Introduction:
Money Won't Make You Happy:
(Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12)
- More money brings more Problems . (Eccl 5:10-17)
- More money = more Dissatisfaction . (Eccl 5:10)
- More money = more Moochers . (Eccl 5:11a)
- More money = more Disappointment . (Eccl 5:11b)
- More money = more to Worry about. (Eccl 5:12)
- More money = more Hurting . (Eccl 5:13-14)
- More money = more to Leave behind . (Eccl 5:15-17)
- Unless God gives you Power to enjoy it. (Eccl 5:18-6:9)
- Because God Said so . (Eccl 6:10-12)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:50-00:52
Open up Ecclesiastes chapter five.
00:52-00:53
I probably said that like 20 minutes ago, right?
00:54-01:01
So just a quick review on ramp for us or catching us all up if you haven't been with us.
01:01-01:07
Ecclesiastes is Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived.
01:07-01:08
It's his quest for meaning.
01:10-01:12
And that's where he started this book.
01:12-01:14
He says, you know, life seems empty.
01:15-01:19
Life seems nothing but like endless repeating cycles.
01:20-01:26
And he said pleasure and projects and possessions, they don't matter.
01:28-01:31
And he was purely looking at life under the sun.
01:31-01:36
He goes, "If this is all there is, let's forget spiritual God, heaven, all of that stuff.
01:36-01:44
If this existence is all there is, then it's pretty empty." But then he introduces the Lord, right?
01:44-01:48
And he tells us that God appoints seasons for us, good and bad.
01:49-01:57
He puts eternity in our hearts and he calls us to fear him and meaning in life only comes from faith.
02:00-02:06
But there are some anomalies to that and that's sort of where we left off last time.
02:06-02:09
So let's bow our heads as we approach the word of God.
02:09-02:13
I'm going to ask that you would pray for me and I will pray for you.
02:16-02:21
Father in heaven, this church was planted on the belief that Your Word does Your work.
02:23-02:24
We still believe that.
02:25-02:27
We still see it changing lives.
02:30-02:32
We still see it bringing the dead to life.
02:34-02:34
Healing marriages.
02:36-02:37
Breaking addiction.
02:39-02:52
And I pray today, Father, that it would just simply do one thing, one of the biggest lies that we still want to tell ourselves.
02:55-02:58
Let your word destroy that today, Father, we pray in Jesus' name.
02:59-03:03
And all of God's people said, "Amen." Where did we leave off last time?
03:03-03:07
Chapter 5 and verse 8, you there?
03:08-03:17
It says, "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.
03:19-03:24
For the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
03:24-03:41
But this is a gain for a land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields." This is a callback to the beginning of chapter 4 when he talks about people being oppressed.
03:42-04:17
He circles back to that and he says, "Hey, hey, hey, look, don't be shocked when you see injustice because someone's always higher and someone's always higher and someone's always higher and maybe if there's injustice, somebody's going to see the injustice and they're going to correct it." But he says in verse 9, basically to paraphrase, he's saying, "Even though things sort of get Messy with the hierarchy, he says, bad government is better than no government, right?
04:19-04:19
Right?
04:21-04:22
I knew this was going to be a hard sell.
04:25-04:29
Because some of you are like, is it though?
04:30-04:32
I'm gonna take another run at that.
04:33-04:35
Bad government is better than no government, right?
04:37-04:40
That was not much better.
04:43-04:44
Bad government is better than no government.
04:46-04:49
So you just have to trust the Lord on that one, all right?
04:50-04:51
Bad government is better than no government.
04:51-04:52
Let's move on now.
04:52-04:57
Let's move on because I know what you're thinking, right?
04:58-05:03
And Solomon certainly knew what you'd be thinking at this point because again, he's talking about oppression again.
05:04-05:07
He says the oppression of the poor.
05:09-05:13
And it is true, it is often the poor who are disadvantaged.
05:14-05:17
It is often the poor who are oppressed, so I know what you're thinking.
05:17-05:19
You're like, well, that is an easy workaround.
05:22-05:24
Just don't be poor, right?
05:25-05:32
I mean, honestly, if money's an advantage and poor people are oppressed, here's how you fix that.
05:33-05:34
Just don't be poor, all right?
05:36-05:37
We can get the worship team back up here.
05:37-05:43
We're gonna close and, but hang on, hang on.
05:44-05:45
Easier said than done, right?
05:50-05:57
Because in this next section that we're looking at, what Solomon says is this, look, money isn't the magic wand to happiness.
06:01-06:02
And today we're gonna talk about money.
06:04-06:05
Awesome, right?
06:07-06:11
It's on our minds a lot lately, especially very recently, isn't it?
06:12-06:12
Inflation.
06:14-06:16
Have you noticed the price of gas, ladies and gentlemen?
06:22-06:31
And I heard that we're in a recession, but then I heard that we're not in a recession because we've changed the parameters of what, Are we in a recession or not?
06:33-06:35
Okay, we'll go with whatever you just said.
06:36-06:40
But look, we're gonna talk about money here 'cause that's where the text goes.
06:40-06:45
And there are so many lies that surround money.
06:46-06:52
And one of the big ones is promoted in the world today from worldly people, rich people are bad, right?
06:53-06:53
No, they're not.
06:56-06:59
And then you go to church and here's a lie about money.
06:59-07:01
If you have enough faith, you'll be wealthy.
07:03-07:03
No, you won't.
07:04-07:05
That's a lie.
07:06-07:11
But today we're going after the biggest lie surrounding money, and it's this one.
07:12-07:13
More money would make me happy.
07:15-07:26
If I just had more, if I got like this big raise, this big windfall, if a big inheritance, if I just had more, I would be happier.
07:27-07:29
And that is the worst lie.
07:32-07:40
So on your outline, if you're taking notes, and we always encourage you to do that, here's your heading, money won't make you happy.
07:41-07:51
And I know you make a statement like that, and you're saying, "I still kind of think it might." Well, let's see what God says.
07:52-07:54
Money won't make you happy, number one, write this down.
07:55-07:57
More money brings more problems.
08:00-08:01
More money brings more problems.
08:04-08:10
You know, when I originally wrote this down, I had like, "Mo' money, mo' problems." Can I confess something to you?
08:10-08:12
This isn't in my notes, but I gotta confess something to you.
08:13-08:24
When I wrote that down, 'cause I referenced that back when we talked about this before, I thought I was being kind of like hip and current and like, I'm gonna resonate with the kids because I thought that was like kind of new-ish.
08:25-08:27
So I did a quick Google search.
08:27-08:30
Do you know that's from like a song from the 90s?
08:31-08:32
You knew that?
08:33-08:33
You knew that?
08:34-08:38
And not one of you said anything to me the last time I thought I was cool saying that.
08:43-08:46
All right, more money brings more problems.
08:46-08:51
In other words, Solomon's going to drop a bomb on us.
08:53-08:57
Despite what you hear some preachers say, listen, prosperity isn't always good.
08:59-09:02
And he gives us six problems surrounding it.
09:02-09:06
First of all, more money brings more dissatisfaction.
09:07-09:07
Look at verse 10.
09:08-09:14
He says, "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.
09:14-09:19
This also is vanity." Note, he says it twice so you don't miss it.
09:19-09:22
Listen, loves money.
09:22-09:24
Loves, well, do you see that?
09:24-09:26
Money is not the problem.
09:27-09:30
Loving money is the problem.
09:31-09:40
And these are just these strange paradoxes that are absolutely true about life that God's word points out that we want to deny.
09:42-09:47
But here it is, listen, the more you have, the more you want.
09:48-09:49
And you think it's opposite, right?
09:49-09:52
The more I have, the less there is that I should want.
09:52-09:54
You think that's what it is, but that's not true.
09:54-09:57
The more you have, the more you want.
09:57-10:04
And he says, again, another paradox, "The more you get, the less it satisfies." Again, we think it's the opposite, right?
10:05-10:11
The more I get, the more satisfied I should be because there's not as much stuff that I don't have.
10:11-10:12
And he goes, "That's the opposite.
10:14-10:17
The more you get, the less you're satisfied." Think about it this way.
10:19-10:32
Let's say that you give Jay Leno your car, because you know, he has like every amazing exotic car in the world, and you're like, "You know what?
10:32-10:43
He would love to have my Honda Civic as part of his collection." But I'm going to give you a newsflash here, it's not going to impact him that much.
10:46-10:51
He might throw it in the back with some of his other ones and not give another thought.
10:51-10:59
"Surely that was my car, that thing was so valuable." Not to somebody who has that much.
11:00-11:12
But on the other hand, if you go to one of these Thai villages where these kids have nothing and you give them a wicker ball, they will be ecstatic.
11:15-11:28
from experience in that. More money is more dissatisfaction. When you love money, it's never enough. It never satisfies. Secondly, let's look at the first part of verse 11.
11:28-11:42
More money equals more moochers. More moochers. Look at verse 11. He says, "When goods increase, They increase who eat them.
11:45-11:45
Stop there.
11:47-11:52
So the more money you get, here comes the parade of the parasites.
11:55-11:56
True or false?
11:57-12:02
The more you have, the more people come who want a piece, including the government.
12:04-12:04
True or false?
12:07-12:09
You know something that fascinates me?
12:10-12:13
a lot of things, but in particular right now, I'm thinking about the lottery.
12:15-12:18
I heard somebody say the lottery is just a tax on people who are bad at math.
12:21-12:27
But did you see last week, the one lottery went over a billion dollars.
12:27-12:28
Did you see that?
12:31-12:37
Well, because of like lottery fever happening, I had an article, you know, these articles go out.
12:37-12:42
I had an article emailed to me just with a list of things, but I clicked on it because it caught my attention.
12:42-12:44
It was talking about a man named Tim Schultz.
12:45-12:52
He won $28 million in 1999 in the Iowa Powerball.
12:53-12:54
And they interviewed him about that.
12:55-12:56
Like, what was your experience like?
12:57-13:05
And he said, "I felt like an outcast." And this was the quote that caught my attention.
13:05-13:13
He said, "If I wanted to go on vacation, I had to pay for other people to go." How annoying would that be?
13:14-13:20
Like we're going to get away from a little family time, you know, we're just going to have a little time with my wife and kids.
13:20-13:21
Oh, you're going on vacation.
13:22-13:25
Okay, we'll go, we'll pack, but you're going to pay.
13:25-13:28
He said it was just like nonstop, right?
13:28-13:35
And it reminds me, I saw years ago this television program, I don't know if it's still on, it was called "Lottery Ruined My Life." You ever see that?
13:36-13:39
I just remember this guy they interviewed who won how many millions of dollars.
13:40-13:41
And he was getting all these letters from people.
13:41-13:43
He had no idea who they were.
13:43-13:47
It's like, I got a sick kid, I got a flat tire, I got, you know, whatever.
13:47-13:50
And like, he's like, I'm trying to meet all these needs.
13:50-13:51
I'm sending all of these checks.
13:51-13:52
It was never enough.
13:52-13:55
And that's Solomon's point here, right?
13:55-14:00
The more you have, the more people are gonna come and say, hey, why don't you give me some of that?
14:00-14:01
More money's more moochers.
14:03-14:06
And thirdly, more money is more disappointment.
14:09-14:11
More money is more disappointment.
14:12-14:14
Look at the second part of verse 11.
14:14-14:15
I love this.
14:16-14:27
He says, "And what advantage has their owner "but to see them with his eyes?" In other words, the more you have, the more you realize it doesn't meet your real needs.
14:28-14:29
What's the advantage?
14:30-14:32
What's the advantage you get with more stuff?
14:33-14:36
Ooh, you get to look at it with your eyes.
14:39-14:40
Isn't that amazing?
14:42-14:52
Did you see last week the Honus Wagner baseball card from about 1909 sold for $7.25 million.
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And there it is.
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Handsome fellow.
15:00-15:01
He is, look at him.
15:05-15:08
That's old for seven and a quarter million dollars.
15:09-15:14
That article, I saw that article so many times, the pop-ups and those pushes and stuff.
15:15-15:18
I saw that so many times, but that's not the thing I'm interested in.
15:19-15:22
I wanna hear the story about like, then what?
15:22-15:25
Like, let's talk to that guy in two weeks.
15:27-15:32
Like, "Hey, what you doing with that Honus Wagner card?" You know what his answer is?
15:33-15:39
"I occasionally get to look at it." You spent seven and a quarter million dollars on something to look at?
15:40-15:42
I got that for free off of Google Images.
15:43-15:43
(audience laughing)
15:47-15:50
Now, true or false, I can do the same thing that that guy did.
15:51-15:52
Look at that, right?
15:53-15:54
And now you're looking at it for free.
15:55-16:00
We can do the same thing, and we didn't spend seven and a quarter million dollars.
16:03-16:04
That's what Solomon said.
16:04-16:07
We think more stuff will make us happy.
16:08-16:10
It won't, it'll just bring more disappointment.
16:12-16:13
Here's another thing.
16:13-16:17
More stuff is more to take care of, right?
16:17-16:18
And that's a pain.
16:19-16:27
Somebody's like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, I got a boat." I'm like, "No, you got a part-time job." More money is more disappointment.
16:28-16:30
Moving on, more money is more to worry about.
16:31-16:32
More money is more to worry about.
16:32-16:33
Look at verse 12.
16:35-16:49
He says, "Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep." He says, "The working man gets a good night's sleep.
16:49-16:53
The rich man cannot get a good night's sleep because he's got too much going on.
16:53-17:00
"I can't unwind, I just got so much to think about." You know the primary reason for insomnia?
17:00-17:01
Do you know what it is?
17:01-17:02
Tension.
17:03-17:05
Do you know what the primary reason for tension is?
17:07-17:07
Money.
17:09-17:11
That's what Solomon's talking about here.
17:12-17:26
He goes, "It's hard for rich people to get the rest because it's worry, it's so much worry." They lay down and, "Well, what if the stock market crashes, or what if it dropped, what if you have a significant drop again?
17:27-17:31
Am I going to be able to get this tax thing figured out that I've been working on all week?
17:31-17:33
Oh, I'm going to call some people about that.
17:33-17:36
And how's inflation going to affect my spending?
17:37-17:38
Because we really had to adjust some things.
17:39-17:40
Oh, I've got to make sure I talk to accounting.
17:41-17:42
You see?
17:45-17:46
The more you have, the more you have to worry about.
17:48-17:58
Perhaps that's why in Matthew 6, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught about treasure, and then immediately, He taught about worry.
18:01-18:02
Maybe there's a connection.
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Next, where money is more hurting, look at verses 13 and 14.
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He says, "There is a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun.
18:14-18:17
Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt.
18:19-18:21
And those riches were lost in a bad venture.
18:22-18:25
And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
18:28-18:29
More money is more hurting.
18:30-18:32
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.
18:32-18:32
Did you see it?
18:33-18:36
Three times in this passage, here comes the pain.
18:37-18:40
First, he hurt himself by hoarding.
18:43-18:49
You're like, "Well, how do you hurt yourself by hoarding?" Speaking of another TV show, have you ever seen that show "Hoarders"?
18:51-18:53
Okay, that's how you hurt yourself by hoarding.
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Just watch an episode of that.
18:57-19:07
So he hurt himself by hoarding, then he hurt himself by losing it all suddenly, which you know how easily that can happen, an illness, crime, fraud, bad investment, lawsuit, et cetera.
19:08-19:13
Then there was hurt by not having anything to leave his son.
19:15-19:18
Solomon's point here is yeah, yeah, yeah, money will hurt you.
19:19-19:25
The love of money will hurt you, but sadly it will hurt those closest to you as well.
19:27-19:30
More money is more hurting and then more money is more to leave behind.
19:32-19:34
More money is more to leave behind, right?
19:34-19:50
Look at verse 15, it says, "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." You can't take it with you, right?
19:50-19:51
Guess what?
19:51-19:57
Someday you're gonna leave the earth and you are taking with you exactly what you brought with you to the earth.
19:58-20:01
You've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul, right?
20:03-20:06
I read this past week about the top earning dead celebrities.
20:07-20:08
Did you know this was a thing?
20:09-20:10
They track this.
20:10-20:23
There are celebrities, people who have been dead for a long time, but because of like album sales and royalties and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, they're still making tens of millions of dollars.
20:26-20:28
Here's the top five, are you interested?
20:28-20:29
Let me skip this part.
20:31-20:34
Okay, number five, we're gonna count down five to one, okay?
20:35-20:37
Number five, Elvis.
20:38-20:39
Tens of millions of dollars, Elvis.
20:39-20:41
Who had Elvis on their list?
20:41-20:43
Under dead celebrity, top-earning bingo card.
20:43-20:45
Thank you very much, thank you very much.
20:47-20:48
Yeah, Elvis.
20:48-20:50
Next is number four, Arnold Palmer.
20:51-20:53
Shocker, shocking entry on this list.
20:54-20:54
Arnold Palmer.
20:56-21:01
Number three, probably the most surprising to me on this list, Charles Schultz.
21:03-21:05
You know, the Charlie Brown guy, the Snoopy guy.
21:06-21:07
Still making tens of millions of dollars.
21:10-21:14
Number two, Dr. Seuss.
21:15-21:17
I found out, not a real doctor.
21:18-21:25
And then number one, the number one top earning dead celebrity, do you know who it is?
21:26-21:27
Anybody take a guess?
21:27-21:28
I thought I heard somebody say it, say it loud.
21:30-21:31
Michael Jackson, right?
21:32-21:32
(laughing)
21:33-21:36
Yeah, Michael Jackson, top earning dead celebrity.
21:36-21:38
And here's the point, here's my point in sharing this.
21:39-21:41
None of these people are seeing a dime of that money.
21:44-21:46
Tens of millions of dollars, they're not seeing it.
21:48-21:48
Why?
21:49-21:51
Because the more you make, the more you leave behind.
21:52-21:58
Verse 16, he says, "This also is a grievous evil.
21:59-22:01
"Just as he came, so shall he go.
22:01-22:04
"And what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?
22:05-22:08
Moreover, and this verse is sad.
22:08-22:12
I know we're having fun and kind of joking around and stuff here, but this is sad.
22:12-22:14
Look at verse 17.
22:14-22:23
Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness and much vexation and sickness and anger.
22:25-22:32
Here Solomon says, if you make your life about money, you're still gonna die.
22:32-22:45
"you're just going to die unhappy and unfulfilled." And he says the love of money ultimately brings, you see this picture, the guy's like sitting alone and eating and he has everything in the world.
22:46-22:47
But you see what else he has, three things.
22:47-22:52
He says vexation, that's like all the fighting and greed that come with it.
22:55-23:11
He says sickness, that's from all the worry, the sleepless nights, the ulcers and anger, so much bitterness and resentment surround people who love money.
23:13-23:22
So getting more will make you happy is literally the oldest lie in the world.
23:25-23:26
We're still buying it.
23:28-23:31
When it comes to money, Solomon says, look, more is not better.
23:31-23:34
More is just more problems.
23:35-23:37
All right, money won't make you happy.
23:38-23:39
Number two, write this down.
23:40-23:42
Unless God gives you power to enjoy it.
23:43-23:55
I'm gonna go through this part quickly because way back when we started the series, we had a whole sermon just about this topic, but we're addressing it again because it's in the text again and Solomon keeps hammering the point home.
23:56-23:56
Why?
23:56-23:58
because people don't believe it.
23:59-24:01
This is like the theme of Ecclesiastes.
24:01-24:02
Look at verse 18.
24:02-24:40
He says, "Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment, and all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his law." He says, "Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions, and" - here it is - "power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God." Stop there.
24:43-24:46
Just a word here for the person that's like, "Yeah, you know what?
24:46-24:47
You're right.
24:47-25:00
Rich people are bad and greedy." If you think wealth and possessions are bad, he reminds us that God gives that.
25:02-25:03
God gives wealth and possessions.
25:04-25:17
So when you look at disgust with somebody that has stuff, or you want to criticize or condemn someone who has stuff, I want to remind you where they got it.
25:18-25:21
Because according to God's word, He is the one who gives it.
25:24-25:25
So you can take it up with Him.
25:26-25:31
But money, listen, this is why we're so backwards on this.
25:32-25:33
Money isn't bad.
25:34-25:37
It's not inherently good either.
25:38-25:39
Money's a tool.
25:41-25:41
That's really all it is.
25:42-25:45
And what's bad or good is your attitude towards it.
25:47-25:50
What determines my attitude towards it?
25:50-25:51
He tells us again right here.
25:52-25:54
It's when God gives you the power to enjoy it.
25:56-25:57
That makes the difference.
25:58-25:59
That's a call back to chapter 2.
26:00-26:02
Enjoyment is a gift from God.
26:02-26:07
You have to have, you have to live a life of faith.
26:10-26:17
You're like, "Well, okay." Now that you say that, that does sound familiar, but what does the life of faith look like?
26:17-26:43
like? Well, he tells us. Look again at verse 19, this is so important. He says, "To accept your lot and rejoice in your work." You see that? Accept your lot and rejoice in your work. Do you know another way of saying that? It's called contentment. That's what that This is where I am.
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This is what I do.
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And I'm okay with that.
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Contentment.
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Joy is knowing God.
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Joy is taking everything in life from the hand of God with gratitude and being content with whatever He gives you.
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Think of verse 20.
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He says, "For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy in his heart." There it is again.
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God keeps him occupied with the joy in his heart.
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What does that sound like?
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Same thing, contentment, contentment.
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Some people only live in the past, good or bad, right?
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Some people only live in the past.
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Back in the day, I was awesome and I was in shape.
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You should have seen me back then and I was good looking and I was really something.
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I was really amazing back in high school.
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Like that was years ago.
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But for some people, they live in the past, the bad.
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You don't understand when I was in fourth grade, a teacher said something mean to me and I haven't really been able to get over it.
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And it was just so hard.
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And you know, when I was growing up, my parents would only buy the generic Rice Krispies and you don't know how hard my life was.
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And some people just, they live in the past.
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And he's like, "No, no, no, "when you live life from the hand of God, "I'm just focusing on today.
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"Everything he has for me today, "everything that he's giving me today, "everything he wants me to do today, "I'm just gonna rejoice in that." Look at chapter six, he says, "There's an evil that I've seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind.
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A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires.
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Yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.
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This is vanity.
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It is a grievous evil." Again, you can have it all, but not the power to enjoy it.
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God has to enable enjoyment.
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And again, Solomon keeps talking about it because we can't get it in our heads.
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We're like, "No, no, no, I deserve this.
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I have a right to this.
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I'm gonna get this and it's gonna make me so happy." Not without God, it isn't.
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Look at verse three, he says, and you'll notice a little hyperbole inserted here.
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He says, "If a man fathers a hundred children, You know that family would come to this church.
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True or false?
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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.
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comes in vanity and goes in darkness and in darkness its name is covered.
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Moreover, it has not yet seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he." More hyperbole here.
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He says even though he should live a thousand years, twice over, yet enjoys no good, you and it all go to one place?
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Long life, big family without enjoyment, without contentment, it's grievous.
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And he uses a pretty hard illustration here, doesn't he?
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He says, "A stillborn child is better off than a man who lives a long life and has everything, but doesn't enjoy anything." Why is that, Solomon?
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He goes, "Look, you have this stillborn child, and you have this rich guy that never enjoyed it." He goes, "Look, they're both going to die, but the stillborn child has the advantage because they never had to face the pain of an empty life apart from God." He says, "All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied." Like, how much is enough?
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It's never enough.
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"What advantage has the wise man over the fool?
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And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?
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Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.
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This also is vanity and a striving after wind." Look, he's just saying, look, it has to come from God.
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It has to come from where you can't get it by your own efforts, not hard work, not wisdom, not charm, enjoyment, satisfaction, contentment, all of that only comes from God.
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Again, church, listen, money isn't good or bad.
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But I have to say this, the rich people are at a huge spiritual disadvantage according to Jesus.
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Remember Jesus said how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And it's not because God doesn't love the rich.
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It's because in many cases, the rich don't love God.
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Because their affections have been so spent on everything else, and their capacity to seek and pursue and love is spent on so many other things, there's none for God.
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There's no recognition of need at all.
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And it's so hard to preach the gospel here.
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In this area, and I know there are people that stream this all over the world, I'm talking about geographically where this church sits, and geographically where most people are coming from in this neighborhood to this church.
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This is a hard place to preach the gospel because listen, if you're sitting there today with your arms folded and you're like, "Shame on those rich people.
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Shame on those rich people." Listen, every single person in this room and who is usually in this room, we are all rich people.
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We're all rich.
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Every single one of us have more than we need.
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Who can honestly stand today and say, "I am seriously lacking something." Anybody at all.
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Anybody, anybody in all here say, you know, I'm not sure when my next meal is coming.
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And that's not to condemn you for having stuff because wealth and possessions come from God.
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But listen, Solomon's point here is if you're not living in conscious gratitude and contentment, that means God hasn't given you the power to enjoy what you have.
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And you will never be satisfied no matter what you acquire.
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So money won't make you happy unless God gives you the power to enjoy it.
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And then finally, and I know this was a chunk, but listen, I didn't preach for a month.
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I've just been stockpiling this stuff for a month.
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You had to know this was coming.
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You had to know.
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Money won't make you happy, number three, right this time because God said so.
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You're like, man, you should have started with that.
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because that's like settles it, right?
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Money won't make you happy because God said so.
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And that's the fun thing about money.
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Because as soon as you mention it, it starts arguments.
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Right?
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Do not raise your hand, but how many of you have had arguments in your home about money?
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It happens.
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Don't raise your hands, but how many of you have had arguments at work about money?
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How many of you have been in a church that has argued about money?
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Money brings arguments, right?
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But here's the worst, people don't wanna argue with God.
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And that's where we're going here.
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Solomon says, "Despite everything that I just said, "there are still going to be some people "that wanna argue with God about this." Like, yeah, I know what you're saying, and that's for other people, and that doesn't really apply to me because I'm gonna be honest with you, if I did have more, I would be happy.
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I wouldn't be one of those discontented people, and I don't know why my arm's waving like a noodle, but I wouldn't be that guy.
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Money will make me happy.
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Money will make me enjoy life.
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Having more won't ruin me, because I'm not like that." Well look at what he says, "Whatever has come to be has already been named.
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And it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he." The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?
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He's saying, "You're going to argue with God on this?
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Really?" He says, "God knows what we are.
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God knows how we function.
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God knows what will satisfy us, and God knows what will not satisfy us, because He created us. He's like, "My whole thesis of real joy only coming from the hand of God, that's as indisputable, that's as unchangeable as the law of gravity." He's still not convinced.
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Two more questions. He says, "For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few See, the first question, he says, "Who really understands what's good for man?
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Who knows what truly brings value to life?
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Who knows?" The problem is we think we do.
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I know.
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I know what's best for me.
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I know.
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Have you ever really wanted something so desperately and then you got it and you instantly regretted it?
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Has that ever happened to you?
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Are you really arrogant enough to think that you always know what's best for you?
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That's what Solomon's saying here, like, no, no, no.
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God knows what's best for you.
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God knows how you were made.
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Look at the second question.
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He says, "For who can tell man "what will be after him under the sun?" In other words, who knows what's coming ahead?
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Who knows?
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Who? God does.
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Who knows the consequences of the choices that we're making today?
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So is it possible that we don't always know what's best for us?
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That the one who created us knows us better than we know ourselves?
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Is that possible?
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And that's sort of Solomon putting his final stamp on this to say, "Well, money's not gonna make you happy because God said so." Church, trying to be happy using money is not only wrong, is not only completely unsuccessful, but it's impossible because it's just not how we were made.
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If you gave a salad to a lion, would he be satisfied?
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Kind of violates nature, doesn't it?
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If you gave a steak to a cow, would she be satisfied?
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She'd be a little offended.
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But that violates nature.
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Listen, in the same way, You are a spiritual being, and you cannot satisfy the spiritual with the material.
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It goes against nature.
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It doesn't work.
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It never has, and it never will.
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And Solomon tells us, and a couple thousand years ago, Jesus told us again, God's word today, sitting in your lap, still tells us money will not make you happy.
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Not just it won't, but it can't.
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There's only one thing that can satisfy the spiritual.
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There's only one thing that can really bring contentment to the inner person.
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And that's having a relationship with your God.
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It's having your sin forgiven.
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Because the Bible says we're all guilty before God of sin.
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and we all deserve eternal separation from Him.
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That's our real need.
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But the Bible says that God met that need when Jesus Christ died on that cross.
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He died to take your sin away so that you can stand before God forgiven.
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And Jesus rose from the dead so that we might have His righteousness, so we can stand before God perfect.
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That's the need.
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That's the biggest need that we have.
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And you're never going to find enjoyment or satisfaction in anything because you're a spiritual being and you need satisfied on the spiritual level.
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And you have to get to this place where you stop chasing after the things, when I get this promotion, when I get this raise, when I get this new job, when I get this, when I am able to buy that boat, when I'm able to get...
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None of that's gonna matter until you get to the place where you say, Jesus Christ is enough for me.
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So I want you to stand.
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And today, I want that to be the declaration of your heart.
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That maybe there are some people that have been there and you're like, I haven't been there in a long time.
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I kind of drifted from that.
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Can we renew that commitment today?
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Say, no, no, no, Christ is enough.
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Maybe there are some people here that need to make that declaration for the first time.
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Say, yeah, I've spent my life chasing after stuff and you're right, Solomon's right, it hasn't brought me any happiness.
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Jesus Christ, He is what I need.
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But as a church, I want this to be the declaration of our hearts.
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That we lift up our voices before the Lord.
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We say, Christ is enough.
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Christ is enough.
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Christ is enough.
Small Group Discussion
Read Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think people look to money for happiness, despite the fact that the Bible and history both say that this has never happened?
Have you ever seen someone hurt themselves in the pursuit of more, or when they got more (no names!)? Do you have a personal experience in this?
Breakout
Pray for one another to go after healthy relationships.