with those we should be content."
Now, if you've been around here for a while, you've heard me come to this verse again, and again, and again, and again, and again. It is absolutely critical. If I'm going to be a godly man or a godly woman, if I want to live the life that God's called me to live, by the way, and He's destined you to live. I hear it all the time. They're a team of destiny. George W. Bush was destined to win this election. I hear that all the time. We use that term to reserve for some person in an extraordinary circumstance.
Let me help you out, my friend. You have a destiny. You are a person of destiny. God has gifted you, called you, placed you uniquely where you are, and you are a person of destiny. His intent is to use you in mighty ways. All you have to do is obey.
And by the way, that's all He wants from you. He's not looking for results from you. He's not looking for you to save 15 souls this week. You can't even save a soul. You can't even lead a person to Christ. We use that terminology, but it's not accurate. God's the one who saved. The Holy Spirit's the one who saved.
But it's godliness plus contentment equals great gain. In this world, I'm not going to be a godly person if I'm not content. And I'll miss my destiny.
The Need for Definition in Contentment
Here's something that contentment has to have and nobody gives it to it. It's definition. I'm sitting in a small group with four or five guys. One's a physician. The other four are business guys, and honestly, if I told you what they did, you'd recognize the guys, and it's not fair. We're talking along, and they're all unhappy. This guy's unhappy with travel. This guy's unhappy with this. The doctor's unhappy because people are calling him in the middle of the night, and he's got emergencies.
Finally, I said, you know what, guys, let me stop a second. You're a doctor. I mean, somewhere in the residency or watching ER or something, didn't you realize they'd call you at night? I mean, this is part of the deal. I mean, that's just the way it is. You have a job that goes to different locales around the country. You think they're going to let you sit here in Phoenix and teleconference? No. You've got to travel. It's part of the deal. It's like being an airline pilot and complaining about travel. It's just stupid.
Every one of these guys, and they're all moving to Montana. Montana must be the most miserable place on earth, because everybody that's unhappy I know moves there. It just must be terrible. And we're at the end, and I said to them, I said, guys. Hit the rewind button. Go back 10 or 15 years. Go back when you were launching your career. Go back when you were dreaming about the future, and I'll bet you that you have surpassed everything
You dreamt about, haven't you? I said, see, there's the problem. If I don't ever define it, then I never know that I'm there. I've never arrived. It's like playing a game and not keeping score. No timeouts, no boundaries, no nothing.
You've got to put definition in the material things around you, or you will be discontent forever, because naturally you're going to want more. That's what he's saying. The author of Hebrews says it this way: let your character be free from the love of money.
Listen, years ago you were buying something called junk bonds, and you're shattered when they don't pay off. Listen to the name, my friend: junk bond. It's not accidental that the investor who takes your money is called a broker. Remember these things. That's the way it is. That's life.
But why do you do that? Well, once a year we'll hear about some scam in some city where some little old lady gives $40,000 to some guy at the door. And we all go, "That's too bad." There are certain instances where it's too bad. But never lose the fact: the only reason the con works is because she's a greedy little old lady. That's why the con works. If you love money, you're never going to have enough. If you love money, your income is never going to satisfy you.
As Goods Increase, So Do Those Who Consume Them
The second point is: as goods increase, so do those that consume them. Here you go. I've got a whole bunch of statistics that probably would bore you, but right now we've got about $500 billion in credit card debt in the country, about $600 billion of consumer non-mortgage debt. Income tax rate right now, they say, is at one half of 1%, the lowest since the Depression. Here's the statistic that I love. It's my favorite one: for every $1 of increase in household income, spending goes up $1.10.
That's exactly what Solomon's saying. Do you hear this? Does this make you go, "Maybe this guy's got something to say?" Don't you have a tendency to say, "That's 3,000 years ago. What did He know?" Well, here's what He knew. If you love money, you never have enough. If you love income, if you love money, you're never going to be satisfied with your income. And you know what? As you get more money, you're going to spend it.
I go to person after person who says, they'll be making $25,000 a year, and all of a sudden they're making $35,000, and they're saying, "I don't know how we did it on $25,000 a year." Then it goes to 40, and they're saying, "I don't know how we did it on $35,000 a year." "I don't know how we did it on $175,000 a year." It goes on and on and on. Everything goes up.
When I started at Coldwell Banker, I would go to something, just a typical retail store, a Dillard's or something, I'd buy a cotton shirt for $29. You can still buy a Land's End Pinpoint shirt for $32.50, but we don't do it anymore. We go and pay $100.25 for the shirt instead of the $32.50 to get a stupid necktie that's another $75. Now I got $200 for a tie and a shirt that ought to cost me $40. Am I critical of that? Not at all. I'm just saying that's the natural flow.
I interviewed with Dick Oglesby at Coldwell Banker, and I mean I need a job. I said to Oglesby, "What's the number one problem you see in your sales staff?" He said, "They're making too much money." I said, "Baby, I'm at the right place. I have arrived." I couldn't understand it. It was so foreign to me. I'm not a Christian. So foreign to me. I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I watch the ladies. I typically see them at the Christmas party. You know, they're rookies and they're not making much money in the first year. She'll come in a very nice $40 dress. Three years later, it's a very nice $100 dress. Five years later, it's a $750 dress and a $1,500 watch."
I'm not critical of any of it. I'm not being critical. I'm saying this: when you say, "I just go with the flow," this is where the flow is going to take you. That's what I'm saying to you. This is inertia. This is human nature. And Solomon says, stop it.
The Sleep of the Laborer Is Sweet
There's one more thing that's great here. He says this: "And what benefit is it to the owner except He feasts His eye on them? The sleep of the laborer is sweet, whether he eats a little or eats much, but the abundance of a rich man provides him no sleep."
The hourly guy, hey, at five o'clock, he's done. He heads home, gets a Big Gulp, gets some Del Taco, watches Survivor, belches, and sleeps like a rock. He's out all night, never wakes up. That's the end of it. Gets up when the alarm goes off, and it's another day.
The owner doesn't leave at five. The entrepreneur doesn't shut down at five. It's 6:30 or 7:00. He's trying to figure out how we're going to get the materials in here to manufacture it, how we're going to get the soft goods out there. What about software? So he hits the pillow about 11. He's up about 1:30, and he doesn't go back to sleep.
A guy the other day, this lesson is just so good. A guy yesterday morning says to me, and he's an entrepreneur and he's a great guy, he said, "My wife and I drove up to Flagstaff the other morning at 2 o'clock." I said, "Why 2 o'clock?" He said, "I woke up at 1:30 and I couldn't go back to sleep. I said, 'We might as well drive up there.'"
See, Solomon's saying, listen, if you're doing this to make yourself happy, do you get it? He's not saying money won't make you happy. He's just saying, if you love this stuff, it's not going to make you happy. If that's the goal, you're never going to be satisfied. It's just not going to work for you.
Another Grievous Evil
So how do you protect this money? Well, verses 13 through 17: "I have seen another grievous evil." Those two words, "grievous evil," are new to our discussion. Grievous means sick, literally sick. Evil generally means something of a distortion. So He says, "I see another sick distortion under the sun. Wealth lost through misfortune." So that when...
He has a son, there's nothing left for him. He said, "I've seen that there is such a thing as asset erosion. I've seen that you can have these things and they go away."
Listen to this: "Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." Isn't that exactly what Paul said back in that passage in 1 Timothy 6? Wealthiness plus contentment equals great gain. We came with nothing. We leave with nothing. If we have food and covering, with those we shall be content.
The Key to Contentment
Let me make the point to you, for the 4,000th time, this is the key to contentment. When you understand that all this stuff is temporal, when you understand all this stuff is staying, when you understand all those old adages about hearses and U-Hauls and all the things you've heard, when you understand the truth of that, all of a sudden, it's not as important.
If somehow you could treat this world like you'd treat a rental car, you'd be a lot happier. That's what he's saying. Not hung up on a lot of things. When I rent a car, I don't wash it. I don't change the oil. I don't rotate the tires, because it's not mine. But I'm courteous with it. I don't take it four-wheeling or any of that. I treat it the best I can and try to get the most out of it. He's saying that's the way you ought to handle life, because it's not yours, it's His, and it's a stewardship issue, and it really doesn't matter, because it's all staying here.
"This too is a gravest evil. As a man comes, he departs. And what does he gain since he toils for the wind all his days?" This is something I guarantee you, you're not going to hear at a Tony Robbins seminar. "All his days, he eats in darkness with great frustration, affliction, and anger." That's not Zig Ziglar. Now that's what he's talking about, life, you remember, under the sun. This is an accurate assessment. The reason that we laugh at this is because it rings true.
Investment Strategies and Security
So he's saying, how do you protect this stuff? Well we typically look for one of two areas: high security and therefore low risk and therefore low yield, or high risk and low security and high yield. So we're trying to figure out, do I go into a junk bond situation? No. Do I try to get into some... it seems like I ought to get 22% of my money, that's what I've heard for years. That doesn't happen. All those guys that wanted 22% are now looking at 3% bonds.
That's very interesting to me. My best investment, my two best investments, and you'll laugh at both of them because you would laugh at me when I bought them, are my whole life insurance. That's still my best investment I've got. And my church bonds. Those are the two best investments I got, and in each one of them I was stupid when I made them according to everybody around me.
Testimonies from the Wealthy
Anyway, I just find that interesting. Here you go, here's the smart guys. Here's what the smart guys said. Remember what we said? If you want to know something about your future, go to the guys that are there. You've heard these quotes:
John D. Rockefeller: "I have made many millions, but they've brought me no happiness. I'd barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on $3 a week."
Vanderbilt: "The care of $200 million is too great a load for any brain or any back to bear. It's enough to kill anyone."
John Jacob Astor was on the Titanic, had a net worth of about $5 million, which was a boatload of money. No pun intended. Boatload of money in that day and age. He said shortly before he died, "I'm the most miserable man on earth."
Henry Ford: "Work is my only pleasure. It is only work that keeps me alive and makes life worth living. I was happier when I was a mechanic."
Andrew Carnegie, the millionaire, multi-millionaire: "Millionaires seldom smile."
A Tale of Two Attitudes
I don't want to make too much of this, and the last thing I want to do is judge anybody by what they drive. But a few years ago, I'm at a red light, and I'm sitting there, and this guy pulls up in this old beater, and the light had just turned red, so we're going to be there a while. I look over. He is laughing. He reaches down. He picks up a set of drumsticks, and he's playing. He's playing the steering wheel. He's using the window as a cymbal. He's on the dashboard. He's just absolutely having a blast. The light turns green. One stick goes down. He's driving with one. He's playing with the other. He's laughing.
I see it all the time, especially early in the morning. You power up to somebody, and they're listening to somebody on the radio, and they're laughing. I've never, and I'm not saying that this doesn't happen. I'm just saying, I never see a guy in a Mercedes doing that, and I'm not being critical of it. I'm not saying you aren't happy. I'm just saying, you don't see a bumper sticker on a Mercedes. It's that kind of thing. It's work. It's grind. I don't see a bunch of happy people.
When I'm in places, I see a lot more fun at a Motel 6 than I do at the Biltmore. I don't see a bunch of people at the Biltmore jumping in the pool and laughing and throwing water balloons at each other, because you've got an image to maintain, even as you relax. That's all. That's all he's saying. Not being critical. You understand that. No criticism here.
The Inability to Enjoy God's Gifts
How do you enjoy it? Well, here's what Solomon says: "I've seen another evil under the sun. It weighs heavily on man. God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them. A stranger enjoys them. This is meaningless."
Solomon says, "I've got guys where God gives them everything they want. They've got everything they could possibly want, and you know what? They're not happy at all." This too, he says, is meaningless.
What Is Good and Fitting
Let me read to you, because we skipped this passage, from Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 18: "Here is what I've seen to be good and fitting." He said this is good and fitting: "to eat, to drink, and to enjoy oneself..."
Finding Joy in Perspective
In all one's labors in which he toils under the sun during the few years of life which God has given him. For this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and receive his reward and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift from God, for he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.
I want to keep this in front of you, especially if you're here for the first time or you're not long on the context that we've developed. When Solomon is critical of work or any of these things, he's critical in the context of "under the sun." He's also going to tell you that you can find joy in work. You can find enjoyment in rest. You can find pleasure in these areas. But not when that's the totality of your life. It demands perspective.
Here's what we said—you got it on your paper, I think. Here's the result: when all of a sudden I begin to see who God is, and now things get in their proper perspective, I'm not regretting the past, I'm not fearing the future, I'm maximizing the day. I will guess—don't know—I would guess I could put counselors out of business if you could get people who weren't regretting the past or fearing the future.
Living Without Regret or Fear
Well, how do I get to that point? Because that seems to me to be the place you want to live. You know what, I'm sure as I say this, God's just going to thump me right in the head. But I got to tell you, this gets easier every day to me. And it gets easier and easier as you get older.
I'm telling you, yesterday I knew I had that meeting that started yesterday, but I had blocked out from 9 to 2 yesterday. And it's not my kind of meeting. I didn't want to go in. The night before, Susan said, "How are you doing?" I said, "My stomach is upside down." She said, "What's wrong? Something you ate?" I said, "No, I got this meeting tomorrow morning from 9 to 2. This is going to be awful."
Well, it didn't go from 9 to 2, it went from 9 to 5:15. And you know what, it wasn't awful, it was terrific. We got so much done, and those issues—you know what I did? I did something I never did. I'm the king of denial. The secret to my life is I'm in denial and I'm shallow, and that allows life to be very, very pleasant. I'm not trying to figure out a bunch of stuff. I'm the king of denial. But I knew—I did something very different—I knew these were issues.
God's Faithfulness Brings Perspective
So what I said at 9 o'clock is, I said, "Gentlemen, I got some stuff I want to get on the table. Bam, bam, and bam." It was incredible. And that fear of the future—I know that's a little illustration—but you know what I saw, and you know what I was reminded on driving home? God is so good and faithful, isn't He?
And after I see that over and over again, and I see those giant things, do you realize that two or three years ago, you were going to the Lord, praying, "Father, get me through this. God, I need Your help. Father, don't let me down. God, I really need You today." And do you know that today, you can't even tell me what that thing was that you were praying so diligently about three years ago? You've forgotten it. And it was occupying all of your time and keeping you awake at night.
The Source of True Joy and Peace
How do I get that kind of life? How do I find that joy? How do I find that peace? It's not by taking the circumstances away, because you can't do that. The only way to get those circumstances away is to die.
How do I find it? I find it by a deep, intimate, personal relationship with the Creator God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. And my problems do not go away. In fact, they intensify in some areas. But all of a sudden, I've got perspective.
That's what Solomon's screaming to you. He's saying, "Listen, you need to get a dose of reality here. And reality is, if all you care about is money, and if that's what you love, it's not going to satisfy you." In fact, in that passage in 1 Timothy, he goes on to say, "Instruct those who are rich in this world not to be conceited, or to place their hope in riches." That's what riches tend to do. We get conceited that we've got them, and then we tend to trust them. There's two aspects to it.
The Deception of Material Wealth
Riches are like a greased pig—boom. But the other thing is, I think if I have them, I'll be happy. And I think that's true of most people, including Christians. If you sit down and talk to them, and you really begin to talk about life, almost always they come back to this answer: if I had a little more cash, and I could do this, I'd be happy.
And Solomon says, "No, no, no. Where you're going to find life is in a relationship with Christ." Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly." That's what Jesus said.
Anti-Materialism, Not Anti-Material
So make sure you get this, and we close. This is not an anti-material message. Look, if there aren't people making money, and there aren't people giving money to Priority Living, then there is no study. And that goes for churches, that goes for a bunch of stuff. It's not an anti-material message. It is an anti-materialism message.
It says this: you can have stuff, but if you think you're going to find life in stuff, you're wrong. It's not there. You aren't going to get it. Solomon continues down this path. We pick up right there next week.
Father, help us see this truth. God, thank You for the words that You give us. Let us be smart enough and wise enough to heed these words and live our life according to this truth. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen. Have a great week. God bless you.