SPEAKER_00: So we are in Ecclesiastes 5 today, and as we are in today's passage, what we're actually going to do, I appreciated the fact that we've included chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: It is it's part of the same context of the verses we're going to be looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So it's important for us to uh to see it within its context, but we're gonna focus most of our time and attention on verses eight through to verse 20, and then as we close, make a few comments about chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we're going this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Ecclesiastes, as we've talked about, uh as we've journeyed through the book, it can kind of get a bad rap, I think.
SPEAKER_00: A bad rap for being a book that's perhaps overly pessimistic with little hope or little light.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because it's a it's the kind of book that requires us to really take this honest and this hard look at our world.
SPEAKER_00: And this honest and and hard look at our own lives, our own motivations, and contemplate this devastating reality of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And what Ecclesiastes does for us is gives us a clear picture of what life is like without God, a world with sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, as we've journeyed through the book of Ecclesiastes, and as we're going to do so this week and in a few and for the next few weeks, um, it's been dealing with these big theologically philosophical questions of life.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we here?
SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
SPEAKER_00: And in a real way, this book demands us to take that honest look at our own everyday philosophies of life and to confront these philosophies with the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, this morning, we're going to be talking about some things that can easily be tuned out.
SPEAKER_00: And easily for us, we can approach these things and think, you know, I'm all good here.
SPEAKER_00: But this is my, I guess, encouragement for us here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: As we talked about this last week, let God speak this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let him have the first words and the last words to your heart this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let him minister to you through these words.
SPEAKER_00: Because I 100% fully believe that God has something important for every single person in this room this morning from his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, as we let him speak, what we're gonna see is this.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see how important it is for us to enjoy God's good gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And we're really gonna spend most of our time, like I said, in verses five, chapter five, verses eight to twenty and referencing chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: But as we go through this morning and we understand what it means to enjoy God's good gifts, we're gonna look at how enjoying God's good gifts first begins with understanding that wealth will never truly satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna see that enjoying God's good gifts means embracing life as a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: All of life.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we're going this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing we're gonna talk about is this we enjoy God's good gifts by understanding that wealth will never truly satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: Wealth will never truly satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And this is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: These verses are interesting.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the text and the language of the text, it's clear that there's this shift from what we were talking about last week in the first seven verses of chapter five to now this next section of uh of verses that he gives us is beginning in verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, this is typical of the teacher of Koelate.
SPEAKER_00: He he he loves using these transitions and these comparisons as he works throughout the book.
SPEAKER_00: And he kind of teases out what it means to fear God and keep his commandments through the whole book.
SPEAKER_00: So look at what these verses say.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they are very interesting, starting in verse 8 of chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: It says this if you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don't be astonished at the situation.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them, the prophet from the land is taken by all, the king is served by the field.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting verses.
SPEAKER_00: Oppression and poor.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised at the perversion of justice, at the perversion of righteousness that exists within the culture, that exists within these uh the uh state.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's interesting because I think also what we're seeing here in a big way is we're seeing the teacher's burden for poor, for the poor, and for the oppressed here in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And in particular, those who are burdened by the yoke of the system or the yoke of the state.
SPEAKER_00: And as we know in scripture, I mean, that was also very important to the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 4, 18 to 19, right after Jesus finishes the temptations of Christ in the wilderness, he goes to Galilee and ministers for a while, then he goes to Nazareth, his hometown, and we know how that all turns out.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 4, 18 to 19, he stands up in his hometown synagogue in his hometown church, and he reads these words from Isaiah, and then they they they run him out of town for it.
SPEAKER_00: But he reads these words, and we get Christ's heart for poverty, Christ's heart for the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And a few weeks ago, Pastor Bob preached some sermons on poverty.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't listened to them, I encourage you to go back and listen to them.
SPEAKER_00: But he Jesus says this in Luke 4, 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is so close to the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The poor, the oppressed, and this is an important place for us to start here this morning as we talk about wealth and we talk about how there is no satisfaction, full satisfaction guaranteed from wealth, so that we come to this understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, um, uh there is no caste system in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came for the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He saves the poor, yes, he saves the rich, but he's come for all.
SPEAKER_00: And we should see that all of us, regardless of our status in society, regardless of how much is in our bank account, all of us are called to the rest and the riches of salvation in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so the teacher here in verses 8 and 9 also teaches us not just that, but showing us the heart for the poor and the heart for the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: But he also teaches us again, don't be astonished at the corruption that we see.
SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't surprise us.
SPEAKER_00: When you've got a world full of sin, there's going to be corruption, there's going to be oppression.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a similar development of the same theme of injustice that was also in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 that the teacher, that Coholate, brings up.
SPEAKER_00: And these officials that he talks about, he talks about how, you know, don't be astonished at the situation because one official protects another official, and the higher officials protect them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: These officials, it's not completely clear as to who they are.
SPEAKER_00: Likely, and we understand as it's talking about province and officials, it is a uh most likely government officials, definitely someone who's in power in the society.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, listen, don't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I mean, I think this is a difficult reality check for us, even in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: It's unfair.
SPEAKER_00: And it's even okay to say that it is.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he says that it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's even okay, I think, to even say, listen, this is frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to see soon in the passage where our true hope and our true meaning are.
SPEAKER_00: Because meaning and hope can't be satisfied in a fair government system.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible in this broken world.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus has come to redeem all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 10, he goes on.
SPEAKER_00: So he starts with this, and he goes on in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver.
SPEAKER_00: The one who loves wealth is never satisfied with income.
SPEAKER_00: This too is futile.
SPEAKER_00: This too is futility.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you might be um familiar with Andrew Carnegie.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he lived back 1835 to 1919.
SPEAKER_00: But uh Carnegie was an interesting guy.
SPEAKER_00: See, he uh as uh he uh he he built the the Carnegie Steel Corporation into the largest steel manufacturing company in the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1901, Carnegie sold his company.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is 1901, he sold his company for$500 million in 1901, uh which is estimated over probably, I mean, it's really hard to do the whole the whole estimation today, but uh around 10 billion or more today.
SPEAKER_00: Some even say hundreds of billions today.
SPEAKER_00: But what made him memorable wasn't the fact that he was rich, but what he did with his wealth, with his riches, if you know his story.
SPEAKER_00: He really made an impact.
SPEAKER_00: You see, by the time that Carnegie died, he gave away more than 90% of what he had.
SPEAKER_00: And the remaining 10% he left with a foundation that he built to give the rest of it away.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what it was like for that family to meet with that lawyer.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! But Carnegie is known for funding medical research, incredible feats of like building universities and a myriad of other philanthropy endeavors, and the remainder of his wealth, like I said, was put into a foundation.
SPEAKER_00: But he's famous for saying this, and this is what he says, and I'm uncertain if this guy was a Christian or not, but he said this: he said, a man who dies rich dies graced.
SPEAKER_00: That's a moment I thought of being a popular preacher.
SPEAKER_00: See what the teacher is telling us here in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: And it leaves us with a sobering reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing good comes from loving money.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing good comes from loving money.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 6 10.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul explains that loving money can incite within us all kinds of evil intentions.
SPEAKER_00: And just think about it, when he writes those verses and um to the church.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 6, even like these verses, right?
SPEAKER_00: Starting at the end of verse 2 down through verse 10, he says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Teach and encourage these things.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the teaching that promotes godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments over words.
SPEAKER_00: From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions, and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way of material gain.
SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, but godliness with contentment, that's the Christian's calling.
SPEAKER_00: Godliness with contentment is great gain.
SPEAKER_00: For we were brought, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.
SPEAKER_00: Very similar to what the teacher, what Collate, is saying in Ecclesiastes, we can take nothing out.
SPEAKER_00: If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
SPEAKER_00: But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 10, for the love of money, it's not saying money is evil, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_00: By craving it, we have wandered away from the faith and perceived, by craving it, they've wandered away from the faith and perceived themselves with many griefs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, those are sobering, piercing, famous words.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's interesting again?
SPEAKER_00: He's writing this to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing this to the church.
SPEAKER_00: He's not writing it for the society, but he's writing it for the church.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not naming extreme examples of embezzlement and stealing and things that you would see in the newspaper.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these things make headlines, embezzlement, stealing, things that make headlines.
SPEAKER_00: But what Paul is addressing in those sobering words is the everyday temptation of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Things that aren't criminal but sinful.
SPEAKER_00: And I know these are harder to define because this love of money can thrive in the most unsuspecting environments.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the point.
SPEAKER_00: The point is, is what and who we love has an impact on our spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, Paul does, some have wandered from the faith, piercing themselves with many griefs.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, another way of putting it is when money becomes our love, it puts money in the place it was never supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: The place that was only supposed to be occupied by God.
SPEAKER_00: Money promises so much and can make some things even seem easier.
SPEAKER_00: But it can also be the greatest distractions of life and the greatest distractions for the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, in reality, money, it's the picture of fleeting.
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of our temporal world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: We we need to survive.
SPEAKER_00: And we spend our lives making money, we spend our lives spending money, but like the grass and the and the flowers fading, it has absolutely no eternal significance.
SPEAKER_00: The day we're dead is the day, listen, you are not gonna care what's in your bank account.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and there's there's different ways that we can love money, scripture teaches.
SPEAKER_00: We can chase it to just accumulate more and more.
SPEAKER_00: We can also be very stingy with money.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 3.17.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone has this world's needs and sees a fellow believer in need, but withholds compassion from him, how does God's love reside in him?
SPEAKER_00: Mean stingy.
SPEAKER_00: We can be stingy with our money.
SPEAKER_00: We can also, that's a sign of greed.
SPEAKER_00: We we can also, we can also love it in the way that we act entitled to it.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Thessalonians 3.10, Paul is encouraging Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_00: A bunch of them were like, you know, Jesus is coming, we don't need to work, but the church should be providing for us, the church should be feeding us.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2 Thessalonians 3.10, Paul's exhorting them, and he's saying, in fact, um, when we were with you, this is what I commanded you if anyone isn't willing to work, he should not eat.
SPEAKER_00: They were acting entitled.
SPEAKER_00: And then 1 Timothy 5 even gives us instruction as to how the church isn't supposed to be burdened with uh with needs in the sense of being wise and how the church takes care of widows in that particular context.
SPEAKER_00: We could even apply that, apply that broadly so the church isn't burdened.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we can live as if we're entitled to it.
SPEAKER_00: But what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: All this comes from this kind of love, that money that never satisfies.
SPEAKER_00: This too is futile, he says.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 11, when good things increase, the one who consumes them multiply.
SPEAKER_00: What then is a profit for the owner except to gaze at them with his eyes?
SPEAKER_00: The sleep of the worker is sweet, verse 12, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Basically saying, you know, the richer you are, the more worried you're gonna be about your money, and it's gonna be harder for you to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this, and uh, and this is the first sickening tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: There's a second one that he explains in chapter six, but this is the first one, and the second one, chapter six, it's it's similar.
SPEAKER_00: But here he says this there is a sickening tragedy I've seen under the sun.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 13, wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
SPEAKER_00: So he's talking about being stingy, not giving, but but just heaping it up for himself.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kept to his own harm.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, verse 14, that wealth was lost in a bad venture.
SPEAKER_00: So when he fathered a son, he was empty handed.
SPEAKER_00: And as he came from his mother's womb, so he will go again, naked as he came.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was talking about you came into this world with nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna leave out of this world with nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Naked as he came, he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: So he's given us this story of this guy who had all this wealth, put it in a bad business venture, and then he lost it all.
SPEAKER_00: He had nothing left, nothing to provide for his own children.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this in verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: This too is a sickening tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly as he comes, he will go.
SPEAKER_00: What does the one gain who struggles for?
SPEAKER_00: The wind.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: What is more?
SPEAKER_00: He eats in darkness all of his days with much frustration, sickness, and anger.
SPEAKER_00: This is the man who loves money, but he's lost it all.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 15 to 16 really become, again, another sobering reminder that should that we should ask ourselves some of these questions.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what was the point of this guy being stingy?
SPEAKER_00: What was the point?
SPEAKER_00: This love of money did nothing but lead him to loneliness, darkness, frustration, sickness, and anger in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And here I think is a hard question for us, but if you had none of your wealth, would you be content and satisfied in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: If you had nothing material to offer, would you be content and satisfied in the Lord, or would the rest of your days look like verse 17?
SPEAKER_00: Eating in darkness, frustrated, sick, and anger.
SPEAKER_00: And on that note, we head into verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: That was loving money, but verse 18, here's what is good.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy God and what he has given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoying God and what he's given to you.
SPEAKER_00: See, uh verse beginning verse 18, we see that that as enjoying God's good gifts, we do so by embracing life as a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Embracing life as a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, very I love these verses.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is what's good, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what was bad, those first verses we looked at.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what's good.
SPEAKER_00: Chasing the uncertain and unfulfilling realities of wealth will always leave us in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what's good.
SPEAKER_00: A group of kids were asked, um, and they weren't my kids, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Um their favorite thing was about life.
SPEAKER_00: One said playing, another said mommy and daddy, another said zebras, another chocolate cake.
SPEAKER_00: And another responded to the first asking question, just being with you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, their answers are so simple, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are everyday things that these kids valued so much.
SPEAKER_00: You know what our our text does in scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: It helps us to value the things that we take for granted and to understand where these things come from.
SPEAKER_00: See, our text takes us on this turn from the pessimism of the previous verses to now what is good and should be celebrated, starting in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Here is what I have seen to be good.
SPEAKER_00: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good and all the labor one does under the sun during the days, the few days of his life, of his life that God has given him, because that is his reward.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward and rejoice in his labor.
SPEAKER_00: This is a gift of God.
SPEAKER_00: For he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: These are beautiful verses.
SPEAKER_00: See, what is good here, as described by the teacher, is not necessarily balance.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, balance is so important.
SPEAKER_00: And we live already in such an imbalanced society, and even our pursuit of money can make it so imbalanced, neglecting all the other important things of life, spiritual life, family life, all those kinds of things in pursuit of prestige, in pursuit of wealth, and that's not good.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's talking about here is the focus and the attention of our hearts, an understanding that all that we have in life comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: And in times of plenty and in times of need, Philippians 4, it's all from God on high.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we have is from Him, and it is His.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts pursue Him and in pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: We accept our life and we accept the good things and enjoy the good things that He's given.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_00: You know, verses 8 to 17 that we looked at earlier, and then here with verses 10 to 20, they really present these two radical different approaches to life.
SPEAKER_00: Especially when comparing the darkness of verse 17 with the delight of these verses, in particular, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of verse 18, what he does is he lays on a little bit of humility where he says, the few days of his life God has given him because this is his reward.
SPEAKER_00: So enjoy, eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor that one does under the sun during the few days of his life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, right there, there's kind of like a little bit of remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, uh, our lives are short.
SPEAKER_00: There'll only be a few days.
SPEAKER_00: You know, these days of our lives are few, but don't they just seem so long sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: But they are from God, and they are a gift from God.
SPEAKER_01: Every day we wake up is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_01: It's all His.
SPEAKER_01: This is us embracing and enjoying life regardless of our toil, regardless of our circumstances, because we understand that all of life came from the master creator of the universe who loves us.
SPEAKER_01: God.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to sound too simplistic because I understand this is tough, because some of us here are in some really tough circumstances, and I don't know why you're sick.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why you might be in the trouble and the heartache and the problems that you are, other than the fact, listen, we live in a broken and sin-infested world.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_00: God, in his richness and his mercy, in his grace, has allowed that into your life.
SPEAKER_00: He's planted you in that life.
SPEAKER_00: Every day is a gift from him, and he is making all things new under Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Wealth and money are not evil.
SPEAKER_00: Work and toil, they're not evil.
SPEAKER_00: They are gifts from God, but they're gifts to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00: Not in a way that we replace the glory of God with these things.
SPEAKER_00: They're enjoyed only when we seek to fear God, glorify him above all else.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing that what we have and the circumstances that we are in are from him.
SPEAKER_00: And this can be such a difficult perspective to keep in mind, especially in our world of considerable consumerism, where the love of wealth is celebrated, doing evil things, even.
SPEAKER_00: And business, whatever it might be, it's celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a constant temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh commentator puts it this way, where the love of God, though, this is where we're at, he says this, where the love of God is firm, full enjoyment of the creation is possible and desirable.
SPEAKER_00: One is completely in the arms of God and completely in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because of God's love towards you and towards me, and especially through the love of Christ, we can find fulfillment and enjoyment even in our suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We have a Savior who suffered on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And our suffering, in our times of plenty, in our loneliness, in our days that we have little hope, things are different for us because we remember the great love of God.
SPEAKER_00: We accept our life as a gift and we find joy in Him and what is eternal, not in the fleeting things of this life.
SPEAKER_00: We don't affirm joy by ignoring the present pain and ignoring the joy-robbing evil.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, we're able to affirm it in the context of our greatest pains and in the face of the greatest evil.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have a heavenly father who gives us more than we need to enjoy life, and we have an amazing Savior who stood up in the face of evil, who conquered evil, who is coming back one day to save us ultimately from all evil, to punish evil for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And what Collate does in these verses, and then he continues in chapter six, is encouraging us to keep this perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And really, chapter six is almost identical in message to the verses we looked at earlier through verses 10 to 17.
SPEAKER_00: He examples another tragedy in chapter 6, um, and he reminds them in verse 12 again of the few days of their life, so all this should be understood in context.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 3, he paints another picture, and I think this is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6, verse 3 is it says, A man may father a hundred children and live many years, no matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial.
SPEAKER_00: I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
SPEAKER_00: See what he's doing here is he's painting this ideal life for the ancient man.
SPEAKER_00: The ancient man's ideal life was lots of children, long life, and a great burial site.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how about that for a bucket list?
SPEAKER_00: But this is the point.
SPEAKER_00: We can have all kinds of everything, but still be lost and empty.
SPEAKER_00: Things can even be going well in our lives, in the sense relationships good, finances good, we can be free of heartache, even free of grief, but still be so empty.
SPEAKER_01: Because our wealth, our health, and our situation is not why we're here.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not going to satisfy us.
SPEAKER_01: It's all passing away.
SPEAKER_00: But your life, your soul, God's great love for you and I, those are the eternal things.
SPEAKER_00: God's not going anywhere, and neither is his love.
SPEAKER_00: His love is so great that he gave us the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A gift so great and indescribable, 2 Corinthians 9.15, a gift so powerful that all the emptiness of this life is just swallowed up.
SPEAKER_00: A gift so astoundingly generous that we look at Jesus Christ, we look at the cross, we see his great salvation, his grace, and his generosity, and we can't help but live out a life of generosity, not a life of greed and chasing things that just mean nothing in the vision of reality or in the vision of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that only Jesus fills our souls, so we enjoy God's good gifts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask everyone to just bow their heads, close their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Here is my question for you this morning: have you embraced Jesus as your gift from God?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here this morning and you have never embraced Jesus as the gift from God, but he is.
SPEAKER_00: He lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was buried, and he rose again for your sin and my sin.
SPEAKER_00: He took your sin and your shame to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you're going through, what you've done, all can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling you to receive his good gift and enjoy it, the gift of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, I encourage you to make that decision and trust Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can even just talk to him right now.
SPEAKER_00: Between you and him, you can acknowledge just between you and him that you are a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: In your own words, you can thank him for his gift of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's free.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to work for it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the definition of a gift.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that we would live lives that are not consumed with the fleeting nature of this life, but with the eternal nature of life to come.
SPEAKER_00: That Father, every day we would live with eternity in mind and in our vision.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't chase wealth, but we would chase you.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, Lord, we would enjoy your blessings, whether we have plenty or whether we are in need.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we would enjoy them.
SPEAKER_00: And even as a church, Lord, I pray that we would be a generous church.
SPEAKER_00: A generous church in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I pray each and every one of us would not be stingy, but generous in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because, Lord, this is spiritual warfare that you have called us to.
SPEAKER_00: So we lean on you for your strength and your wisdom in doing so.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.