Financial Advice? - [Ecclesiastes 5:8-20]

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Well, we live in a day where pastors are supposed to be experts on everything. Some people think pastors should be experts on parenting, marriage, dating, work, relationships, school, education, diet, medicine.
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I'm supposed to be the expert in everything. Well, today, I'll take that as a challenge, and I'd like to give you some financial advice.
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Please turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. We need wisdom in this world, and this is called wisdom literature.
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The book of Ecclesiastes helps us see the world rightly, and Solomon now approaches the topic of money and finances.
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We want to think about it not as a fool would think, but as a wise person. So I'm going to give you three pieces of financial advice today for free, and they're all going to be in the form of...
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Sounds funny, doesn't it? Number one, the love of money is vanity, so don't love money.
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There's my first command. Number two, money is fleeting, so don't love money. That's the second command.
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And number three, instead of pursuing money, pursue the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.
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That's really what Ecclesiastes is going to amount to. Money is vain, money is fleeting, and there's something more important than money, so pursue him.
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If I could summarize it in a few verses in Hebrews, here's what
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Ecclesiastes is essentially telling us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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And we're going to see wisdom is going to tell us in Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 not to pursue money.
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Money is a tool, money is not bad or good, it's what our hearts do with it, and in a sin -cursed world, it's easy to want to use my parents' language to glom onto money and to almost make an idol out of money.
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And of course, we don't want to do that because we want to reserve our worship for our triune God. So today, instead of pursuing money,
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I want you, dear Christian, to enjoy the gifts that God has given you, both large salvation, forgiveness, adoption, justification, future glorification, and small.
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A simple meal with your friend, spouse, loved one, or child.
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And that's what we're going to look at in the book of Ecclesiastes, because James is right when he says every good gift and every perfect gift is what?
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From above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change.
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Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be kind of first fruits of his creatures.
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Now, when you come to the book of Ecclesiastes, many say it's a pessimistic book. It's only pessimism, it's life under the sun, it's chasing the wind.
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And others say, well, there's some optimism in there as well. And I think that second view is the right one. While life on earth is difficult, trial -filled,
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Adam's sin really did affect each one of us and creation. There are little moments that we can have, sometimes many moments we can have, of joy and satisfaction and pleasure as we see things from the gift giver, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So I don't take this book as only down, depressing and full of vexation.
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Although when I get to parts like this in chapter 5, where there's a little light that comes out, when the sun finally comes out, it makes me pretty happy in the midst of all this gloom.
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Leland Ryken said Ecclesiastes is an attack on the hedonistic, materialistic society.
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Ecclesiastes, Ryken said, exposes the mad quest to find satisfaction in knowledge, wealth, pleasure, work, and sex.
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And so today we're going to look at Ecclesiastes 5, verses 8 through chapter 6, verse 9.
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It's all together, thinking rightly about money, eternal life.
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Bob Dylan said this, money doesn't talk, it swears. But that's only in the hand of a fool.
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So we want to think wisely, right? Everyone here I know, in light of who they are in Christ, they want to do right when it comes to money.
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We all understand when Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and His, what? Righteousness.
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And all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
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Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So last week, remember we saw chapter 5, verses 1 through 7.
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In this oppressed world, in this world full of vexation, we've got a lot of questions.
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Why God? Why did this bad thing happen? Why did that tragedy happen? And so when you come to church to worship, to put it in modern day parlance, you ought to come to listen and not to ask
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God a thousand questions. God, why? God, why? God, why? Remember Job? I think maybe over 20 times he asked
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God, why? And every single time God didn't answer him with a why answer. He answered him with a who answer.
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This is who I am. You can trust me. You can trust the Lord with all your heart. And you can lean it not on your own understanding.
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In all your ways acknowledge me and I'll make your paths straight. And so when you come to worship, instead of putting
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God in the box, in the jury, in the bar of justice rather, think, you know,
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I should listen. I should be humble. I'm not the creator. I'm a creature.
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I'm not holy. I'm sinful. And so he says in chapter 5, verse 1, remember, guard your steps when you go to the house of God, that holy place, that place that you have to have a sacrifice to get into, to draw near, to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they're doing evil.
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We probably could summarize Ecclesiastes 5, verses 1 to 7 this way.
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Romans 9, God says, what will you say to me then? Why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?
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But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? What will what is molded say to its molder?
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Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
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So we're moving through Ecclesiastes, and there's a lot of oppression in chapter 4. Chapter 5, let's make sure we have the right posture before God, a humble posture.
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And now we come to verses 8 and 9, which is kind of a transition, and then we'll get to the money section in verses 10 and following.
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By the way, if you're new here to Bethlehem Bible Church, we just preach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, with just a few exceptions.
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And so next week we'll be in chapter 6, and the following week, chapter 7, et cetera. And so we want to just know what
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God says. We want to know everything that he says and not hide behind what we think are good verses or exclude bad verses.
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And I have to tell you this up front. I'm not preaching this sermon about money to get you to give more.
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I know churches that will have normally the offering before the sermon, but for special sermons on money, we take the offering afterward.
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How ridiculous. This church has never had a problem with giving your good givers, but we want to think wisely about money.
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So my goal is for you to look at money rightly, and instead of pursuing money, fame, power, everything else, that you pursue the
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Lord Jesus by faith. The two transition verses are found in 8 and 9. 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.
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I mean, when you look around and you see issues in government and you see the White House and the
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Senate and the Congress and the local government and the select men and all these people that you see, you go, there's oppression there too.
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There's oppression in chapter 4 in the marketplace. There's oppression on the road. There's oppression in the courthouse.
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There's oppression in government too. Don't be shocked. Don't ever turn on Fox, MSN, whatever you turn on and go, wow, that's shocking, there's government corruption.
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I didn't expect to laugh on that, but I'll take it. We'll laugh as much as we can in the book of Ecclesiastes.
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And what Ecclesiastes does, which is so good, it makes us live in the real world. Let's assess things rightly.
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Let's not put a filter on there. Let's take a look at ourselves in the real mirror of God's word and put the society up to its word as well.
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He goes on to say in verse 8, For the high official is watched by a higher, and yet there are higher ones over them.
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But this is gain for land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields. There's some ways to look at those verses and how they're translated.
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They could either be positively translated like, you know what, at least there are people over other officials, so they can't get away with the whole lot.
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That's the positive way to look at it. And I think ESV tries to lend itself to that. But probably more often than not, the negative is seen here, that the king is not part of the solution, he's part of the problem.
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Either way, there's oppression, and we ought not to be shocked that corruption is in high places.
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For ultimately, by the way, do not these words then resonate with you in a more wonderful way when you think about government corruption?
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For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called
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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
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On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore.
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I think maybe what he's doing is before he gets into the talk of money and how it flies away so fast, fleetingly, he might be talking a little bit about government corruption because guess who also takes your money?
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The government does. I think maybe that's what he's doing, so we move to our three pieces of financial advice.
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Truths from the Bible, so they're not necessarily advice. You need to really latch on to these and believe it.
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Number one, the love of money is vanity, verses 10, 11, and 12. Everyone here needs to process that if I love money, it's vanity.
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Is that the way you think? I was at the pizza place the other day getting a couple of sandwiches, and I walked in.
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It's kind of hot, pizza ovens and everything, and typical New England people yelling at each other.
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That's when they're friendly. And I'm like, I just like it. I'm embracing it. I am you.
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And so I said, Mike, I ordered a couple of sandwiches. Are they ready yet? Just trying to be polite. And she, the lady behind the counter, looked over at the guy making pizzas in the big oven, and I don't even know what elicited this, but she looked over at the guy and she screamed, money's the root of all evil.
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And I said, excuse me, ma 'am, it's the love of money is the root of all evil. And then without missing a beat, she goes, the love of money is the root of all evil.
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And I thought, if only our congregation learned that quickly. Here's what
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Solomon's going to do, and he's wise, he's rich, he knows. There's no satisfaction in money no matter how much money you have.
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It's not going to satisfy you. You are made for eternal things, right? Have we already seen that in Ecclesiastes?
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God has set what in your heart? Filthy lucre? Money? No, he set eternity in your heart.
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So only the eternal one will satisfy. Only the eternal God will satisfy you.
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And so what does he say? Verse 10. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.
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This too is vanity. I love this.
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The Lord knows what we're prone to do. He knows what we're prone to want. And for his glory, we shouldn't love money.
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We shouldn't make it an idol. There are commands about idolatry. There are commands about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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And it's hard to love two things 50 -50. And so for our good, for your good, you ought not to love money.
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This really helps when you take the assessment in your own life and ask questions like this. Am I greedy?
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Am I content? Do I always want more? Am I always scheming for more?
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He who loves money will not be satisfied with money. Kim and I were watching a show about who were the men who built
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America. And one was Vanderbilt. And you just get all the power and the railroads and everything else.
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And you're not satisfied with some of the railways in the East Coast, but you have to have the Midwest and you have to have the
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West Coast as well. When they asked John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the world, how much money was enough, and he said, just a little more.
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No wonder we have all kinds of sicknesses in this world. One coined this, affluenza.
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We are so wanting more. We have a relationship with money that's out of whack.
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Remember the shoe closet of Imeldo Marcos, the wife of former president of the
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Philippine Islands? Fifteen mink coats? No big deal. 508 gowns?
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Meh. 888 handbags? I've met some ladies like that. For me, it's not handbags, it's jackets.
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And she had 1 ,060 pairs of shoes. No wonder people write, greed knows no boundaries.
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If everything's vanity, chapter 1, then the love of money has to be vanity.
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It has to be fleeting. People are loving money. They're head over heels in money.
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Just take romance language, and instead of applying it to another person, you could just apply it to money. I don't want to be that.
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I know you don't want to be that. Having a love affair with money. Wisdom says, no, don't do that.
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Wisdom says, riches can't ultimately satisfy you. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters.
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He'll either hate the one, love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. You can't serve
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God and money. Listen to God's advice through Paul to Timothy.
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But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.
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For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang.
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Some of you are old enough to remember Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl in 1972. They asked
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Dwayne Thomas, I think he was a running back, how does it feel to win the big one? And Thomas said with great wisdom, if it's such a big game, why do they play another one again next year?
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And do you know if you love money, this money is going to demand things from you.
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Look at verse 11. Riches require more than money from you. When goods increase, they increase who eat them.
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And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? When you have a lot of money, guess what you also have?
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Tax accountants, gardeners, chefs, lawyers.
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Did I mention lawyers? Brokers, maids, alarm systems, dependents.
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It doesn't even have to be negative. If I stated it negatively,
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I'd say it this way. If you have a lot of money, there'll be a lot of leeches around. You can just see.
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People walking into MMA rings or wrestling rings, especially like boxers and stuff, and they've got all their entourage paying for all those.
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Make more, spend more. Got to keep up that standard of living. And it can even keep you up at night.
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Verse 12. This is another good reason why we ought not to love money. Sweet as sleep of a laborer.
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Your blue collar, you go to work, you work hard, you sleep, whether he eats little or much. But the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
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What's my Bitcoin doing? What's my 401K doing? What about my investments? Is that broker going to try to swindle me?
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And the list goes on and on. It disturbs your peace. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
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But Jesus said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them,
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Take care. Be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of what?
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Possessions. Sleep is fleeting for those that love money.
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Well, the second piece of financial advice I want to give you is not just the love of money is vanity, so don't love money, but money in general is fleeting.
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Don't idolize money because it's gone, and it's gone two ways. On earth it's fleeting, and one day you'll die and it's gone.
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That's both in this section here in verses 13 through 17. P .S., the stock market will be at zero when
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Jesus returns. Heads up. If it's not at zero at that point, it will be when he's on earth.
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Money's fleeting. Just even on earth. Look, verse 13. There's a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun. Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, to his own harm.
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And those riches, verse 14, were lost in a bad venture. And he's a father of a son. He has nothing in his hand.
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When you've got a lot of money, you're hoarding them, and maybe you've got a bad investment, money's lost.
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Maybe you've got a son that doesn't know what to do. He can't put it in the right kind of stocks. And so the writer is making sure.
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Don't love something that's going to be gone one day. The great disappearing act of money.
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Proverbs 23, Solomon said, When you set your eyes on it, it's gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings.
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I mean, it's here and it flies away. I read about Albert Lowry, who in 1980 wrote a book called
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How You Can Be Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate. Best seller, 1980.
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In one year, he makes so much money. His net worth, according to Money Magazine, is 30 million, and he's called a real estate wizard.
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Any guesses to what might be happening here? By 1985, his business collapsed, and he, in 1987, files
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Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. It's all going to be gone sooner or later.
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So why worship something that's fleeting? Verse 15. Not just on earth, but eventually.
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What do you take with you when you die? And he came from his mother's womb. Verse 15. He shall go again naked as he came and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
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Of course, we use money as a tool. Of course, we have to work so we have money to buy things.
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I'm not saying it's bad to have money, but the love of money and idolizing of money and the covetousness of money, it's all wrong for lots of reasons.
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I remember last year, I've been out of the hospital now for just a little over a year, but I remember sitting there in Leominster thinking,
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Okay, I could be dying. What do I own, and what could I take with me? Well, I had some hospital socks, the kind with the little thing on the bottom so you don't slip.
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I had a pair of those. I had a gown, and I had an iPhone. That was it. Scott Farrer brought me a cord so I could plug it in.
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That's all I've got. And I couldn't take any of those with me either. Nothing.
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So why do we put all our time, focus, and energy into something that's going to be gone?
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Luther said, As I forsake my riches when I die, so I forsake them while I'm living.
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It's just good to have a gut check for all of us. We're so prone. We should just say to the Lord, who's already justified us anyway and forgiven us and adopted us,
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Lord, I struggle with money. Please forgive me. Reorient my heart, Lord, because I don't want to be that person.
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I don't want to be the covetous one. I see it in others and don't like it. And therefore, if I don't like it in them,
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I don't like it in me either. Because I'm supposed to align myself to you and say, With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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Are we talking about different components, spiritual, soul, body? He's not saying any of that.
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He's just saying, With all you are, you worship the Lord. Proverbs 23,
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Don't wear yourself out to get rich. Proverbs 28,
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A miser is in a hurry to get rich and does not know his loss is sure to come. Isn't that good wisdom for us all?
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Verse 16, he goes on, This is a grievous evil. You know what the literal is? It's sickening evil.
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This is a sickening evil. Just as He came, so shall
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He go. And what gain is there to Him who toils for the wind? Does Psalm 49 resonate with you?
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When He dies, He will carry nothing away. His glory will not descend after Him. 1
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Timothy 6, But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.
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For we have brought nothing into this world, so we cannot take out anything either.
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Think of Job. Job, a wealthy man, both with his children and the wealth that he had financially, and it's gone.
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And what does Job say? The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. He's focused on the Lord. And did you know, riches can even make you miserable? Verse 17, Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness and much vexation and sickness and anger.
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This is drama to the max. All this stuff that's going through his mind because he's thinking about money, money, money.
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Money causes a lot of problems. Ulcers, sickness, vexation.
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It's funny. These days we don't have real money anymore, right? You don't have actually cash or coins hardly. But when people use cash and coins, remember children what cash and coins are?
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Whatever happened to piggy banks and teaching children to save with their money? I found an old study at the
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University of Louisville did that 13 % of coins and 42 % of paper money carry disease -producing organisms.
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And that one survey, the Harper's Index, said that 97 % of all paper money in US circulation contains traces of cocaine.
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Apple Pay, here we come. Rockefeller, I made millions, they brought me no happiness.
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Vanderbilt, the care of $200 million is enough to kill anyone. John Astor, I'm the most miserable man on earth.
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Henry Ford, I was happier when I was a mechanic. Andrew Carnegie, millionaires seldom smile.
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Good words from Solomon. This section is summarized by Randy Alcorn, and here's what he says.
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The more you have, the more you want. The more you have, the less you're satisfied. The more you have, the more people will come after it.
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The more you have, the more you realize it does no good. The more you have, the more you worry about it. The more you have, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it.
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And the more you have, the more you have to lose. And the more you have, the more you'll leave behind. You're like,
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I don't have any idea what you just said. You said it too fast. Let me translate it. Love of money is fleeting.
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There should be one in our hearts. You say, well, you told me what not to do.
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Could you tell me what to do? Let's take a look at the third piece of advice. One, the love of money is vanity.
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Two, money is fleeting. Number three, since there's something more important than money, pursue him.
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Pursue God and his gifts, both large and small. Instead of pursuing money, why don't you just enjoy
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God? That's the point here. Instead of pursuing money, why don't you enjoy God? I did not say don't go to work, because if you don't work, you should not what?
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If you're able to eat. Working is good. But in terms of loving money, it's never good.
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And by the way, poor people can love money. Rich people can love money. And by the way, according to the
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Old Testament standards, every person in this room, if you live in a place with a roof and a place where you can turn a knob and fresh water comes out, you are rich.
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Everyone here, according to the Bible, is rich. So we all can struggle with money.
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So what do we do? Well, here's what Solomon's going to do. He's going to say, so instead of pursuing something that gives no satisfaction, why don't you pursue by faith?
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Someone will give you satisfaction, not just eternally, not just spiritually, but also on this earth.
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Verse 18 through 20. Behold. Pay attention.
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Look up. Behold, what I have seen to be good and beautiful or fitting.
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What's good and beautiful, Solomon? I mean, in a world full of oppression, rivalry, loneliness, greed, backstabbing, vexation, fall, death, what is good and beautiful?
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It's good and beautiful to eat and to 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.
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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.
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For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
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Did you notice the earlier verses? Not much talk about God. Not a lot of Elohim, God, the sovereign creator.
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Not a lot of, you know, let's walk by faith, by sight. Not by faith, but by sight. No, we don't want to walk by faith.
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We want to walk by faith, not by sight. What do you see here? God, verse 18. God, verse 19 times 2.
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God, verse 20. Instead of pursuing wealth, enjoy God's daily gifts.
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That's the point. Now, before I unpack these verses,
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I just want you to know verses 1 through 9 of Ecclesiastes chapter 6 is essentially the same thing as Ecclesiastes 5, 10 through 17.
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It's like we've got something in the center here that's the most important. And in a literary fashion, this center part, verses 18 through 20, is the most important.
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So it's almost like we have a mirror. We have a repetition of these ideas just in reverse order in verses 1 through 9 of chapter 6.
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You say, what do you mean by that, Pastor? Let me just walk you through those verses, and you're going to hear exactly what we've heard earlier.
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Verse 1 of chapter 6. There's an evil that I have 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. This is vanity.
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It is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children, think about what
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Jewish people thought about children back in those days, 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,
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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.
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Moreover, it has not been seen, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.
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Even though he should live double Methuselah, even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good, does not all go to the one place?
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Can't you hear the echo of what we've already read? And then he says, just like it starts off with no satisfaction in verse 10 of chapter 5, here it ends with no satisfaction.
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All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite's not satisfied. For 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? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.
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This is also vanity and striving after. Now sometimes we like figures of speech here at the church, and we like to say what they are.
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There are metonyms, and there are onomatopoetic things. There are, what are some other fun figures of speech?
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Similes and all these other things. There's a way to read literature, and there's something called a chiasm.
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Who knows what a chiasm is? It's for the letter, Steve knows, and that's it. There's a couple others,
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Bob Dunn knows too. It's for the letter that looks like X in English, which is a chi, C -H.
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And anyway, a chiasm is basically called this. When you see language that's similar on both sides, you're coming toward the center for the main point.
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What's the center of this whole section? If you don't want to know what a chiasm is, I know sometimes,
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I think probably Bob Dunn would be this kind of guy. If he learned what a chiasm was, it would probably provoke him to raise his hand to praise the
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Lord more than anything else. Chiasm. Right, Bob? Would that be true?
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Okay, are we still friends? But for the rest of you, you go, I don't care what a chiasm is. Okay, you don't need to know what a chiasm is.
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The main point that he's after is in the middle of the chi, and that's verses 18 through 20.
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So the reason why I read verses 1 through 9 of chapter 6, because I wanted you to see, in very similar fashion, it mirrors what has already been said in chapter 5, verses 10 through 17.
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And so you've got a mirror. You've got a mirror. There's something in the center. What's in the center? The most important part. And we go back to that, verses 18 through 20.
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In a life full of toil, death, disease, covetousness, how do we as Christians live?
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What's the center of this section? And it's found in verses 18 through 20. And what do you see for refrains?
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God has given him, verse 18. God has given wealth, verse 19. This is the gift of God, verse 19.
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God keeps him occupied with joy, verse 20. Here's the key.
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With money. You want wisdom on money? Here's what you do. You think everything I have, not just my wife, not just my children, not just my house, not just my health, whatever
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I have, everything I have, including money, is from God. And if you see money as a gift from God, everything in your life will line up properly when it comes to this topic.
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Wisdom says, instead of trusting God for my future, well, I'm going to trust the Lord and walk by faith.
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Instead of me pining after more and more and more, oh, I have other priorities. It's like Pastor Steve was talking about people that work, work, work, and work to the exclusion of their family and children.
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Yes, they have to go to work, but there's a time where enough is enough. And so what
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Solomon is saying, if you have God and just a little, you can enjoy him. This is chapter 2.
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You can enjoy little things with God because you can rest in the finished work of Christ Jesus.
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Remember Ecclesiastes 2? There's nothing better for a man than to eat and to drink and to tell himself that his labor is good.
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This also I have seen is from the hand of God. And you go, oh, it's beautiful to eat and drink and be merry and to be satisfied with a little gift because we say, thank you,
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God. That's why we pray before we eat this food. God, thank you.
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I think sometimes people are thinking the life of the Christian in a fallen world has to be one of despair and vexation and anger and confronting.
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There's probably righteous anger and other things that are out there that we could talk about another time. But did you know in a world where politicians oppress you and there's loneliness and there's striving after wind, you could have some joy?
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Wouldn't you like a little joy in life? Wouldn't you like to have the fruit of the Spirit as love and joy?
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Deuteronomy 14, God says, and you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, sheep, wine, or strong drink, whatever your heart desires.
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And there you shall eat it in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.
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God's given you money. You want to be a good steward. You have to pay the bills. When you have a little bit left over, buy whatever you want,
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God tells Israel. And just recognize that it's from God. Everything is from God.
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I did this before, and I can probably get away with it doing it again now since it's been a couple months.
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I want you to think about lunch right now. Normally, pastors don't want to do that. I gave a book to Mike Bartlett, and I said, here's my new book.
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I'll give it to you because there's privileges of sitting in the front row, but you just can't read this book while I'm preaching.
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So, so far, you're doing a good job. The other thing you're not supposed to tell the congregation is let's think about food.
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What are you going to have for lunch today? Can you smell it? Can you taste it? Can you wait to go get there, that nice meal with the family?
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All your children are sitting around. God wants you to enjoy that because guess what?
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You don't have to work to get yourself into heaven. If you had to work to get to heaven, well, there's no time to sit around and have joy.
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Let's get back to work. Can you imagine the poor people that knock on your doors and saying, you know what? I'd like you to believe in this false gospel.
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How do I get to heaven? Work, work, work, work. We work for money to use it as a tool, but we never work for our salvation because Jesus said it's finished.
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So since it's finished, you don't have to work for your salvation. What do you have to do with your salvation? Out of gratitude, obey.
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That's true. And out of gratitude, enjoy it. Enjoy your life. You have taste buds.
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Since I'm naming names, I think so far Bob and now Mike, I might as well say something about Caitlin. We were talking about what if God just gave you only one thing to eat the rest of your life and it was bamboo?
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What if you're like a panda? That's all you get the entire life, bamboo. We would go, thank you
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God for bamboo because at least we're alive. But think about the salty and the sweet and the sour.
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Think about what God's given your palate and how you could smell food. That's just a tiny, tiny reflection of God's given you everything in Christ Jesus.
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Every spiritual blessing is yours in Christ Jesus. And so we're to think to ourselves, we should enjoy ourselves because there will be a time when there's a trial, when there's a death and there's other things that are going on and we're not in the joyful mood.
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That's certainly true. But when there's time for joy, we are to say, God, it's from your hand.
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And later we'll see in Ecclesiastes that even the difficult days are from God's hand.
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God intends his children have joy.
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Verse 19, everyone also to whom God has given wealth, everything you own, those golf clubs,
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God gave you essentially through means, possessions, power to enjoy them, even the ability to enjoy and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toll.
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This is the gift of God. Because with Job and Job 22 and you delight in the almighty, then you delight in his gifts.
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And I want you to see the connection, God and his gifts. God is a giving God. God is a good
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God. God is a generous God. You ask him for wisdom, he gives you wisdom. You ask him for enjoyment, he gives you enjoyment.
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And God gives and gives and gives. He gives unbelievers common grace. He gives us special grace.
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And what Solomon is trying to do is to say, recognize who gives you the gift.
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Both great and small. Life is hard, but God gives. This song resonates in my heart with this passage.
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Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. Thou, my inheritance, now and always.
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Thou and thou only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure.
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Because you could see exactly what he's doing there. Riches I heed not. Riches aren't my inheritance now and always.
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Riches aren't my thing that's first in my heart. Verse 20.
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He will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
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One of the good things about getting old is my memory is bad. I don't know if that's good or not, but here it's good in the sense that I forget things that I've done.
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Bad things. Sinful things. I've hurt people. I forget how people have done sinful things and hurt me and I don't even remember them anymore.
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So you just think, okay, something about time. And now God keeps people occupied with the joy of their hearts.
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Deuteronomy, it says, you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice in everything to which you put your hand together with your household because the
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Lord your God has blessed you. Dear Christian, the Lord has blessed you.
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The Lord's blessed you. If you're a Christian, you have the greatest blessing, so you get to enjoy the lesser blessings.
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If you think the God of the universe chose me, he sent the son to die for me and to redeem me in forgiveness of sins.
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The spirit, as we saw in communion last week, seals me to the day of redemption. I can have joy. No wonder
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Paul can say to the church at Philippi while he's in jail in Rome, rejoice always.
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And again, I say rejoice. Celebration of life and joy as good gifts from God.
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The gift of God. I said this a couple months ago and I'll say it again. I hope you say, if your spouse is living, my spouse is a gift from God.
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And I hope you treat him or her that way. I hope if your spouse isn't alive, you say, my spouse was a gift from God.
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I hope you say, my children are a gift from God. My taste buds are a gift from God.
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My salvation is a gift from God. And you just work through. I don't know if it's a revival song or not, but it really helps.
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Count your blessings, name them one by one, right? It's a sin to be greedy.
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It's a sin not to be content. It's a sin to complain. It's a sin to love money. And what
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God enjoys is to have his children enjoy. I know
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I said this a couple months ago, but boy, to be a parent and to have a child who's almost old enough to eat an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen is the best.
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And now as a grandpa to be, Haley's due in a couple weeks now. If they say the baby boy's not to have ice cream until they're four months old, well, grandpa says two months.
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And I want to give that joy. And you see the smile and you think, I love to give my children good gifts.
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Here's a gift. And somehow we've created a God who only gives good gifts through transactions.
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So let's stop living a transactional life before God. God loves me when I obey and he does it when
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I disobey. No, he loves you in Christ all the time. And when you disobey, chastening sure to come.
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But that is out of love as well. We have two ways of life. That's what wisdom is saying.
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Even in Proverbs, you've got two ways to go. Pursue wealth, fame, fortune, or pursue faith.
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Walking humbly before our God. How do we live on this earth? Psalm 4.
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God, you've put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound.
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And so as good as the things on earth are, I still have gladness in my heart. Because I have contentment found in Christ Jesus.
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Because I see them as gifts from God. Do you know,
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Christian, you'll never be content unless you pursue Christ by faith. It's built into the system.
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Built in obsolescence. Built in wrong. You worship money, you're going to feel bad.
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So when you feel bad, look at yourself and say, Self -diagnostic, what's coming up on the dashboard?
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I see the red light. Oh, I've been pursuing. I've been worshiping. I've been coming at this the wrong way.
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So, Father, please forgive me. I'll accept your chastening. And now, Colossians 3 should be my hope.
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If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are on Wall Street.
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Above. Where Christ is. Seated at the right hand.
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Power, authority, majesty, dominion, rule. Set your minds on things that are above.
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Not on things that are on the earth. Every Christian, this is true of you, for you have died.
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And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, dear
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Christian, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.
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And there's no money in heaven. And you'll be satisfied. Enjoying life as a gift from God.
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You can do that, Christian. Because Jesus has rescued you from this meaningless, futile life. Remember 1
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Peter? For you know. Sometimes we forget it. So he says, for you know. That it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed.
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From the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. But you, dear Christian, were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
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A lamb without blemish or defect. You want meaningful life? It's found in Christ Jesus.
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Remember Jesus. He fed the people the bread. And his detractors mouthed off a little bit to Jesus.
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Doctrine 101. Don't mouth off to Jesus. You think you're big,
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Jesus? Because you feed 5 ,000 men and then a bunch of children and women too. Up to 10 ,000 people.
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You fed them bread for one day. Ha! Moses fed people in the wilderness for 14 ,700 days.
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If my calculations are right. Jesus, I'm not that thrilled.
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John 6. Jesus said to them, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
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But I said that to you who have seen me and yet do not believe. All the Father gives me will come to me.
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And whoever comes to me I'll never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
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And this is the will of him who sent me. That I should lose none of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.
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This is the will of my Father. That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.
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And I will raise him up on the last day. You're talking about a food that perishes.
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I'm talking about the spiritual food that nourishes and gives satisfaction unto eternity.
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So dear Christian, let's use money as a tool.
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Let's not make it an object of worship. And when we get an inkling to pursue money, let's ask the
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Lord to change that inkling and that pursuit into seeking first God's kingdom. That's the way we go about it.
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And then we respond enjoying God's gift like Mary did in her great song of praise.
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My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. So dear dads, if you go have a meal somewhere else at home, before you eat would you just bow your head and pray,
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God thank you for all these gifts. My spouse, my children, my home, all these things we recognize they're from your good hand.
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And if these are abundant, and they are, how much more abundant are the riches found in Christ Jesus.
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Thank you oh my Father for giving us your Son. Let's pray. Thank you
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Father for this day. You certainly give and give and give. And I think about the Lord Jesus.
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With Jesus you Father send the
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Spirit. It's amazing what we have been given. We do want to rejoice.
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We do want to be people that don't love money. Would you help us? Would you grant us repentance? Would you give us the right attitude?
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May we be like the psalmist who says, To God my exceeding joy. And we pray this in Jesus name.