WEBVTT 00:00:16.740 --> 00:00:21.460 If you have your Bibles, you can open them up to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:24.500 We've been working through the book of Ecclesiastes this summer. 00:00:24.740 --> 00:00:27.140 If you flip halfway to your Bible, you're going to find Psalms. 00:00:27.380 --> 00:00:28.500 Keep turning to the end of it. 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:30.740 You'll find Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:34.579 We're in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and 6 this morning. 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:41.700 And if you don't have a copy of God's Word, our ushers are making their way to the front of the worship center, and they're going to walk down the aisle and you can flag one of them down. 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:46.260 They'd love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you. 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:51.060 Spend enough time with someone and you'll learn what they love. 00:00:51.620 --> 00:00:56.739 You listen to enough sermons about me speaking, and you don't need to ask me what my hobbies are. 00:00:56.900 --> 00:01:03.540 You'll notice what I, you'll notice what people, anyone you talk with, keeps circling back to. 00:01:08.900 --> 00:01:13.459 Sit with a new father long enough, you'll find his way back to his kids. 00:01:14.420 --> 00:01:21.939 Sit with someone who's newly in love, you'll hear about their blossoming romantic relationship. 00:01:22.340 --> 00:01:23.780 God's the same way. 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:32.980 As we open up God's word, we find that the subject that he comes back to time and time again is near to his heart. 00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:41.380 Something we are confronted with thousands of times in the scriptures is money. 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:48.420 It's incredibly revealing that when God speaks to us in his word, he returns again and again to money. 00:01:48.579 --> 00:01:55.700 By one count, there's over 2,000 verses on money and possessions. 00:01:56.340 --> 00:02:02.340 It's more than all of the verses on faith and prayer combined. 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:13.219 So that when Jesus opened his mouth to teach, he came back to money almost more than any other subject constantly. 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:21.219 Question we have this morning is why does God speak so frequently about our money? 00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:26.019 Why is God so passionate about our money? 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:41.060 Of all the things that God could press on us and speak to us in his word frequently about, and we know that there are many, and maybe you even come in with the conviction this morning of like, man, I really need God to speak to me here. 00:02:41.299 --> 00:02:45.619 Why does God always return back to our wallets? 00:02:48.500 --> 00:02:52.179 Maybe God's worried about the church budget. 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:57.379 Maybe he sees the weekly email and he says, okay, we got to put this in the Bible a lot. 00:02:57.459 --> 00:03:00.099 Okay, these people are really gonna struggle with giving. 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:11.619 And yet I want you to know God is not like your pastor, he's got no motivation in speaking about giving that would ever be motivated by something as small as a church budget. 00:03:12.019 --> 00:03:18.739 The Bible says that if God needed something, he wouldn't need to ask us because everything is his. 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:28.819 God confronts us about money because money is never a neutral thing in your life. 00:03:29.619 --> 00:03:31.299 Did you hear that again, loved one? 00:03:31.459 --> 00:03:44.899 Money is never a neutral thing in your life, it is one of the most powerfully spiritual forces you will ever hold in your hands or have in your bank account. 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:46.979 It will not sit still. 00:03:47.139 --> 00:03:51.060 This is the principle that scripture teaches us. 00:03:51.299 --> 00:03:58.819 It is always, almost magnetically, pulling us toward God or pushing us away from God. 00:03:59.939 --> 00:04:02.659 It takes hold of our affections. 00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:05.859 Jesus taught this plainly. 00:04:06.259 --> 00:04:13.139 Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 00:04:14.179 --> 00:04:26.980 It is an incredible principle of the magnetic effect of money on our spiritual lives, so that it's not just like your heart will be drawn to where your treasure is. 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:35.780 Jesus says, where your treasure is, it is 100% as sure as sure can be, your heart will be there also. 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:43.620 Question Scripture never asks us is whether money is moving our heart. 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:50.020 The only question scripture asks us is where money is moving our heart. 00:04:50.819 --> 00:04:53.620 It's incredibly dangerous then. 00:04:55.300 --> 00:05:03.620 The pull is constant, often gradual, so that most of us never feel it happening. 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:11.700 We we don't decide one day to love money, and we never even may be aware that the love of money is something that is within us. 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:31.140 And what I'm praying would happen this morning is that the Holy Spirit would shine light like we're in a dark room and don't know what's there, and shine light in our lives to reveal to us the reason why God talks about money so much, because it has a grip on us that we may not be aware of. 00:05:32.020 --> 00:05:35.700 Loved one, God this morning is not after your money. 00:05:36.020 --> 00:05:38.020 He is after your heart. 00:05:38.660 --> 00:05:43.860 Where your treasures are, there your heart will be also. 00:05:44.900 --> 00:05:47.540 It is the magnetic pull of money. 00:05:47.700 --> 00:05:50.180 Now, no one understood that better than Solomon. 00:05:50.340 --> 00:06:07.620 You'll remember back in chapter two that Solomon said he had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before him in Jerusalem, that he had gathered for himself silver and gold, the treasure of kings and provinces. 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:15.379 He says that he denied his heart nothing it desired. 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:25.620 He had more resources than the richest person in this room will ever be able to accumulate for himself. 00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:36.340 And he spent every ounce on it doing the one thing that money promises to do, seeking to secure his happiness and his satisfaction. 00:06:37.860 --> 00:06:44.500 He lived under the sun and he did not steward the money that God gave to him for the purposes of God. 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:54.100 Instead, he harnessed it for the purposes of self, and he followed that magnetic pull of money all the way to the bottom of where it leads. 00:06:54.259 --> 00:06:57.780 And this morning he wants to show us where it goes. 00:06:59.780 --> 00:07:09.540 He hands us his report, and it is, on the one hand, devastating, and on the other hand, incredibly hopeful. 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:12.980 Here's the claim that Solomon makes. 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:14.420 It's our main idea this morning. 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:16.020 I want you to take this home with you. 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:21.540 And that is this that what money keeps promising, God actually gives. 00:07:22.020 --> 00:07:27.300 What money keeps promising, God actually gives. 00:07:27.460 --> 00:07:29.620 There is hope here, loved one. 00:07:29.780 --> 00:07:34.020 And Solomon wants to infuse our life with this gospel hope. 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:36.580 And so let's stand and read it together. 00:07:36.819 --> 00:07:40.500 Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 8. 00:07:41.780 --> 00:07:47.460 And you're gonna need to shake out your legs a little bit because this is a bit of a long one. 00:07:47.700 --> 00:07:51.060 However, as we read through it, loved one, I want you to listen. 00:07:51.300 --> 00:08:02.020 Listen to the destruction that the magnetic pull of money can have on your life, but listen also to the hope and the gospel that is found in this passage. 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:03.620 Let's read it together. 00:08:04.580 --> 00:08:12.740 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter. 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:18.259 For the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:20.900 But this is gained for a land in every way. 00:08:21.140 --> 00:08:23.860 A king committed to cultivated fields. 00:08:24.580 --> 00:08:32.019 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:34.019 This also is vanity. 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:37.620 When goods increase, they increase who eat them. 00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:42.019 And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 00:08:42.419 --> 00:08:50.340 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 00:08:50.740 --> 00:08:53.139 There is a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun. 00:08:53.379 --> 00:08:59.139 Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:02.740 And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 00:09:02.980 --> 00:09:12.019 As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil, that he may carry away in his hand. 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:15.060 This also is a grievous evil. 00:09:15.300 --> 00:09:21.060 Just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind. 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:27.139 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, in much vexation and sickness and anger. 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:39.779 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him for his lot. 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:50.740 Every one also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:57.300 For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. 00:09:57.779 --> 00:10:02.740 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind. 00:10:03.060 --> 00:10:13.220 A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them. 00:10:13.700 --> 00:10:15.460 A stranger enjoys them. 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:18.740 This is vanity, it is a grievous evil. 00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:33.379 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:39.300 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 00:10:39.539 --> 00:10:44.659 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:50.980 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good, do not all go to the one place? 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:57.220 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:05.139 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool, and what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 00:11:05.620 --> 00:11:08.899 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:12.019 This also is vanity and a striving after the wind. 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:20.980 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with the one stronger than he. 00:11:21.620 --> 00:11:26.019 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:32.580 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow. 00:11:33.139 --> 00:11:36.420 For who can tell what will be after him under the sun? 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:38.180 This is the word of the Lord. 00:11:38.340 --> 00:11:41.300 You can grab a seat this morning. 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:52.180 Solomon wants us to see that what money keeps promising, God can actually give. 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:56.180 Three realities then in this passage that he shows us. 00:11:56.340 --> 00:11:58.100 First, what money promises. 00:11:58.659 --> 00:12:04.899 Second, why money can't deliver what it promises, and third, how God does. 00:12:05.300 --> 00:12:08.659 Notice first what money promises. 00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:11.940 Notice where Solomon starts in verse eight. 00:12:12.019 --> 00:12:18.820 It's not with the money that's in your bank account, it's with the money that is having an effect on the world. 00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:22.180 In verse 8, the poor are oppressed. 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:27.700 Justice is crooked in the country. 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:34.980 The high official is watched by a higher, there are yet higher ones over them. 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:41.940 Verse 9 is, you may have a note in your Bible, incredibly difficult to translate in the Hebrew. 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:43.779 There are very few verses like this. 00:12:43.940 --> 00:12:51.620 This is one, but it may mean that even the highest official is committed to sort of skimming off the field. 00:12:52.899 --> 00:13:07.700 Solomon looks at the whole machine of wealth and power, the endless ladder of people climbing for more and more and being willing to step on whoever they need to in order to get more. 00:13:07.860 --> 00:13:12.019 And he says, do not be shocked by it. 00:13:12.580 --> 00:13:22.340 Do not be amazed, because this whole structure, this whole society is running on one promise. 00:13:22.659 --> 00:13:24.899 It is implicit in verse 10. 00:13:25.060 --> 00:13:28.180 Look at your copy of God's word with me and copy this. 00:13:28.259 --> 00:13:31.940 And there is so much or circle this, there's so much wisdom here. 00:13:32.180 --> 00:13:41.139 Solomon says, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money. 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:48.420 Nor he who loves wealth, Solomon says, will not be satisfied with his income. 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:51.779 This also is vanity. 00:13:55.539 --> 00:13:58.100 Hear what the assumption of the verse is. 00:13:58.340 --> 00:14:11.220 The lover of money loves money because he believes a promise that at some point he will have enough of it to be satisfied. 00:14:12.659 --> 00:14:24.899 The lover of wealth loves wealth because he believes that at some point he will have enough income to be satisfied. 00:14:26.180 --> 00:14:41.300 Money is making a pledge to this person and to us that if you acquire enough of it, it will deliver you from your greatest fears to your greatest treasures. 00:14:42.340 --> 00:14:47.220 The lover of money in verse 10 then is very much like a worshiper. 00:14:47.460 --> 00:14:50.420 He has heard money make its promise. 00:14:51.060 --> 00:14:58.659 He has believed what money can buy, and he lives to sacrifice in order to collect it. 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:06.100 Think about how worship in the ancient world worked. 00:15:06.580 --> 00:15:13.860 People built altars to a God like Baal, the storm god. 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:21.779 And needing rain for life, they would come to Baal and offer sacrifices to him. 00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:27.060 You sacrifice in order to get something from the God. 00:15:27.379 --> 00:15:32.019 Baal promised one thing they couldn't secure on their own. 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:33.700 He promised rain. 00:15:34.659 --> 00:15:36.019 He promised crops. 00:15:36.180 --> 00:15:37.460 He promised food. 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:39.060 He promised a future. 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:47.860 And so the more you sacrifice to this God, the more you are promised that He would make life work. 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:52.899 Now I haven't seen your basements recently, but I don't think we do that anymore. 00:15:53.139 --> 00:16:01.779 I don't think any of us have a statue of Baal down there that we bring offerings to every morning, but we do bring our paychecks. 00:16:02.180 --> 00:16:04.980 We believe in the power of our paychecks. 00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:07.620 We pour them into a bigger house. 00:16:07.779 --> 00:16:10.340 We pour them into a newer car. 00:16:10.659 --> 00:16:15.379 We pour them into the next upgrade, into a better address. 00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:20.340 Money makes the same pledge that the old gods made. 00:16:20.580 --> 00:16:30.100 Money says, give me enough, pursue me enough, and I will give you the life that you are after. 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:35.220 We stop at verse 10 then. 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:42.100 We're stopped in our tracks to ask this question: what is money offering us? 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:46.259 What is the pursuit of wealth and income offering us? 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:51.139 We rarely stop long enough to notice what this offer is doing. 00:16:51.300 --> 00:17:04.899 We we instead call it smart investing, we call it saving, we call it a reward that we've earned, or finally being able to afford the things that we deserve or want. 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:14.819 But underneath every one of those decisions that we make with money is an altar. 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:17.779 It is an act of worship. 00:17:18.420 --> 00:17:25.779 Where you where your treasure is, Jesus says, there your heart is also. 00:17:43.860 --> 00:17:54.019 Every purchase, laying our resources on an altar, trusting that what we buy will finally deliver what we cannot secure on our own. 00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:58.740 Now listen, the problem is not with money itself. 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:04.019 The problem is not with the paper or the number on your bank account statement. 00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:07.220 None of us are like smog in the hobbit. 00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:10.420 You know, that the dragon, he just sits on his pile of money. 00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:12.180 I've been in many of your houses. 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:18.099 I haven't seen all the rooms, I haven't seen a cash room that you just go to at the end of the day and kind of sit in money. 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:19.700 It'd be nice, wouldn't it? 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:21.940 But but that's not any of our problems. 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:28.900 It's good for us to distinguish, we don't actually love the money, we love the things that money promises to buy. 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:38.579 Money pledges that if we just get enough of it and handle it right, it will secure for us the things our hearts are striving for. 00:18:39.620 --> 00:18:45.460 That if we pursue it properly, it can get for us what we really want. 00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:55.940 And so for some of you, it's not the paper money, it's not the number on the bank account, it's instead the promise of security that comes with having enough money. 00:18:56.180 --> 00:18:58.339 Get enough and you'll never be afraid again. 00:18:58.579 --> 00:19:02.180 Economic downturn can come and you won't be anxious anymore. 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:12.099 It is a promise that maybe if the margin in your financial life gets large enough, wide enough, nothing will be able to touch you. 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:18.099 You will be secure from the rises and falls of economic activity of our world. 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:22.420 For others, money promises significance. 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:26.740 Get enough of it, you'll finally be someone. 00:19:27.059 --> 00:19:41.460 People will see your house, they will see your title, they will see your portfolio, they will see all that you have accomplished and you have acquired for yourself, and they will know that you are actually someone. 00:19:41.860 --> 00:19:44.099 It promises you significance. 00:19:45.299 --> 00:19:47.140 For others, it promises rest. 00:19:48.019 --> 00:19:50.420 If you get enough, you can finally stop. 00:19:50.740 --> 00:20:02.579 You can maybe it's retirement, maybe it's a vacation, whatever it is, you can enjoy the life that you have been killing yourself and not enjoying. 00:20:04.339 --> 00:20:05.299 Security. 00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:10.740 A promise of significance, a promise of rest. 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:19.220 Can we not can we just stop and say those are alluring promises, aren't they? 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:21.940 Anyone in here who doesn't want those things? 00:20:22.259 --> 00:20:27.539 Anyone in here who just, I don't want any security, I don't want any significance, I don't want any rest. 00:20:27.860 --> 00:20:28.579 Anybody? 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:40.819 If those things are intoxicating promises, which I believe they are to my own heart, and with intellectual honesty, each of us can say the same. 00:20:41.539 --> 00:20:46.900 We need to be careful of what money promises. 00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:48.740 Right, church? 00:20:49.299 --> 00:20:50.339 Right, loved ones? 00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:51.700 We need to be careful. 00:20:51.860 --> 00:20:54.740 Money is making a bold promise. 00:20:55.539 --> 00:21:02.099 Now, now the question then that is raised for us is this can money actually deliver that? 00:21:02.339 --> 00:21:06.259 Now I know that some of you, all of you, know the answer. 00:21:06.420 --> 00:21:09.700 That you could come up here, maybe take my mic and just say no. 00:21:10.259 --> 00:21:11.940 And that could be the end of the sermon. 00:21:12.099 --> 00:21:16.420 And maybe it would be the greatest sermon ever at 15 minutes that we finished. 00:21:16.900 --> 00:21:37.700 However, Solomon, for the really remainder of chapter 5 and 6, wants to flesh out the devastating consequences of what happens when we believe the promise that money makes, so that we no longer believe the pitch that money makes. 00:21:38.019 --> 00:21:41.700 Notice, secondly, why money can't keep its promise. 00:21:42.579 --> 00:21:48.579 Solomon's not arguing with the promise, it's not an intellectual argument he makes. 00:21:48.740 --> 00:21:57.779 He just starts pulling threads and walking down the paths that money could afford him to walk down, which was every single path. 00:21:58.099 --> 00:22:05.940 And as he investigates his life, the argument that money can promise anything really starts to come apart in his hands. 00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:08.259 Money cannot keep its word. 00:22:08.500 --> 00:22:11.380 He who loves money will not be satisfied. 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:14.339 This promise of satisfaction, money cannot keep. 00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:21.220 And so The first thing Solomon wants you to see is this that money can't keep its promise because it can't satisfy you. 00:22:21.860 --> 00:22:23.059 It can't satisfy you. 00:22:23.220 --> 00:22:25.140 A little bit of substructure in this second point. 00:22:25.299 --> 00:22:29.220 This is how I make a three-point sermon into a six-point sermon without you knowing. 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:30.980 I got you, okay? 00:22:31.779 --> 00:22:33.620 It cannot satisfy you. 00:22:33.779 --> 00:22:37.140 Money can't keep its promise because of verse 10. 00:22:37.380 --> 00:22:40.980 He who loves money will not be satisfied. 00:22:41.220 --> 00:22:43.460 Do you hear the verdict there? 00:22:44.339 --> 00:22:51.460 The truth of God's word does not say you probably won't be satisfied. 00:22:51.539 --> 00:22:58.180 I mean, we could make that argument too, that not many of us will get to the income level that maybe we've wanted to in our life. 00:22:58.339 --> 00:23:00.660 It could say you probably won't be satisfied. 00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:05.140 With absolute assurance, Solomon says it will not. 00:23:06.180 --> 00:23:10.500 It doesn't say, I mean, unless you're able to get to a certain tax bracket. 00:23:11.059 --> 00:23:13.299 It doesn't say, hey, unless you can get that boat. 00:23:13.460 --> 00:23:14.660 I mean, here's a footnote. 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:18.259 If you can get that boat, you're gonna be a happy sailor. 00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:20.660 No pun intended there. 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:22.900 It doesn't say that. 00:23:23.059 --> 00:23:26.819 It says the lover of money will never arrive. 00:23:27.779 --> 00:23:31.620 Now, we don't need scripture to convince us of this. 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:33.620 We know it experientially. 00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:39.779 You know this if you've ever gotten the thing that you were sure would finally be enough. 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:48.740 You've gotten the raise before, you've gotten the new house before, you've reached the number in the savings account that you wanted. 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:52.500 The problem is that all these things are always on the horizon. 00:23:52.579 --> 00:23:57.860 And the closer you get to the horizon, the farther away they get. 00:23:58.579 --> 00:24:00.339 It is this strange moment. 00:24:00.579 --> 00:24:02.099 Can you sympathize with me here? 00:24:02.259 --> 00:24:12.099 Where you get to the thing your heart has been longing for for so long, and instead you just feel the goalpost slide a little bit farther. 00:24:14.579 --> 00:24:20.740 You thought, I mean, you thought just a little bit more, and I won't be financially strained. 00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:27.220 Enough was a very tangible target or job or house or thing. 00:24:28.099 --> 00:24:31.299 And you got there and and you chased it. 00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:36.259 You look back and you see exactly what Solomon saw. 00:24:36.579 --> 00:24:37.779 You see it in verse 11? 00:24:37.940 --> 00:24:39.299 Look down at verse 11 with me. 00:24:39.460 --> 00:24:49.620 This is so practical to our lives and so shocking that Solomon wrote this 3,000 years ago, and it is still true today because it is a view of the reality of life. 00:24:49.779 --> 00:24:54.339 When goods increase, they increase who eat them. 00:24:55.700 --> 00:25:01.539 And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 00:25:02.259 --> 00:25:10.180 The more you have, the more people showing up to consume the things you have. 00:25:11.539 --> 00:25:17.299 The bigger the house, the greater the upkeep. 00:25:18.259 --> 00:25:23.460 The higher the income, the bigger the taxes. 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:26.259 What does the owner? 00:25:26.579 --> 00:25:27.460 That's the way it should be. 00:25:27.539 --> 00:25:29.460 Okay, I see some of you guys nodding your heads there. 00:25:29.620 --> 00:25:31.220 That is the way it should be. 00:25:31.940 --> 00:25:32.819 Maybe. 00:25:33.539 --> 00:25:36.819 The more you have, the more it eats up of you. 00:25:37.860 --> 00:25:41.220 You have a family, your income grows. 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:43.380 So do your teenage boys. 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:45.700 They're eating up everything. 00:25:45.940 --> 00:25:49.220 This is the principle that Solomon saw. 00:25:51.059 --> 00:25:52.420 You get the raise? 00:25:52.819 --> 00:26:02.579 You were sure it would give you financial room to breathe, but within a year the car is newer, the house is bigger, there are more subscriptions. 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:08.339 You're just as stretched as before. 00:26:08.900 --> 00:26:11.299 That's what Solomon's saying in verse 11. 00:26:11.860 --> 00:26:16.099 The more you have, the more people show up to consume it. 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:20.099 And what does the owner actually gain at the end of it? 00:26:20.180 --> 00:26:24.900 He gets to look at his bank account and see the funds disappear. 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:27.140 Does life ever feel like that, loved ones? 00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:33.940 I mean, the only reason you get this money coming in is for this money to go out. 00:26:34.019 --> 00:26:37.779 And verse 12 shows us the cruelty of the pursuit. 00:26:37.860 --> 00:26:38.740 Look at verse 12. 00:26:38.900 --> 00:26:48.500 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:52.660 The rich man lies awake. 00:26:52.819 --> 00:26:55.380 You get you get the illustration Solomon has here. 00:26:55.539 --> 00:27:03.140 The very abundance that promised him satisfaction, it becomes a stomachache, a pit in his stomach. 00:27:03.620 --> 00:27:10.420 The very abundance that promised you to finally be able to rest, to no longer be anxious over your finances. 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:13.460 It keeps you up at three in the morning. 00:27:14.019 --> 00:27:18.660 Now it's not only your sleep that this chase of more takes from you. 00:27:18.900 --> 00:27:26.420 Look closer and you'll notice that the promise of satisfaction is not just failing to give anything in return to you. 00:27:26.660 --> 00:27:31.460 The promise of satisfaction that money makes is actively taking from you. 00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:43.860 Whenever we pursue more and we experience what Solomon is talking about here, the constriction of pursuing more, how the more we get, the more that is taken for us. 00:27:44.019 --> 00:27:48.900 One of the first things that is taken from us is the joy of generosity. 00:27:50.099 --> 00:28:02.420 You know, Jesus said so simply, so universally true, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. 00:28:03.299 --> 00:28:12.579 That the most blessed people Jesus would look at in culture were those who sacrificially gave whatever they had. 00:28:12.740 --> 00:28:28.660 It was a sacrifice because money was constrained, they were financially tight, and yet still they were seeking to place their heart where their treasure was being put. 00:28:29.220 --> 00:28:38.339 Notice in your life that the first thing to go whenever we are on the pursuit of more is generosity. 00:28:39.940 --> 00:28:48.339 Notice that no matter how much we make, we never quite feel like we have enough to give. 00:28:55.779 --> 00:28:57.380 Things are tight. 00:28:57.860 --> 00:29:02.660 The kids are at an expensive age, the mortgage is big, interest is high. 00:29:02.819 --> 00:29:06.819 Once we get a little more margin, then we will be more generous. 00:29:06.980 --> 00:29:10.339 But Solomon is here to say the margin never comes. 00:29:10.500 --> 00:29:18.900 The more you run the endless rat race of pursuing more, seeking satisfaction, the tighter life becomes. 00:29:20.819 --> 00:29:22.339 Constricting you. 00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:29.620 It's the cruelty Solomon points out. 00:29:29.940 --> 00:29:31.539 More never comes. 00:29:31.860 --> 00:29:35.220 Money can't deliver because it cannot satisfy. 00:29:35.620 --> 00:29:41.220 Notice, secondly, though, that money can't keep its promise because it can't secure you. 00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:44.339 Maybe you are disciplined with your money. 00:29:44.500 --> 00:29:48.019 Maybe you hear all this and you know you are a budgeter. 00:29:48.259 --> 00:29:50.740 I mean, that point was great for the spenders. 00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:53.539 But let's talk to the budgeters for a moment. 00:29:53.779 --> 00:30:02.420 And you have your savings account all worked out, and you have your giving all worked out, and your Excel spreadsheet, it's like worthy of being at NASA. 00:30:02.579 --> 00:30:06.579 It's just so amazing how technical the graphs are here, and it's amazing. 00:30:06.900 --> 00:30:09.380 Solomon has a word for you. 00:30:10.819 --> 00:30:15.380 Verse 13, he he calls it a grievous eat grievous evil. 00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:25.220 He wants to point out that he sees under the sun riches are hoarded by their owner to their own harm, to his own hurt. 00:30:25.380 --> 00:30:27.380 You see that in verse 13? 00:30:27.860 --> 00:30:38.339 And the person who then has riches in verse 14 loses them in a bad venture, so that he's a father of a son, but he has absolutely nothing to hand over to his son. 00:30:39.460 --> 00:30:41.860 These are the reality of riches. 00:30:42.579 --> 00:30:45.460 One bad decision, you can lose it all. 00:30:45.860 --> 00:30:49.620 One turn of the market, you can lose it all. 00:30:50.019 --> 00:30:53.539 One bad tax law, and all your money is the government's. 00:30:53.700 --> 00:30:59.620 Solomon takes a step back and says, listen, there is no security in riches. 00:31:00.339 --> 00:31:06.819 Every dollar that you have ever earned is going to belong to someone else. 00:31:06.980 --> 00:31:09.220 That is where Solomon gets to in verse 15. 00:31:09.380 --> 00:31:28.019 I mean, if that's not enough to scare you out of believing that money can provide you security, the reality of the possibility of economic downturn, the reality of the possibility of being fired or laid off from your job, if that's not enough to scare you, this is universally the greatest argument about money being able to provide you security. 00:31:28.259 --> 00:31:39.220 Verse 15 As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 00:31:39.380 --> 00:31:43.779 It is this encouraging message that Solomon always comes back to. 00:31:44.099 --> 00:31:46.339 You are going to die. 00:31:47.220 --> 00:31:51.059 And you cannot bring anything with you to the grave. 00:31:51.220 --> 00:31:55.220 All of your riches will be passed on to someone else. 00:31:55.380 --> 00:31:59.140 And who knows what good those riches will do? 00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:02.259 You have no control. 00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:13.860 The hands that held all of this money, resource, and wealth will be emptied in the grave. 00:32:14.339 --> 00:32:20.099 And your grip on money will be pried open, whether you like it or not. 00:32:20.740 --> 00:32:23.940 Verse 16, Solomon makes this conclusion. 00:32:25.860 --> 00:32:26.900 It's better. 00:32:28.819 --> 00:32:30.579 It's better just to chase wind. 00:32:30.980 --> 00:32:31.700 Better try to. 00:32:36.099 --> 00:32:37.299 It doesn't work. 00:32:37.620 --> 00:32:38.420 You can't do it. 00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:41.539 There is nothing you can do to influence wind. 00:32:41.700 --> 00:32:46.579 There is nothing you can do to make money give you what you desire of it. 00:32:46.740 --> 00:32:48.099 It can't satisfy you. 00:32:48.259 --> 00:32:50.819 It will not secure you. 00:32:51.940 --> 00:33:03.539 Notice, thirdly, that not only can money not satisfy, not only can money not secure, the problem that Solomon has with money is that it can't let you savor it. 00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:07.059 Solomon could have stopped there. 00:33:07.620 --> 00:33:12.339 If we stopped at chapter six, it is a sober enough sermon. 00:33:12.500 --> 00:33:17.700 But in chapter six, he then reaches for maybe the greatest failure of all. 00:33:17.860 --> 00:33:19.700 In verse 2, you see it. 00:33:19.860 --> 00:33:29.620 There is a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires. 00:33:29.860 --> 00:33:31.700 Loved one, you could get there. 00:33:32.259 --> 00:33:38.259 Solomon says, listen, it's possible to get everything of your wildest dreams. 00:33:39.140 --> 00:33:40.819 God can give you that. 00:33:40.980 --> 00:33:43.059 And God has given many that. 00:33:43.220 --> 00:33:45.620 And maybe you are there this morning. 00:33:45.940 --> 00:33:50.740 You just look at your life and you said, I say, I have everything that money can buy. 00:33:50.900 --> 00:33:53.940 And I just look around this room and I said, You haven't bought us a church yet, okay? 00:33:54.019 --> 00:33:55.779 So we're not there yet. 00:33:57.059 --> 00:33:59.220 I have everything that I need. 00:33:59.380 --> 00:34:01.059 And Solomon, I mean, look at this. 00:34:01.220 --> 00:34:01.620 Look at this. 00:34:01.779 --> 00:34:03.140 Verse 2 of chapter 6. 00:34:03.299 --> 00:34:11.219 He lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them. 00:34:18.099 --> 00:34:23.780 Why is it often the case that the richest who have everything are the saddest? 00:34:26.019 --> 00:34:33.780 Because the one thing money promises it can't actually do, it can't make you enjoy it. 00:34:35.539 --> 00:34:37.059 Money makes a terrible god. 00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:41.460 Money is just paper. 00:34:42.420 --> 00:34:43.619 It is just metal. 00:34:44.099 --> 00:34:49.300 It's just pixels on a little rectangular screen in your pocket. 00:34:50.019 --> 00:34:53.219 Money makes a terrible God. 00:34:53.460 --> 00:35:07.539 It has no living power to transform your heart to actually enjoy life so that you can get all of it, but not be able to enjoy any of it. 00:35:09.139 --> 00:35:24.820 Solomon wants you to see this morning the absurd limitation of money's power, the very thing that it promises to do, to satisfy, to secure you, to give you rest? 00:35:26.099 --> 00:35:28.099 Loved one, it cannot do. 00:35:28.820 --> 00:35:32.420 It is nothing but a number, it is nothing but paper, it is nothing but metal. 00:35:33.139 --> 00:35:43.539 It is the physical equivalent of what those Baal worshippers did when they fell before an idol of wood and thought that the wood would deliver them. 00:35:43.860 --> 00:35:52.500 And loved one, what difference does it make if it is wood or if it is paper or if it is metal or if it's a digital number on the screen? 00:35:52.980 --> 00:36:03.780 The thought is just as absurd and foolish that we could get anything that our souls long for from a material thing of the earth. 00:36:04.900 --> 00:36:07.460 We are not more sophisticated. 00:36:09.219 --> 00:36:20.420 Solomon then wants us to see the absurd limitation of money's power, that the very thing it promises to do, it has no categorical power to do. 00:36:20.579 --> 00:36:28.260 Solomon wants you to leave this place laughing at money's promise, laughing at what money advertises. 00:36:28.579 --> 00:36:30.340 We do this all the time, don't we? 00:36:30.579 --> 00:36:35.539 I love driving by, you know, those big billboards they have for new home developments. 00:36:35.780 --> 00:36:37.380 Have you ever studied those billboards? 00:36:37.460 --> 00:36:38.500 You will now that you've heard this. 00:36:38.659 --> 00:36:40.019 Study those billboards a little bit. 00:36:40.099 --> 00:36:44.179 Because whenever you see it, the home is in the background, but what's in the foreground? 00:36:44.260 --> 00:36:45.539 It's the family. 00:36:45.860 --> 00:36:51.059 And you've never seen a family like this family that's on the billboard of this million-dollar home. 00:36:51.300 --> 00:36:53.940 Because the husband looks like Ryan Gosling. 00:36:54.420 --> 00:37:02.179 And the wife is a trophy wife, and the teenage kids are all loving each other and playing together. 00:37:02.420 --> 00:37:04.820 And what is the promise of that billboard? 00:37:04.980 --> 00:37:08.820 The promise is that if you buy the home, you'll get the family. 00:37:08.900 --> 00:37:11.940 And then the reality is you buy the home and it's a massive home. 00:37:12.019 --> 00:37:15.699 There's a thousand rooms, and you got to text your kid to come down for dinner. 00:37:15.940 --> 00:37:22.820 It doesn't advertise that, but we drive by the billboard and we say, Man, the home will never purchase the family like that. 00:37:23.139 --> 00:37:23.860 It's everywhere. 00:37:24.260 --> 00:37:27.300 Have you seen a cologne commercial recently? 00:37:27.699 --> 00:37:29.619 It's in black and white. 00:37:29.940 --> 00:37:34.420 And there's a man running through a field of flowers. 00:37:34.900 --> 00:37:41.539 And there's a beautiful woman who is staring at the man like he is everything. 00:37:41.699 --> 00:37:42.740 And you're confused. 00:37:42.900 --> 00:37:46.019 Why is this woman staring at this man like this? 00:37:46.099 --> 00:37:51.780 And then the the ad ends with a bottle of cologne because he smells good. 00:37:52.579 --> 00:37:54.179 I wear cologne. 00:37:54.500 --> 00:37:57.380 Never been chased through a meadow by my wife. 00:37:58.340 --> 00:37:59.539