Trivial Pursuits - The Pursuit of Riches_Contentment.pptx
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This sermon is a tag team preaching. Pastor Steve Palm will begin with the bad news concerning the "Trivial Pursuit of Riches" in Ecclesiastes 5:8-17. We will look at several active "taxes" that siphon wealth: the Corruption Tax, the Consumption Tax and the Calamity Tax. Those who love money struggle to have enough. Cole will preach on the flip side of the coin in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20. The answer to the love of money is not more money and things. The true answer is contentment.
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Trivial Pursuits - The Pursuit of Riches_Contentment.pptx
- 2. Series Overview Trivial Pursuits •Worldly Wisdom •Worldly Pleasure •Riches/Contentment •Lasting Gain •Self-Sufficiency Meaningful Pursuits •God’s Timetable •Companionship •“The” God •The Fear of God •Obedience
- 3. The Pursuit of Riches Ecclesiastes 5:8-17
- 5. First Point Corruption is an age-old problem across the globe! Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 The Corruption Tax
- 6. 3 Insights concerning Corruption • It shouldn’t surprise us!
- 8. • It shouldn’t surprise us! • The watchdogs are lining their own pockets! 3 Insights concerning Corruption
- 9. • It shouldn’t surprise us! • The watchdogs are lining their own pockets! • The king is the kingpin! 3 Insights concerning Corruption
- 10. Second Point Those who love money never have enough! The Consumption Tax Ecclesiastes 5:10-12
- 11. Lovers of Money • Lovers of money are never satisfied!
- 12. Lovers of Money • Lovers of money are never satisfied! • Lovers of money would love to spend your money!
- 13. Lovers of Money • Lovers of money are never satisfied! • Lovers of money would love to spend your money! • Lovers of money would love to sleep better, but they don’t!
- 14. Third Point No matter how much you try to protect money, it slips away! Ecclesiastes 5:13-17 The Calamity Tax
- 15. You can’t hold onto money forever! • Hoarding hurts us!
- 16. • Hoarding hurts us! • We are all just one bad decision away from financial ruin! You can’t hold onto money forever!
- 17. • Hoarding hurts us! • We are all just one bad decision away from financial ruin! • We are born and die with empty hands! You can’t hold onto money forever!
- 19. Solomon’s Advice: •Remember that your ability to work is a gift from God (v.18)
- 20. Solomon’s Advice: • Remember that your ability to work is a gift from God (v.18) •Remember that your ability to enjoy work and its fruit is a gift from God (v.19; 3:24-25)
- 21. Solomon’s Advice: • Remember that your ability to work is a gift from God (v.18) • Remember that your ability to enjoy work and its fruit is a gift from God (v.19; 3:24-25) •Avoid greed and learn to be content with God’s provision (v.18; 3:24)
- 22. Solomon’s Advice: PRACTICAL •Enjoying Parenting
- 23. Solomon’s Advice: PRACTICAL •Enjoying Parenting •Enjoying Work
- 24. Solomon’s Advice: PRACTICAL •Enjoying Parenting •Enjoying Work •Enjoying School
- 26. Contentment is Found… •Accepting what you cannot control.
- 27. Contentment is Found… •Accepting what you cannot control. •Joyfully stewarding your reality.
- 28. Contentment is Found… •Accepting what you cannot control. •Joyfully stewarding your reality. •Rejoicing in God’s daily blessings.
Editor's Notes
- “[Corruption] robs societies of schools, hospitals, and other vital services, drives away foreign investment, and strips nations of their natural resources,” he said. “The poor and vulnerable suffer disproportionately,” he added. “And impunity compounds the problem.” (UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres).
- Second Point: Hedonism is a fast highway that leads to Fatalism! Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2:12-17. We’ll hit verses 18-23 in a few minutes. 12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
- Third Point: Going from Surviving the “Daily Grind” to Finding Joy in the God’s Simple Blessings! Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. At this point Solomon takes us out from “under the sun.” Notice that God is back in the equation of life. He speaks of God giving two important gifts. The first gift is the gift of the simple pleasures that are attached to honest labor. The ability to eat good food and enjoy good drink. However, the second gift is the one that has eluded the cynical character Qoheleth, the Preacher. It is the ability to enjoy these simple pleasures. Sidney Greidanus makes an interesting connection, a bridge back to Genesis: The Fall into sin destroyed God’s good design: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.… By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Gen 3:17, 19). Work became toil without much joy. But toil was not entirely futile: it still provided food to eat. God commanded Israel, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Exod 20:9). And God could still make toil enjoyable. Israel prayed, Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.… Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands. (Ps 90:14, 17) When we consider Jesus’ life and ministry, we see the perfect example of one who enjoyed God’s simple blessings. We see him sharing meals with His friends frequently, even after His resurrection. He exhorted his disciples and listeners to consider the birds as a testimony to God’s faithful provision. He drives home his point by saying that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed as beautifully. As we observe the gospel records of His ministry, we can’t miss the frenetic pace. Jesus lived through more of a daily grind than we experience, but he wasn’t ground down. He still found time for outcasts. He spent time with the Samaritan woman at the well and gave her hope and a purpose. He called Zacchaeus down from a tree and delivered him from his personal bondage to materialism. If there is anyone who can teach us how to make this journey from despair to delight, it is our Savior. Solomon ends this chapter by taking note of unequal outcomes. He sees how God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to the one who pleases him. But to the sinner he gives the business of gathering and collecting. He ends even this bright section on a sour note and takes us back to vapor and chasing wind. It is here that I will challenge Solomon’s conclusion. Is it possible that he wants us to challenge him? There are unequal outcomes, eternally speaking. For the believer in Jesus there is a promise of salvation. In Christ we are ultimately delivered from the daily grind, and we enter God’s kingdom, a place of eternal rest and fellowship and joy. Those who reject Christ go to a place of eternal separation from God – a place called Hell whose daily grind of regret is soul-crushing. But Solomon makes it sound like God favors some and constrains others to endless gathering and collecting. In drawing this portrait, he misses human responsibility. God is not capricious, favoring some and ignoring others. In 1 Timothy 2:4 the apostle Paul tells us that God desires that all people will be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. There is no defect in God’s desire. There is a choice before us, to accept salvation through Jesus, or to reject the gift of God’s favor and blessing and continue to grasp at smoke, chase wind and continue the endless cycle of pointless accumulation, endless empty experiences until death takes us.