Accumulating, Craving, Striving After Wind

[0:00] Okay, well, we're going to start by turning to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. If you're using one of those blue Bibles that the ushers has handed to you, that's on page 555 of your Bible.

[0:13] So we're going to go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, about halfway through your Bible if you're using a paper copy. And while you're turning there, let's talk a little politics.

[0:26] That's a scary thing to hear from a pulpit. You know, a lot of times, the preacher can sometimes use the pulpit as a platform to present his political views, and I'd really not like to do that.

[0:40] What I want to talk a little bit about is how one of the things we're going to run into right off the bat in this passage is going to directly address a common political thread, a common political trend that's taking place south of the border, that's taking place here, that's taking place all throughout the Western world.

[1:01] And being half American, politics have been on my mind a lot lately. The Republican National Convention took place last week. The Democratic National Convention is this week. And through it all, we see sort of this major populist movement going on.

[1:14] A lot of people are fed up with the political establishment. They're fed up with political elites. They perceive these political elites as living off of the American people, of becoming rich at the expense of those in the United States of America who are poor, who are struggling, and that these elites are becoming rich by colluding with foreign powers, with foreign countries, with multinational corporations.

[1:44] And that sort of frustration towards the rich, that sort of frustration towards powerful government figures, this isn't a new phenomenon. This is something that's been a part of human history ever since any sort of government was established.

[1:58] We're going to see that an Israelite wise man, a man who identifies himself as the preacher or the teacher, depending on your translation, this man wrote most of the book of Ecclesiastes, and he's going to advise us on how we respond to this corruption that we see in the government.

[2:16] Here's what he has to say. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 8 and 9, he says this to us. 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.

[2:33] For the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields. And so the preacher is reminding us, first of all, don't be shocked, don't be surprised when you see oppression, when you see injustice, when you see corruption that comes from the hands of those in power.

[2:58] Because that is going to be found in the very nature of government bureaucracy. It is layer upon layer upon layer of officials, all of whom who have each other's back, and all of whom prevent one another from stepping out of line.

[3:16] Corruption in such a system, it's going to be extensive, it's going to be inevitable, even in a democracy. And it's going to go all the way to the top. Verse 9, this is sort of a quirky little verse.

[3:28] I know my translation, the English Standard Version, has a footnote that says, has a very helpful phrase, the meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain. And so, you know, when I go and look at the Hebrew, I'm like, okay, I can understand why.

[3:42] This appears to be some sort of proverb that maybe the readers would have heard. That would be my guess, something the readers might have heard and immediately recognized, but it's not quite as familiar to us.

[3:53] I think the other, just about every other translation is different from the English Standard Version. Most of the other translations go in a different direction interpreting, and I think, honestly, I think they're right.

[4:05] The New International Version, for example, it shows how all of these government officials, all the way up to the king himself, they're getting rich off of the backs of the laboring class. They're getting rich off of the land.

[4:16] The NIV puts it this way. The increase from the land is taken by all. The king himself profits from the fields. So candidates for office in the United States, in Canada, throughout the world, are promising that they're going to root out this corruption.

[4:33] They're going to bring down the establishment. They're going to bring financial prosperity back to the rest of us, back to those who need it. And the preacher would look at people like that and be very, very skeptical.

[4:46] Be very skeptical. And that's because the preacher is willing to open up the hood to look underneath government, underneath all of this government system, underneath all this bureaucracy, and look at the machinery that drives this injustice, look at the machinery that drives this oppression, look at the machinery that drives this corruption, and what he sees is that it is all driven by a very familiar, very familiar driving force, something that is present in all of us, the love of money.

[5:21] At the heart of it all is this practice of accumulating wealth, this practice of craving wealth, this practice of striving after wealth. And when we hear that, we know that this is not the sort of problem that is limited to political elites.

[5:36] This is not the sort of problem that is limited to the CEOs of multinational banks. This is a systematic problem that is present in the human heart, that corrupts the human heart, that corrupts every one of us to some degree.

[5:53] It's a problem with you, and it's a problem with me. We've abandoned the good life that God has meant for us to live. We've abandoned the way of life that God has called us to.

[6:07] Instead, we've embraced the way of life he has forbidden. We've embraced this sin, this evil of greed, of avarice, of acquiring and consuming wealth, and desiring it and craving it.

[6:19] And this is what we're going to find as we continue through Ecclesiastes 5 and into chapter 6 this morning. The good life is not gained by acquiring and consuming wealth.

[6:30] The good life is not gained by acquiring and consuming wealth. This pursuit of prosperity that defines the greed of the business world, that defines the greed of government officials, it is not only bad for entire classes of people who are left behind.

[6:54] It is bad for individuals as well, like you, like me. The worst effects may come to those, honestly, not only those who have been left behind, but some of the worst effects come to those who have received this prosperity, who have found it.

[7:13] The worst effects may come to those who have the American dream. Their love of money may only bring them misery. And you can see that chapter 5, beginning in verse 10.

[7:27] The preacher writes this, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them.

[7:40] And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 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.

[7:50] And verse 10 is a proverb that absolutely nails this problem. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.

[8:02] This also is vanity. This is just a futile way of life, a futile way of life. You're not going to hear too many people say, you know, yes, I love making money. I have gained a lot of money.

[8:13] And the truth is, you know what? I finally reached the amount that I wanted. I'm happy now. I have no interest in earning more money. You're almost never going to hear anyone say something like that.

[8:26] If you find someone like that, just let me know, okay? We could put them on display in a museum or something. They're so rare. The desire for money, the desire for more, more, more money, possessions, it begins this ugly cycle that we see in verses 10 through 12.

[8:42] It begins this ugly cycle of accumulating wealth, a cycle that only brings misery to the person who loves money. We have here this sort of an example of a businessman.

[8:55] He's beginning to produce goods. Maybe he's a farmer and he's beginning to produce from his field and he's becoming very successful. He produces goods. We see in verse 11 that as he's producing goods, the consumers of those goods are also increasing.

[9:12] Supply and demand. The supply is increasing, the demand is increasing and now rather than enjoying these good things that he's producing, instead, the businessman is on this endless treadmill of keeping up production to meet this demand.

[9:29] Those who work a job of hard physical labor, maybe his employees, a lot of them are able to go home and sleep. They may not be paid well, they may not be well fed, but at the end of the day, they've worked hard, they go home, they lie down, they sleep.

[9:44] This well fed businessman who's getting rich, he doesn't get to enjoy their sleep. He's overwhelmed by stress, he's overwhelmed by exhaustion. That's one way in which accumulating wealth may in fact bring misery.

[10:02] That doesn't happen all the time, but that does happen often enough. Perhaps you're familiar with somebody, a friend or a family member, that this reminds you of. And then there's another way that accumulating wealth may bring misery.

[10:15] Take a look at verse 13. There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun. Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt.

[10:27] And those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 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.

[10:44] This also is a grievous evil. Just as he came, so shall he go. And what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

[10:57] So verse 13 begins with wealth being kept by their owner to his hurt. So this businessman is hoarding his wealth.

[11:10] It's hurting him in some way. Maybe he's turning into Ebenezer Scrooge. He's turning into this joyless, penny-pinching miser trying to scrap for every last cent. And we find out quickly, though, that he is not hoarding it aimlessly.

[11:24] Because what he does is he finally takes all of that wealth. And we see in verse 13 that he follows his dreams, he pours it into a business venture, and he loses it all.

[11:39] Those riches were lost in a bad venture. That wealth is lost, and it turns out that he has a son, and he has nothing to pass on to his son.

[11:50] And that means that in the ancient world that meant that his son was doomed to the miserable poverty of the lower class. This man dies having achieved no gain, having gotten nowhere.

[12:06] He has spent his days in worry, in frustration, in gloom, in isolation, with nothing to show for it in the end. That is a very real thing that happens.

[12:19] This happens to people. And the hard truth we see here is that in the end this is not just true of certain individuals. In a greater sense this is true of every single person.

[12:32] Verse 15, the preacher 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.

[12:45] this man's death is going to strip away from him everything he has ever gained. Because death is that great equalizer. Death brings absolute ruin to you and to me.

[13:00] To the rich and to the poor alike. What death means for us is that every swing of a hammer, every stroke of a pen, every form you filled out, every phone call you've made, every hour of sleep we've lost, every effort you and I have poured into this accumulation of wealth, all of that is going to be stripped away from us.

[13:23] And we go back into the dust, naked as we came. A few hundred years after the preacher wrote this, the apostle Paul warned you, he warned me, about the dangers of accumulating wealth.

[13:39] 1 Timothy chapter 6, he writes this. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

[13:54] For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. And Paul tells us that there is a better way to live.

[14:08] He says in 1 Timothy chapter 6, Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world.

[14:20] But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. We brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. He's saying the same thing, that we go naked as we came.

[14:34] And if that is true, that means that the better way to live is to embrace God's way of living. Because all this accumulation of wealth brings no lasting gain in the end.

[14:49] There is none to be found. The better way is to embrace God's way of living, to embrace contentment with what we have. Contentment is better than accumulating and craving wealth.

[15:01] Contentment. Some people might think that contentment means, oh, well that's just an excuse for being an unmotivated slob who won't lift a finger to earn more. Someone who is in this business of accumulating, of craving wealth, may look down on somebody who's content with what they have.

[15:19] But contentment isn't the same thing as laziness. Contentment doesn't mean you don't work hard. Contentment doesn't mean that you don't try to improve your situation in life. What contentment means is that you're satisfied with what you have, that you don't need more food and clothing.

[15:36] Your life does not consist in acquiring more. You don't need to be a homeowner. That's good news for a lot of us in this town.

[15:48] In a town where, in a town that is driven by this need for acquiring more. Housing prices in the Vancouver area show us.

[15:59] How much we're driven by this longing for more money, for more security, for more power. Contentment means you don't need that.

[16:10] It means you don't need a nice car. You don't need the best clothes. You don't need all the best gear. You don't need the best interior decorations.

[16:23] You don't need an investment portfolio. You don't need lots of zeros in your bank accounts. What contentment means is this, embracing and enjoying what God has given you and saying, I've been given more than enough.

[16:41] I've been given more than enough. The preacher tells us, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 18, 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 this is his lot.

[17:05] Everyone 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, for he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

[17:24] What I find interesting here is what the preacher doesn't do, first of all, because sometimes people see all the things that wealth does and this pursuit of wealth does and their response is, man, money is bad.

[17:37] Money is something that just brings evil and corruption into the world, if only we could get rid of it. Not too many people think that, but there are a few out there. And his response, that isn't his response, in fact, he doesn't condemn wealth itself.

[17:51] He doesn't condemn prosperity. He doesn't condemn enjoying it. He doesn't condemn eating and drinking and hard work. He doesn't condemn the wealth and possessions earned by that hard work.

[18:01] In fact, he says it's good and fitting to enjoy what God has allotted to us. But that's the key. He recognizes that all that we get and all that we earn has been allotted to us by God.

[18:20] He's basically saying that when you earn something, it really isn't your right. It's God's allotment. And if you get anything at all out of all your hard work and labor, just be grateful. Be grateful that you get it.

[18:32] A lot of people don't. And the fact that you can, if you can enjoy it at all, if you can be content at all in it, that's God's gift to you and me. What he's saying is that the good life is found in contentment with God's provision.

[18:48] The good life is found in contentment with God's provision. And I think it's really wise for us especially to consider carefully verse 20.

[19:03] The preacher says, he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. And I think there is a wrong way to interpret that and I think there's a right way to interpret that.

[19:18] Because what we might think and wrongly think is that the preacher is saying this. You know, you and I need to enjoy all that we get, consume what we get, fill our lives with pleasure, and we should do it as a coping mechanism.

[19:33] That we should do it as a way to distract ourselves so that we don't have to think about all the hardships we face so we don't have to think about the certainty of death, so we don't have to think about the despair, the lies at the very bottom of all that we do and all that we are.

[19:52] That's the way a lot of people in this town are living. Filling their lives with pursuits that ultimately will get them no lasting gain and get them nowhere. And they're doing it to distract themselves from the fundamental, the despair that lies at the heart of Squamish, this despair that we lose it all in the end.

[20:11] Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. And I don't think that's what the preacher is saying here in verse 20. That hasn't really fit in at all with the tone of this book, either in the passages that we've come across so far or what we're going to see in the rest of the book.

[20:29] And it doesn't fit with the tone of the rest of the Bible. The preacher hasn't favored this idea that we should distract ourselves and avoid looking at the hard questions of life.

[20:41] Far from it. Instead, he has favored confronting the brutal facts of life. Instead of avoiding them, instead of entertaining them away, he has said we need to look them in the eye.

[20:57] And we're especially going to see that next week when he's going to start looking death in the eye. I don't think that's what he's saying that we need to distract ourselves and keep ourselves busy so we don't have to think about it.

[21:09] I think what he's doing is he wants you and me to embrace and to enjoy what God has provided for us. To see God's goodness to us. Because he knows this.

[21:20] My tendency, your tendency is that we are going to fixate on, either we're going to fixate on and regret the past, all the things that have come before us, all the decisions we fail to make, all the bad things that happen to us, on all of our wounds and all of our mistakes.

[21:38] Or maybe we'll worry and fret about the future. And we'll worry about those wounds that we might suffer, the mistakes that we could make, the bad things that could happen to us.

[21:52] and this pursuit of wealth is an attempt to rescue ourselves from that terrible future that we're worried is going to await us.

[22:07] But we do all that instead of both, instead of embracing this present moment, instead of embracing today, instead of welcoming the place that God has put us, instead of welcoming the things and people God has given us right now.

[22:23] Because our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he taught us this same message. He told us about this better way of life. In Matthew chapter 6, he has this to say to us. He says, therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat?

[22:37] Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. And dear Heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

[22:52] And all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

[23:03] And that final verse, verse 34, is key. He says, do not be anxious about tomorrow. He says, tomorrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day is its own trouble. And that's the good life that God our Father means for you and for me to live.

[23:21] We're meant to be content. We're meant to rely on him. We're meant to trust him. To provide for us exactly what we need for today.

[23:35] Not long before this, Jesus taught us the Lord's Prayer where there's this line there, give us this day our daily bread. Not give me today, the bread I need for the next week. Just give me just what I need for today.

[23:49] We're not meant to live tomorrow's problems. We're not meant to overwhelm ourselves with trying to solve all of tomorrow's problems. We don't have what it takes to tackle tomorrow's problems.

[24:03] Because God hasn't given us the strength to tackle tomorrow's problems today. He'll give it to us tomorrow. What that means is that you and I can eat and drink and enjoy our work today.

[24:21] I can embrace what God has given me today. I can be content. It's not that I don't make plans for tomorrow, but I hold those with an open hand. I don't have to fix and make tomorrow work out, get all my ducks lined up.

[24:38] Tomorrow's going to come and God will give me what I need for tomorrow and he'll give it to me tomorrow. And so I don't need to crave money as this source of security. I don't need to crave money as this fortress against the dangers of tomorrow.

[24:53] The good life is not gained by acquiring and consuming wealth. The good life is found in contentment with God's provision. And we're going to learn what happens next when we fail to embrace this contentment.

[25:10] Ecclesiastes chapter 6 verses 1 through 9. Here the preacher shows us how craving wealth, if we abandon this contentment, how craving wealth brings dissatisfaction.

[25:25] And we see this in the lives of two individuals, two men that the preacher identifies. And the first example is found in verses 1 and 2. And so the preacher writes about this first man. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun and it lies heavy on mankind.

[25:41] 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, but a stranger enjoys them.

[25:53] This is vanity. It is a grievous evil. So here we have a man that God has given all of these good things. Anything his heart desires.

[26:04] Anything that he's craving. And he is not given the ability to enjoy them. Why? Because they're consumed by another person. All these good things that he amass and collects, they end up going to another person, to a stranger or to a foreigner, rather than to this man, rather than to anyone close to him.

[26:24] All these good things that he craved are lost. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus also told us about such a man. He told us, he gave us a parable that warns you and me how easily everything that we crave can be lost to someone else.

[26:40] In Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells this parable. He said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

[26:53] And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.

[27:04] And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

[27:18] Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

[27:31] And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

[27:43] The things you have prepared, whose will they be? That's the question the preacher is asking you. That's the question the preacher is asking me.

[27:58] The truth is that even if we successfully hang onto our wealth and possessions, even if you become a poster child for the American dream, the reality is maybe you'll get a chance to enjoy all that, but maybe you won't.

[28:20] The ancient world had this formula for success. It had its own version of the American dream. The three-part formula for a successful, happy life in the ancient world was this. Number one, live a long life.

[28:34] Have a long lifespan. That definitely wasn't something that they could take for granted. Lots of people died at what we would consider a young age. Most people did. Number two, a prosperous life.

[28:46] So you weren't dirt poor in poverty, struggling to get by, miserable all the time, just have a lot of money, have a prosperous life, not have to worry about where your next meal is going to come from. And finally, number three, have many children.

[28:58] That might be the one thing that's a bit different from our culture. Having many children isn't seen as prosperity. But in the ancient world, it was. It meant that you could pass on the family legacy to the next generation.

[29:09] It meant the family line wasn't going to die with you. It meant that you were successful and you succeeded. What a happy life. The preacher has seen this formula fail.

[29:24] He tells us in Ecclesiastes 6, verse 3, 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, for it comes in vanity and goes in darkness and in darkness its name is covered.

[29:54] Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good.

[30:09] Do not all go to the one place. Could there be a more harsh assessment of the prosperous life?

[30:19] it is possible to be a famous, wealthy, successful, billionaire, and you could be worse off than a stillborn child.

[30:37] The stillborn's life is short. But you know what? For the few months of existence, at least that stillborn child enjoyed tranquility in its mother's womb.

[30:51] As for the billionaire, the life of this billionaire is filled with accumulating cravings, striving after wind. And in the end, what does he have to show for it?

[31:02] All go to the one place. Every one of them die. They both die, they both go into darkness, their name and their identity are lost in the blackness of history.

[31:15] Forgotten. It's especially tragic is how the rich respond to this knowledge.

[31:27] The rich man knows only one way to respond. Accumulate more wealth. Crave more wealth. Strive harder after the wind.

[31:38] Try to grasp onto something you can't get a hold of. A little bit hasn't gotten me what I need. Maybe if I just get more, more, more. And that's the only thing you know how to do. The preacher tells us in verse 7.

[31:52] All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. There's a proverb that you can stick on a bumper sticker.

[32:05] All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. That is a bold statement about the universal condition of human beings. That is a bold statement about those who have not learned to embrace God's daily provision for them.

[32:22] It is a bold statement. But every one of us knows that deep down it is true. And we know it because we have seen examples of people who are living the good life.

[32:36] We've seen people who don't have much and yet they're satisfied with what God has put in front of them. We've seen it and we know that that is a better life than the person who is always running around and craving something bigger and better and more.

[32:54] That's why the preacher wrote in verse 8. He wrote this, For what advantage is the wise man over the fool? What does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? This is what it is. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.

[33:08] This also is vanity and a striving after wind. So in other words, what advantage does the wise man have? What does the poor man have? He understands this, the man who is poor but content, that better is the sight of the eyes.

[33:23] Better is what God has given you. Better is what you can see and embrace and enjoy even if it's only a little bit. It's better than the wandering of the appetite.

[33:34] It's better than all of this craving, all of this acquiring, all of this consuming wealth because all of that is vanity and striving after wind. All of that is futile. All of that is trying to grasp something that you can't even hold on to.

[33:49] And all of it is fleeting. All of it is fading. All of it disappears and passes away. So now this should lead you and this should lead me to this question.

[34:05] How exactly, how are we going to go about abandoning this craving for wealth? If I, deep down, am longing to get ahead in this world and I need that.

[34:16] I need that for myself. And it's driving me into this endless longing, this endless frustration with where I'm at in life, this endless rat race, this miserable, this dissatisfying treadmill of trying to get lasting gain when there's no lasting gain to be found.

[34:35] how do I get past that? How do I embrace contentment? Well, we've seen that I think we need to unmask what's behind this love of wealth and possessions.

[34:51] Behind all of that is a deeper love, a deeper craving. It's a craving for what money can give you, it's a craving for what possessions can give you, and what they can give you is security. Like the rich man in Jesus' parable, we're trying to build bigger barns, bigger bank accounts, bigger retirement funds.

[35:11] And if we do that, they will preserve our status in society. If we do that, they will give us the power we need to get ahead and keep ourselves safe and our children safe. If they do that, they will help us to weather anything that life throws at us.

[35:28] Money becomes our counterfeit savior. Money becomes our protection against worry and harm. And what the preacher is doing is he is taking that fortress and he is burning it to the ground.

[35:45] He is crushing our false hopes. The preacher has showed us that wealth is no guarantee of protection. When are we going to learn that?

[35:58] Is it going to take another stock market crash? Is it going to take the deflating of another housing bubble? Is it going to take an epidemic of fraud?

[36:10] When are we going to learn that money is not going to keep us secure? wealth may not protect you even if you can hang on to it wealth may not protect you from misery and from anxiety.

[36:25] That's if you can hang on to it. And the truth is that wealth can be taken from you. And wealth will never be able to preserve you from that dissatisfaction.

[36:36] Jesus gave wealth a name. He gave it the name of an idol.

[36:47] He called it Mammon. What Mammon is is a cruel and unfaithful God. A God who does not care about you.

[37:00] A God who does not love you. A God who does not care about anything and anyone that you love. Mammon will double cross you and Mammon will corrupt you.

[37:13] And through you Mammon this God will bring corruption and oppression and injustice to a world that is already drowning in the love of money. That is why God sent his son into the world.

[37:28] God did it to free us from our accumulating and craving and striving after wheat. God came to free us from our voluntary slavery to this great God Mammon and his false promises.

[37:46] And God the son died on the cross to redeem us from our slavery to this idol. To pay the penalty for our sin. and Jesus Christ our Lord not only died he rose from the grave to give us a new life of freedom from the love of money and now everyone who believes in him you are free.

[38:11] You don't need the false security of money. Everyone who embraces Jesus Christ as Lord now embraces the true security of a providing father of a God who does love you and does care for you.

[38:29] A God who did not even spare his own son for you. And the truth is that you and I we are far less secure than we care to admit.

[38:44] The security that money brings is an illusion. Money is a poor protection from the dangers of this life. Money is no protection at all from the dangers of the next.

[38:58] Money is no protection when we stand before the judgment seat of God and when we have to give an account for our life and when we face a future of on the one hand eternal life and on the other hand eternal destruction and ruin.

[39:19] Money will not protect you then. in Romans chapter 8 the apostle Paul encourages us. What then shall we say to these things?

[39:31] If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

[39:41] what we have in our loving father what we have in the son that he's given what we have in the spirit that he has given to us and sent among us is we have that true security not only will our God and our father take care of the food and the clothing and our daily needs but we can be content we can enjoy what he's given to us day by day and we know that his security not only lasts through this life but he gives us security for a future that is lived in hope for an eternal life you and I we are far less secure in and of ourselves we are far less secure than we can even begin to imagine security is just an illusion an illusion easily stripped away as far as life under the sun is concerned what we have is something different we have a God and a father who is far more able to keep you secure than you can ever imagine the good life is not gained by acquiring and consuming wealth the good life is found in contentment with God's provision our God and our salmon goes beyond you toda onward and our versa and we have to you know this good way and the good way and how we have