Teen Challenge - Meaingless Series 2

Review: Last week we started a short series on the book of Ecclesiastes.

We asked this question - What’s the point of life? How do we know when we’ve lived a good and meaningful life?

We said that Imagine with me, if you would, that an old, wise grandfather is sitting on the back porch. It’s South Carolina, so he’s sitting around the pool with his grandkids. One of the kids asks the age old question - Grandpa, what is the meaning of life? Old grandpa, being the wise old man that he is, knows that these kids will learn more if he puts the question back on them. So he asks the grandkids - What do you think the meaning of life is?

One answers - I know what it is, my mom and dad work really hard all the time, so It must be about hard work.

Another one says, no, that can’t be it - they work hard so they can get money. So it must really be about getting as much money as you can.

Still another one says, No, all work and no play make for a boring life. It’s all about having fun and loving relationships. The old grandpa laughs and begins to tell them about his life...

The key word in this book is “Meaningless.”

Be careful when reading this book. Much of it contains thoughts of a depressed old man who is talking a bit crazy. What he has to say is true, but it needs to be balanced out. In the End he comes to this conclusion:

Biblical Background: The book of Ecclesiastes is set up like much like this.

Picture grandpa on the back porch sipping his sweet tea and telling you about the meaning of life.

Solomon, who is considered to be the wisest man alive, is pondering what life actually means.

He’s apparently towards the end of his life and he’s reflecting on what was really meaningful.

The book of Ecclesiastes is all about how to find purpose and meaning in life. It’s honestly a very, very, very depressing book. The key word in this book is “Meaningless.” Be careful when reading this book. Much of it contains thoughts of a depressed old man who is talking a bit crazy. What he has to say is true, but it needs to be balanced out.

Last week we said Solomon is going to run a set of experiments. He’s trying to figure out what life is really about. He tries reading and learning. But he finds out that leads to emptiness.

Today, we want to talk about something that I think we are very tempted to make life about.

Opening Story/Illustration:

If i make counterfeit money, will I think that I’m rich? Yes.

Will I really be rich? No

Will I fool some people with my money? Yes.

But what happens when I find someone I can’t fool? (All of My “riches” are gone and I go to prison - i go before a judge who is going to want to know why i’m making fake money in the place of real money.)

You see we can put these counterfeit God’s of educational pursuits, pleasure, money, power, etc. at the center of our lives and we can fool ourselves for a while - but the problem is, one day we will stand before a God who cannot be fooled.

And he is going to wonder why money, power, pleasure, education, relationships, etc. were in the spot designed for him.

At that point, none of our other stuff is going to matter.

Biblical Background - Tonight we want to talk about another “Meaningless” item. It’s one that is probably more popular to put in the place of God - it offers what seems like power and security - but is a dangerous lover.

Biblical Content - Turn to Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:9

Ecclesiastes 5:8–6:9 NLT

8 Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy. 9 Even the king milks the land for his own profit! 10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! 11 The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! 12 People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep. 13 There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver. 14 Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children. 15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. 16 And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind. 17 Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry. 18 Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. 19 And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. 20 God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past. 1 There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. 2 God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy. 3 A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead. 4 His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, 5 and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man. 6 He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use? 7 All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough. 8 So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? 9 Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

MI - Money Is Meaningless without God.

Don’t love money because you will never have enough (5:10-12)

Wealth is addictive - Wealth is like a drug

What happens to when we become addicted? We always need more! and If we can’t get more, go crazy - and will do almost anything to get them.

Many people do the same thing with money. How many parents neglect their kids for more money? How many people rob and cheat and steal all for more money?

MONEY IS A GOD THAT IS NEVER SATISFIED - MORE MORE MORE

Wealth doesn’t bring real happiness - you always need more and more.

Quote- The problem is that your yearning power will always exceed your earning power.

There is a famous quote - a rich man was asked how much money was enough and he replied, “Just a little bit more.”

Don’t love money because one day it will leave you (5:13-17)

People loose their money

How many people back a few years ago when the economy tanked and all their money left them - how many of them were left broken and lonely and afraid because their god had left them?

As I was researching this I came across and article on it:

Meltdown Madness The Human Costs of the Economic Crisis By Nick Turse

The body count is still rising. For months on end, marked by bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, and layoffs, the economic meltdown has taken a heavy toll on Americans. In response, a range of extreme acts including suicide, self-inflicted injury, murder, and arson have hit the local news. By October 2008, an analysis of press reports nationwide indicated that an epidemic of tragedies spurred by the financial crisis had already spread from Pasadena, California, to Taunton, Massachusetts, from Roseville, Minnesota, to Ocala, Florida.

In the three months since, the pain has been migrating upwards. A growing number of the world's rich have garnered headlines for high profile, financially-motivated suicides. Take the New Zealand-born "millionaire financier" who leapt in front of an express train in Great Britain or the "German tycoon" who did much the same in his homeland. These have, with increasing regularity, hit front pages around the world. An example would be New York-based money manager René-Thierry Magnon de la Villehuchet, who slashed his wrists after he "lost more than $1 billion of client money, including much, if not all, of his own family's fortune." In the end, he was yet another victim of financial swindler Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

An unknown but rising number of less wealthy but distinctly well-off workers in the financial field have also killed themselves as a result of the economic crisis -- with less press coverage. Take, for instance, a 51-year-old former analyst at Bear Stearns. Learning that he would be laid off after JPMorgan Chase took over his failed employer, he "threw himself out of the window" of his 29th-floor apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Or consider the 52-year-old commercial real estate broker from suburban Chicago who "took his life in a wildlife preserve" just "a month after he publicly worried over a challenging market," or the 50-year-old "managing partner at Leeward Investments" from San Carlos, California, who got wiped out "in the markets" and "suffocated himself to death."

Beverly Hills clinical psychologist Leslie Seppinni caught something of our moment when she told Forbes magazine that this was "the first time in her 18-year career that businessmen are calling her with suicidal impulses over their financial state." In the last three months, alone, "she has intervened in at least 14 cases of men seriously considering taking their lives." Seppinni offered this observation: "They feel guilt and shame because they think they should have known what was coming with the market or they should have pulled out faster."

Why would people react this way to losing their money - because it’s their god. And once they figure out their god won’t hold up, they feel hopeless.

Don’t love money because one day you will leave it (6:1-9)

One day you will die and you cannot take your money with you

Someone might amass great wealth - but he may die young - so what was the point?

Solomon goes back to his main point - one day you’re going to die and you can’t take your money with you - so why spend your life chasing it?

At the end of the day, how much money you had or didn’t have is not going to matter - what is going to matter is that you Feared God and obeyed his commandments!

Money is simply a tool and a resource - it is not a God- and it is a foolish thing to center your life around.

Money is meaningless without God - so learn to enjoy what you have and find peace in God.

Let’s move now for a moment to see what Jesus says about money!

Intro

Review: If you remember we are in a series on the sermon on the mount. Let’s dive right in and read this scripture tonight and spend some time discussing it. Jesus is talking here and he’s teaching us some practical things.

Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34

Matthew 6:19–34 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Discussion

What are some things on earth people treasure?

Have you ever bought something expensive only to have it break on you too early?

Jesus says here that we need to be careful with our possessions and money. He’s not against possessions. The idea here is that our possessions become our source of joy.

Possessions come up short. They eventually wear out, they eventually get stolen or fade.

Jesus says - Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. In other words, if you want to know where you heart it, look at where you spend your money.

You will follow your treasure because your heart is attached to it.

Jesus says, in contrast to storing up and hoarding treasures on earth, lay them up in heaven. What does it mean to store treasures in heaven?

To simplify - To store up treasures in heaven means to love God and love people. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your treasure:

Where Am I Laying up Treasures?

The last time something was broken or lost, how much did it crush me?

When money gets brought up, am I defensive or open? Peaceful or anxious?

How much hope do I have that God is going to provide for me in the future?

Does my bank account show that I am using money to love God and Love people?

Jesus goes on to make what seems like strange statements about our eye.

What do you think he’s saying? How does it relate to the passage above?

You’ve heard the term “The eyes are the windows to the soul.”

The eyes let light in and there is this idea that they also show the light or darkness you have within you.

Illustration: Me without glasses at the water park.

When you have bad eyes, you look at everything wrong.

When you can’t see, it ruins everything.

My take on this - When we don’t see money and possessions right - It ruins everything.

The words here for “bad” and “healthy” are often used for “generous” and “stingy.”

If I can sum up what Jesus is saying: If you view money and possessions wrong, it’ll make your whole life dark.

There’s a reason we say things like - “He was blinded by his greed.”

Jesus tells us we can’t serve two masters - We have to choose between God and money.

But how do we get to the place where money becomes master? What is it that so often pushes God out and puts money or possessions in the driver seat of our lives? What causes us to so easily make money master?

Answer: Worry

Notice the next verse..We would expect to get something from Jesus like - You can’t serve both God and money..so go sell all your stuff and give away all your money.

But he doesn’t say that at all..What does he say?

Worry, when not dealt with, leads to Idolatry...

Worry says, I can’t really trust God

When we don’t feel like we can trust God, we need something else we think we can trust...

Money becomes the next best thing.

So how do we get over worry?

Ask the right questions

Notice Jesus answers our questions, with questions of his own here.

Jesus, in his typical teaching style, takes our questions and answers them with questions of his own. He counters our questions and doubts by causing us to question the underlying assumptions we are making. His questions causes us to remember the obvious truth that we often forget.

Here are the counter questions:

“Are you not of more value than the birds?”

You’re worried about being taken care of?

You’re more valuable to God than birds - and he takes care of them!

“Can worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Most of the stuff we worry about doesn’t happen anyway!

Worrying is actually counter-productive. It doesn’t just not help, it often makes things even worse!

“Why are you anxious about being clothed? Doesn’t God clothe the flowers of the field more beautifully than Solomon himself?

These counter questions from Jesus, jar us back into the reality of his kingdom!

They remind us that God is still on the throne, he is still in control, and we do not have to worry!

Seek the Right things

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and He will take care of the rest.

So what does it mean to seek first His Kingdom?

It means making church and worship a priority in your life

It means making prayer and Bible reading a priority in your life

It means serving others

It means giving of yourself for the sake of others

It means taking the keys to your life and handing them to Jesus and letting him do with you as he wants.

Conclusion

I’ve learned two things in life about possessions and worry..

When I become too attached to something it’s a sign that perhaps I should give it away. Practice this in your life.

When I begin to worry, I need to worship. I need to be reminded that God is on the throne and in control. I need to turn my eyes. I need to see clearly again.