Good morning, church. It's good to see you all this morning. Would you turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes?
! That's Ecclesiastes. We're in chapter 5 today. We're going to begin in verse 8 of chapter 5 and continue through the end of chapter 6.
So let me pray, and then I'll read our text for us.
Father, we ask that by Your Spirit, You would give us ears to hear what it is You are saying to us today through Your Word.
Father, we remember what the Apostle said about the Scriptures, that they are all breathed out by You and profitable for our good.
And Jesus, we remember how You told us that all of Scripture testifies to You.
So help us to know that good and to see You, Lord Jesus, as we meditate on Your Word today.
We pray this, Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Amen. All right, Ephesians 5, verse 8 through the end of chapter 6.
Excuse me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun.
Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 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 out again, naked as he came,
and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
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.
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.
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.
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind,
a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he likes nothing of all he desires.
Yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.
This is vanity.
It's a grievous evil.
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.
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, do not all go to the one place.
All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
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?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.
This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
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 one stronger than he.
The more words, the more vanity.
And what is the advantage to man?
For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life,
which he passes like a shadow?
For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
Okay.
So, our passage this morning is about money.
It's about money.
More specifically, it's about the love of money, or what we would call greed.
Verse 10, look there, that helps to kind of center us.
Verse 10 talks about the one who loves money and the one who loves wealth.
But greed, you know, is kind of a funny thing.
The sin of greed or covetousness has a way of being very hard to detect in yourself.
Compare that with something like murder.
It's easy to know when you've murdered someone, right?
It's easy to know when you've committed adultery.
It's easy to recognize maybe when you're sinfully angry at someone or when you're lusting after someone in your heart.
But greed is different.
Greed is much harder to detect.
In Luke 12, Jesus acknowledges this.
He says,
Take care.
Be on your guard against all covetousness or greed.
For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Now, if that were true in the first century when Jesus spoke those words, and if it was true hundreds of years before Jesus when Ecclesiastes was written,
how much more is that the case today that we have to be on guard to take care?
After all, money, profit, accumulation, advertising, this is the air that we breathe.
Everything is monetized and sold.
Have you seen the commercials where the kids are graduating from, like, middle school,
and the parents have sort of licensed out their name to the local, like, tanning salon and the local insurance broker?
Seems crazy, right?
Everything, though, is monetized and sold.
Money is sort of the story that we live by.
Theologian Susan White describes it this way.
She says,
If there's an overarching metanarrative that purports to explain reality in our day,
it is surely the metanarrative of the free market economy.
In the beginning of this narrative is the self-made, self-sufficient human being.
At the end of this narrative is the big house, the big car, the expensive clothes.
And in the middle is the struggle for success, the greed, the getting and spending in a world
where there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Most of us have made this so thoroughly our story, she says, that we're hardly aware of its influence.
Anecdotally, one school teacher observed that years ago,
when he asked his students what they wanted to be when they grew up,
they would say a profession, a teacher, a lawyer, an engineer.
But his observation was that not anymore.
Now, the overwhelming answer that he gets from his students is simply,
I want to be a billionaire.
Just rich.
That's what I want to be.
So perhaps we need the message of Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 now more than ever.
And I want to point out three things in our text as we consider it today.
The first thing that Ecclesiastes is going to show us is the problem with greed.
And then second, it's going to show us the alternative to greed.
And then third, the power to overcome greed.
So the power, excuse me, the problem, the alternative, and the power.
That's what we're going to do.
So first, let's look at the problem of greed.
This is in verses 8 through 17 of chapter 5, 8 through 17.
And there are really two problems that Ecclesiastes highlights with greed.
And the first problem is that greed corrupts society.
Verse 8 speaks about the oppression of the poor
and the violation of justice and righteousness.
But how did that oppression and violation of justice and righteousness and fairness come about?
Was it because there were just a few bad people spoiling it?
Was it because some people weren't taking enough personal responsibility?
No, Ecclesiastes says.
Greed's actually corrupted the whole system.
Don't be amazed at the matter, he says.
For the high official is watched by a higher.
And there are yet higher ones over them.
Now what does that mean?
What is he getting at there?
The high official is watched by a higher.
Well, the sense of that phrase is that the lower official who's taking advantage of the poor
is watched over and protected by a higher official who's also profiting from the injustice.
And those officials have yet higher ones over them
who are also getting rich from the oppression and injustices
against the weak and the vulnerable and the marginalized and poor.
So greed corrupts the institutions and authority structures all the way up.
And these structures were ones that got originally established to protect the poor and the vulnerable,
to ensure that land and resources and labor and wealth would not be amassed more and more by a few
while the rest kind of barely get by.
Verse 9 says,
The king is supposed to be committed to cultivated fields.
That is, protecting the rights of the people so they can work, cultivate their fields, and enjoy the fruit of their labor.
But instead, greed has created layers of injustice where that doesn't happen.
You know, in ancient Israel, God even established a system where every generation, roughly,
the ownership of land would revert back to the sort of ancestral clans and families
that were originally allotted the land.
This is what was called the year of Jubilee.
And when that happened, debts were canceled, slaves and servants were freed.
Basically, the whole economy was reset so that wealth wouldn't just be amassed in the hands of a few,
but so that the whole society could flourish.
And so that the main goal of society wouldn't actually be the accumulation of wealth,
but the cultivation of community and mutuality and the worship of God, not the worship of money.
But Ecclesiastes says,
Don't be surprised.
Greed corrupts.
Greed will create societies where the high official is watched over by a higher,
and there are yet higher ones over them,
making sure that the exploitation of the poor goes unchecked,
and making sure that the profits continue to flow to those in power.
But greed doesn't just damage society.
Ecclesiastes 5 points out a second problem with greed.
Greed damages the soul.
We see this in verses 10 through 17.
Those who love money will never be satisfied with money, verse 10 says.
It'll never be enough.
You'll always want more.
And then, verses 11 through 12,
Ecclesiastes points out that increasing wealth
actually brings more stress into one's life
so that one is unable to really enjoy it.
When goods increase, they increase who eat them.
In other words, the more wealth you have,
the more time and energy it takes to manage it.
Or as the rappers would say when I was in middle school,
mo' money, mo' problems.
That was biblical.
And the result is that,
the result of all this is that you can see your wealth,
you can see the large amounts of wealth you've accumulated,
but you don't really get to enjoy it.
You have a full stomach,
but your full schedule means you never sleep.
And that's not all.
Verses 13 through 16 remind us that wealth can be quickly lost.
We can build our lives around money.
We can form our identities around wealth and what we possess,
only to find that when it's taken away,
our lives are empty and meaningless.
And even if we die rich,
we take nothing with us.
And so verse 17 concludes that the life lived
for the love of money
leaves the soul in a troubled and lost condition.
All his days he eats in darkness,
in much vexation,
in sickness,
in anger.
Greed corrupts the soul.
It's a sickness
that leaves us in darkness,
vexation,
anger.
So Ecclesiastes shows us the problem with greed.
Greed comes and makes great promises.
Promises is,
I'll make you happy.
I'll make you prosperous.
I'll make you powerful.
Instead,
it leaves us miserable
and broken.
We accumulate more
and more
and more,
but it corrupts
the structures of our society
and it hollows out our soul.
So what's the alternative?
And here's where Ecclesiastes
is perhaps a little surprising.
You might think
that if the love of money
was the problem,
then the alternative would be
to get rid of our possessions,
to renounce everything,
to live an ascetic life
where we reject the material world.
But that's not the true alternative to greed.
The most radical alternative to the love of money
is not an ascetic renunciation of the material world.
The real alternative to greed
is actually contentment.
That's the second main point of our passage.
This is the alternative to greed.
Look again at verses 18 through 20.
Behold,
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.
Everyone also
to whom God has given wealth
and possessions
and power
to enjoy them
and to accept his lot
and to 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.
To enjoy what you have,
whether it is a little
or a lot,
in other words,
to find genuine contentment,
that's the alternative to greed.
Greed.
Greed's like a fire
that burns and burns
and no matter how much fuel
you feed it,
it always wants more and more.
And sooner or later,
greed stops caring
where the fuel comes from.
So it turns a blind eye
to injustice,
to oppression,
to exploitation,
to unfair practices,
to the people who are hurt
or who suffer
at the expense
of those who are getting
wealthier and wealthier.
Greed just keeps burning
its destructive dark fire.
But contentment
is not that way.
Contentment is a joy
that spreads over all of life.
It's like a fresh breeze
that can enter the windows
and fill the whole house
with life
and with cool, soothing air.
And the fresh breeze
of contentment
doesn't depend
on the size of the house
or the number of cars
in the driveway
or the number of zeros
in the bank account.
It finds joy
with a little or a lot.
And it finds joy
not just in one's own flourishing,
but in the flourishing
of others.
It's not content
to just amass
all for itself,
but has open hands
to see others
enter into that joy as well.
Contrast the summary statements
of these two alternatives,
greed and contentment,
in verses 17 and verse 20.
I like how the New Living Translation
kind of captures the sense
of each of these texts.
Those captive to greed,
in verse 17,
the New Living Translation says,
they live under a cloud,
frustrated,
discouraged,
and angry.
But for those who know contentment,
verse 20 says,
God keeps such people
so busy enjoying life
that they take no time
to brood over the past.
In fact,
rather than losing themselves
in frustration and anger,
in contentment,
they find themselves.
The Jewish philosopher
Emmanuel Levinas
once wrote,
only in enjoyment
does the eye
crystallize.
Good continental philosopher.
You have no idea
what that means.
I had to read it
like eight times.
In other words,
it means this.
Greed shatters you,
breaks you into
a million pieces.
You're trying to find
your satisfaction
here and there
and here and there
and you just get disilluted.
But the joy of contentment
will give you
an integrated life.
It'll make you whole.
It will give you a center.
Only in enjoyment
does the eye
crystallize.
But this immediately
pushes us to the third
main point of our passage.
We've seen that the alternative
to greed is the joy
of contentment,
but where do we find
the power?
Where do we find
the power
to actually overcome
greed in our hearts
and live in true contentment?
Chapter 6
kind of raises
this question.
He says,
there's an evil
that I've seen
under the sun
and it lies heavy
on mankind,
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.
This is vanity.
It's a grievous evil.
And then Ecclesiastes
does an even deeper
thought experiment.
This isn't just about
losing what you have
to a stranger,
but listen,
he says,
let's say you have
wealth and possessions
and honor
and you have
a giant family
and you live
a long time.
What good is any
of that
if your soul
is not actually
satisfied
with the good
things you have?
And he says
kind of shockingly
in verses 3 and 4,
it's better not
to be born at all
than to live
a long life
and not enjoy
the good things
you've been given.
And for Ecclesiastes,
the greatest problem,
the greatest barrier
to contentment
is the fact
that we're going
to die.
This life will end
and everything
we've accumulated
will not go with us.
So how do we find
satisfaction?
Where does the power
of contentment
come from
in the face
of all that?
Where do we find
a satisfaction
not dependent
on material things
so that we can
actually turn
and enjoy
the created realities
of this life?
You know,
as we turn
to the New Testament
in Philippians
chapter 4,
the Apostle Paul
says something
very interesting.
He says,
in verse 11
of chapter 4,
Paul found
the secret
of contentment.
He actually
found the power
that extinguished
the dark
insatiable
fire of greed
and unleashed
the life-giving breeze
of contentment
through his soul
and through his life.
What was it?
How did he manage
to find
what the old
Puritan theologian
Jeremiah Burroughs
called
the rare jewel
of contentment?
Well,
Paul's answer
was this.
I can do
all of this
through Jesus Christ
who strengthens me.
Paul's relationship
with Jesus Christ
was the key
that unlocked
the secret
and the power
of contentment.
You see,
back in Ecclesiastes,
Ecclesiastes,
Ecclesiastes actually
did see
ultimately
where contentment
comes from.
He says it again
and again
in chapter 5,
verses 18 through 20.
He says,
this is the gift
of God.
It's only
in relationship
with our Creator
that true contentment
can ever come to us.
You see,
greed is a false god
telling us
to worship money
and possessions
and promising us
happiness
and power
and security.
But the worship
of those created things
has brought
the opposite.
It's actually
alienated us
from our Creator
who's the only source
of life and goodness
and satisfaction.
And only if we're
reconciled to God
will we have
any hope
to genuinely enjoy
God's created gifts.
Apart from God,
we're destined
for darkness
and vexation
and death.
But if we could be
restored to God,
to His love,
to His goodness,
then we could fully
enjoy this world
He's made.
One writer put it
this way,
this connection.
He said,
where the love
of God
is firm,
full enjoyment
of the creation
is possible
and desirable.
He says,
in that place,
one is completely
in the arms of God
and completely
in the world.
But how is our
relationship
with our Creator
restored?
By what power
are we forgiven
of our idolatry
and brought back
into fellowship
with God
and with His good gifts?
And that's what
Ecclesiastes
could not see.
He saw where
it ultimately came from,
but he wasn't
so sure
how to get there.
And that's why
the passage ends
with questions.
Who knows
what's good for man
while he lives
a few days
of his fleeting life
which passes
like a shadow?
Who can tell man
what will be after him
under the sun?
Very honest grappling
for Ecclesiastes,
God is the answer,
but God remains distant.
God is sovereign,
yes.
God is good,
yes.
But the mystery
of how sinful humans
are reconciled to Him
stays veiled.
And so for Ecclesiastes,
the mystery,
the power of contentment
remains hidden.
And that's why
the New Testament
ought to strike us
as such good news.
I've learned
the secret,
Paul says.
But this secret,
it's not like
most secrets
because it's not private
and it's not hidden.
And this secret
isn't something
you have to spend
a bunch of money
to discover.
You don't have to go
find the right guru,
right,
and give them
all your money
and subscribe
to all their YouTube feeds
and all this ridiculous stuff
to learn how to be content.
You don't have to travel
across the world
to find it.
This secret
that Paul's talking about
has been announced
publicly for everyone
to hear.
This good news
is for everyone
and it is heralded
to all creation.
It's heralded
from the Creator Himself.
And this secret
costs nothing
and it comes to you
free of charge.
And the open secret
is this,
that in Jesus Christ,
God,
our ultimate satisfaction,
has come down
and reconciled sinners
to Himself
through His own work,
through His own initiative,
through His own purpose
and plan.
Through Jesus' death
and resurrection,
you see,
the greedy,
the unjust,
the dissatisfied,
those who are grinding away
in vexation and darkness.
Because Jesus Christ
has come,
we can turn away
from our love of money
and created things
and be forgiven.
And we can know
a satisfaction
that the love of money
could never bring.
The satisfaction
of God's grace
in Jesus Christ,
that is what will bring
real contentment
to your heart.
How so?
Because in Jesus Christ,
your enjoyment,
not only of God's gifts,
but of God Himself,
will never end.
You know,
Ecclesiastes is right.
Life under the sun,
that is,
life without reference
to God,
is very fleeting.
It will not last.
And it will end
in darkness forever.
But life with God,
life in fellowship
with God,
that life
is never ending.
The psalmist says
of the Lord,
in your right hand
are pleasures
forevermore.
And you see,
God raised Jesus
from the dead
to conquer sin
and death
so that all
who turn and trust
in Him
might also enjoy
that satisfaction
with God,
that reconciliation
with God
forever.
Those who are in Christ
will be raised
with Him
on the last day.
You see,
Jesus' resurrection
is the first fruits.
It's the promise
of what's to come
for all who've been
united to Him
by faith.
This is why
the apostles
couldn't stop talking
about the resurrection
because it meant
that the veil
of death
and vanity
and emptiness
that had been shrouded
over the world
had been torn.
And torn not just
by some spiritual idea,
right?
The resurrection
ripped the very veil
of death
from creation itself
when Jesus
rose from the dead.
And that's why
Paul can say,
I've learned the secret
of being content
in every circumstance.
It doesn't matter
if I have a lot
or a little.
Paul can say,
rejoice.
I'm going to say it again.
Rejoice.
Because in all circumstances,
Paul knows
that because Jesus
has been risen,
because God is now
His Father,
that He is now adopted
into this family
of the King,
all things are working
for His good
in Jesus Christ.
And if God
has given His own
Son for us,
how will we,
how will God
not also with Jesus
give us
all good things?
Knowing the love
of God in Christ
is more satisfying
than anything
this world could offer.
But more than that,
knowing the love
of God in Christ
means
that this world
is God's gift
to us
to enjoy
with contentment.
Ecclesiastes
will say it over
and over again,
work,
eat,
drink,
and give praise
to God
for His good gifts.
Being reconciled
to our Creator,
now we're finally
in a right relationship
with the creation.
So you see,
friends,
it's the gospel
that dries up
greed
at the roots.
The gospel
is the power
that brings
lasting contentment
in God.
As children of God,
we know that ultimately
all things are ours
in Christ.
All our labors
are not in vain
because He's risen.
So as we wrap up then,
let me just ask,
do you know
this power?
The power
of Jesus Christ
to make you content
and joyful
in all circumstances.
You see,
His
is a treasure
that never fades.
It's an inheritance
that can't be taken away.
The love of money
will always disappoint you.
The love of money
will corrupt our world
and corrupt your soul,
but the love of Christ
will never
let you down.
And for those of us
who are Christians,
are we walking,
are we living
in the power
of this contentment?
Do our lives
demonstrate this joy
that is the gift of God
secured for us
in Jesus Christ?
Is our life
marked
by the kind of simplicity
that that brings?
the kind of generosity
that comes
from knowing
the resurrected Christ
and sharing
His resurrection power.
The kind of mindset
that Paul talks about
earlier in Philippians
where we don't
consider ourselves
better than others,
but we consider others
better than ourselves
and we live to serve others.
All things are yours in Him.
One day you'll see Him
face to face
and you'll reign
over a renewed creation.
And the songs of joy
will know no end.
And that resurrection joy,
that contentment
is ours even now
and ought to be
permeating our lives.
You see,
because your future is secure,
you
can live in the present
with joy and contentment
in all God's gifts to you,
whether they're big or small.
eat,
drink,
and find enjoyment
in all the work
God gives you to do.
of greed,
by the resurrection power
of Jesus Christ.
God, and for those
who have not yet come
to place their trust in Christ,
Lord, help them to see
that the freedom
and the joy
that He offers
is like nothing else.
That free of charge,
today,
they can be reconciled
to their Creator
and enjoy His good gifts
and most of all,
the good gift of Himself,
of you, God,
the good gift of you.
Lord, grant saving faith.
today.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.