The Gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12)

Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12

Sunday, July 18, 2021

The Gift of God

Pastoral Prayer

Local Church: Flora FBC (Joel Hackney)

NAMB: Isaac (Hannah) Surh; Chroma Church in Columbus, OH

IMB: Saudi Arabs in Saudi Arab (Hajj: Journey to Mecca)

Leaders:

Church:

Introduction

Seeing the world through the right set of lenses

Ecclesiastes Recap

Main Point: Christian joy is found not in circumstances, but in being content with God’s good gifts to us. Therefore, Christian, let us rejoice in the lot given to us.

Points

Oppression & Violation (5:8-17)

Discontentment & Folly (6:1-12)

Contentment & Joy (5:18-20)

Oppression & Violation (5:8-17)

Don’t be surprised

As we open up with our text this morning, it takes us back to the theme of oppression and evil. Back in chapter four, verse 1, Solomon had written: Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. Not much else was added to understanding this oppression. However, here in chapter five, verse eight, we return to this theme of oppression. In fact, here in verse 8 we read: 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.

Oppression and violation of justice and righteousness is not to surprise us. We are told that these are not to amaze us as these come into the world. This is grounded in that there are those over others in regards to that of a high official having another over him. And because we live in a fallen world, people abuse power when they have others over them. This reality is inevitable.

All of this is a result of living east of Eden in a world saturated with sin everywhere we turn. The amount of oppression and the violation of justice and righteousness shouldn’t cause us to be surprised if we understand the deep effects of sin in this world. We must grasp this reality if we are ever to both understand the world in which we live and see the greatness of our God in what he has done in order to rescue us from sin and death.

And part of understanding the world we live is to see that when systems are in place with others ruling over, there is a lure to oppression and violation of justice and righteousness. For the abuse of power and control is tempting. It is thoughts to be a means of self gain. However, look at what is added in verse 9. It says here (READ).

A king who works for cultivated fields, especially under the law of Israel would leave food for the poor and oppressed to gather once it had fallen. It would provide for those workers who gathered, as well as for the one they gathered for. Order doesn’t have to be evil if it is rightly structured. However, there is a great evil that leads to the oppression we see around the world. But what is that evil?

Root of oppression & violation: Money

The root of the oppression and violation of justice and righteousness is that of money. Now, money itself is not the great evil. But a wrong view of money is the great evil. If we chase after money as an end to itself, we are going to find ourselves disappointed and unsatisfied. Money cannot buy happiness, it cannot buy joy, it cannot buy contentment. Money breeds dissatisfaction.

Money can’t satisfy

Look with me at verse 10, it reads (READ). The love of money doesn’t satisfy. One who looks to oppress for gain of money will in the end find no satisfaction. A love of money is vanity. When one loves their money they begin serving it as a master and not God. For did not Jesus himself say this in Matthew 6:24 where he says: “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.”

When money becomes a master and we look to it for joy and satisfaction we will continually be disappointed. For the only reward of money is when goods increase to merely be able to see them. Those goods do not bring more satisfaction or more joy to our lives. This is what we see there in verse 11 where it says (READ).

Outside of physically seeing those increased goods, there is no advantage to the gaining of wealth. In fact, it goes on to say there in verse 12, (READ). Even sleep escapes the one in love with money, while the servant finds sleep. If money has our hearts, it will consume us in a desire for more and more. A full stomach is not a good thing when it comes to desire and money. This is why we read in Proverbs 30:8-9: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

To have a full belly will cause our hearts to deny God. Money can’t satisfy when it takes our hearts away from God. Money can’t bring joy when it takes away from the one who created us. The love of money is truly vanity.

Money kept harms

But not only is a love of money vanity, a love of money is a grievous evil. In verse 13 we see that riches kept by their owner to their hurt. Holding money can harm us. When we seek to store up treasure in this world, those treasures are held like sacred cows as idols. The money is stored away, striving for more and more without ever enjoying life. When in the end, sooner or later those treasures will perish.

Again looking back to Matthew 6, this time in verses 19-21 we read:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

If our treasure is in money and earthly treasure, those treasures will not last. Whether they are destroyed by aging decay, stolen, or lost through changing circumstances they will fade away. One who spends their entire lives chasing the riches of money will find themselves to have failed to enjoy life. They will find that as they leave this world, they will take nothing with them. For naked we came and naked we shall return. Last time I checked there are no uhauls hooked up to the back of a hearse. Our possessions will not go with us when we die. Therefore a toiling after the wind for money is a great evil as seen there in verse 16. Likewise in verse 17 we read, (READ). The love of money leads us to a rotten life.

And it is this love of money that is the root of oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness. We must check our hearts and guard against such love. Even those of us who would not be on the wealthier end, we can chase after a love of money more than those who grew up with money. For we think our lives would be better if we just had more money. Instead of being content with what we have, we become discontent and miss out. And that is where we turn to in our second point this morning, discontentment and folly.

Discontentment & Folly (6:1-12)

We will come back to verses 18-20 in chapter five later, but for now turn your attention with me over to chapter 6. Here how this section of text begins here in verses 1 and 2, for it says (READ).

One can have wealth, possessions, and honor, lack nothing, and still fail to find enjoyment. And the root of all of this is one’s own discontentment and chasing after folly. How can one have no lack of anything, yet not find enjoyment in what he has? And make no mistake about it, this is what we see in many around us in the world. Just think of some of the top celebrities and how many of them struggle with depression, contemplate suicide, and many other things. Why is this? Because they don’t have the power to enjoy what they have. And this lack of enjoyment is a great evil. But it is not only celebrities that struggle with discontentment. Many of us in our day to day lives struggle with subtle forms of discontentment within our hearts that is slowly choking the life out of us into a life that is unlived to the glory of God.

Missed enjoyment

Look at the example given in verse 3, for it says (READ). A beautiful thing such as fatherhood and a long life should be enjoyed. Yet, for the one who lacks the power to enjoy these things, they are worse off than a stillborn child who never made it to this side of the womb. They in their short life in the womb had it better than one who had a long life and all the possessions, but failed to enjoy them.

How many of us have many good gifts from the LORD, but instead of enjoying them are so consumed with gaining more instead of simply enjoying the things we do have? We need to enjoy the precious gifts God has given us. We are not promised tomorrow, we are here today and gone tomorrow. Therefore, what we neglected to find enjoyment in today might be gone tomorrow. Whether it is that old crumbling house that we fail to enjoy and be thankful for is no more because of a storm blowing through or a loved one we failed to enjoy being with is suddenly taken from us. Don’t let us fail to miss enjoying what God has given us.

However, as long as we seek our contentment and joy in possessions and money, we will never find true contentment and joy in this life. And by continuing on this path we miss living in this world. For instead of being satisfied with what we do have, our appetites stay unsatisfied.

Appetite unsatisfied

In verse 7 we read, (READ). There is a play on the word appetite here. It is using mouth and appetite here to show a comparison to that of desires not satisfied. Discontentment breeds when our desires take over and our appetite desires more and more, never being satisfied with what we have.

Our appetites become like a tapeworm, constantly consuming but never satisfied. The more we consume in chasing our desires, the less satisfied we become. The reason for this is, while there are good desires that are worth pursuing, there often is a thought that we should chase after any and every desire we have. And this is not good for us, it is to our harm. For in chasing after every desire we have, we chase after things in hopes that it will bring us more joy and happiness. We fail to check our desires in seeing if they are in line with the ways of God found in the pages of the Bible. For instance, James 4:1-4 reads:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy with God.

Our desires, that is our passions, are at war within us. These desires seek to consume and drive us. But if we fail to check these desires according to the given ways of God found in the Bible, these desires consume us. And if these desires and passions are left unchecked without self-control, they can be evil and will lead us away from God as they are driven by sin within us.

The reality though, these desires start off small within us. They do not start with the desire to hate, to murder, to create idolatry within our hearts. John Frame in his Systematic Theology writes, “The very nature of idolatry is to worship a created thing as if it were God.” And yet, these desires creep in and begin to demand more and more of our time, energy, and our heart. These desires try to overtake our hearts, like weeds in a flower bed or garden. Left unchecked, these desires will take over the whole, stealing the nutrients of the flowers or crops there. What desires are running within our hearts, seeking to drive us and consume our contentment and our joy?

Does the desire for more money, more possessions, or higher social status consume us?

There is no advantage to a life chasing after these. Contentment, satisfaction, and joy are not a matter of fulfilling desires, but of a heart delighting in God alone. This is where verses 8 and 9 take us (READ).

As often dull our seeing is often in this world, our eyes are still better than the wandering of our appetite. To be driven by appetite, desire, is vanity and a striving after wind. Christian, put more stock in God’s given and revealed word in the Bible to shape us than we do our own desires. Chasing after our own desires and appetite will leave us malnourished. God’s word though is sweeter than honey that points us to the Bread of Life and the Living Water of Jesus himself. Be filled and satisfied by chewing on God’s words as we taste more of him and his goodness to us.

Contending with God

But, we must answer a question with this, what is the root cause of all of this struggle? Follow along with me as I read verse 10 again. Everything under the sun has already been named. This is referring back to Genesis 2 when God created every creature and gave the responsibility to Adam to name them. And as Adam named every creature, that was its name. This points us to the Sovereignty of God. In other words, God is over all of creation, including that of man. Therefore, with God being over man, man in a sinful and broken state, who are we then to dispute with God and what is good for us? However, this is exactly what happens as we live outside of the garden, east of Eden. We try to contend with God in thinking our ways are better than his. That we know how to live better than how he has instructed us to live. Don’t believe me, let’s do a heart check here for a few minutes.

Maybe there are some sitting here this morning who are disputing in their hearts with God wondering why things are the way they are in the world around us. Maybe you think God has lost control of the world. You dispute with God, try and imply how things should be done in bringing it back to order of their own thoughts and methods. The dispute takes place though as you ignore the pages of the Bible in how God has promised he will work throughout history, through his church in making the gospel known to the ends of the earth. For this camp, we need to see that we need to stop disputing with God on how we think things should go and get onboard with the reality that the only means for healing in the midst of darkness is to be the light of the world as we go and proclaim God’s good news to us in Christ. Morals and laws will not bring change, only the power of the gospel can.

Others, maybe are sitting here and are disputing with God about what it means to follow him. Those who fall into this camp might be those who question what commands we should or shouldn’t keep of Christ’s teachings. They seek to justify their sin in working around the issue. Others in this camp are those who isolate themselves from the lost and fail to show them compassion as Jesus showed to sinners. Too often this camp is more like that of the religious leaders in failing to extend grace and mercy to those who are broken and understand they are sick. Did Jesus not come to eat with sinners and tax collectors?

Brothers and sisters, who are we to dispute with God in how we are called to come after him? Did Jesus not tell us in Luke 9:23-34, And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. To follow Jesus is a call to die to self and to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus is to walk in his ways, to keep his commands, to worship and delight in the Father as he did.

And still others, maybe you are sitting here disputing with God about your need in him. If this is you, friend, listen closely to me. Because God is our creator, he has a right to be in authority over us. He is the potter and we are the clay. Our sin has left us separated from our creator. In fact, this sin is why we dispute with God and stand against him. And yet, despite this sin, God has graciously pursued after us to restore us back to himself. He has loved us in sending his beloved Son Jesus to us. And Jesus loving the Father and us laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sin. Therefore, whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father apart from him. Friend, stop disputing with God over this. See that he has made a way for sinners to come to him, but it is only through Jesus. Turn from your sin today and come to Jesus for the forgiveness of those sins. For Jesus stands ready to receive you.

Our God is the one who we are to draw near to and listen to, because he is the Sovereign LORD over all the earth, for he is the creator of all things. And it is only in coming to God that we find what is good for man while we live the few days of our lives. He is the answer to the questions there in verses 11 and 12. For it is our God who can tell us what will be after us under the sun. Therefore let us stop chasing our desires and the love of money and turn our hearts to him. And that is where we go in our third and final point this morning.

Contentment & Joy (5:18-20)

Looking back to Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 we read (READ).

Find enjoyment

What is good for us in this short life we have is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all our toil. This is what God has given us. It is our lot, our purpose to enjoy the things in which God has given us. Charles Simeon, a pastor of over 40 years in Cambridge there in England said, “There are but two lessons for Christians to learn: the one is to enjoy God, in everything; the other is to enjoy everything, in God.”

In everything that we do, everything that we face, every moment of life, we are to enjoy God in the midst of it. Whether life is up or down, calm or hectic, easy or hard in all of these we are to enjoy God. God as our creator should be able to be enjoyed in the midst of everything. For he created us, he is over us, and he is at work in it all. Whether it is in celebrating one’s birth or on one’s deathbed, our God is worthy of being enjoyed. He has never left us nor forsaken us. We enjoy God in the midst of it all in remembering that he is the Sovereign LORD who is over it all. We enjoy God by trusting that his ways are not our ways and that they are better than our ways. Let us acknowledge who our God is and therefore enjoy him in everything.

Then, we need to enjoy everything, in God. All things in life are intended to be enjoyed. We are to enjoy God’s creation, his provisions, and his mercies given to us. We are to enjoy all things of the earth in the context God has given. We should be able to look at the sky above and enjoy God’s beautiful creation. We should enjoy the gifts and provisions God gives us in food, clothing, and shelter. We are to enjoy these things. We are to enjoy the relationships that God has given us in family, friendships, and the gift of one another in this church.

To even flush that last one out a bit, brothers and sisters I know our church is not where any of us want it. But one thing I want to encourage us in at the moment, don’t let us miss the beautiful lot we have in one another and fail to enjoy that in the here and now. If we cannot enjoy the lot God has given us at the moment, what makes us think we can enjoy a bigger lot? If we can’t be faithful in the little, how are we to be faithful in the bigger? Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us enjoy one another right now where we are. Let us invest deeper into relationships with one another, for this is God’s precious gift to us.

Accept Lot

In verse 19, the call to enjoy God shifts a bit to look at all those who are given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them. And these are told to accept their lot and rejoice in their toil, that this is the gift of God. Whatever we have in this life is to be seen as a gift from God. Whether we barely get by or we are well off. In all of this we are to enjoy these precious gifts and rejoice in them. These provisions are not intended to cause a grievous evil, but they will be if we fail to enjoy them. That is why this in its writing was put immediately before the grievous evil in failing to enjoy. Solomon wants us to see that comparison.

The option for us is that we can either experience grievous evil in failing to enjoy God’s gifts to us Or we can enjoy all that God has given us by accepting our lot and rejoicing in it. Friends, which will we choose? One is full of discontentment and the other finds joy.

Joy in heart

In fact, notice what is written here in verse 20, it says (READ). The person who finds enjoyment and accepts his lot will hardly remember the days of his life. In other words, the person who is occupied with joy in their heart will not be a glass half empty type person. Brothers and sisters, for us to be occupied with joy in our hearts we are not constantly doom and gloom in their world. We recognize the evil things of the world, but in the midst of it we see who God is and how he is at work.

In order for us to grow in our joy, we must be more occupied with the grandness of God almighty. A joyful Christian understands that all they have comes from God, even his few breaths in this life. A joyful Christian is one who is not preoccupied with self, but occupied with thoughts of who God is and what he has done. Brothers and sisters, if we are struggling to be occupied with joy in our hearts, we need to consider that maybe the issue lies within where our eyes are set. If our treasures truly are to be in heaven and not of the world, then our eyes should be set towards heaven, longing to depart and be with Christ as the Apostle Paul talked about in Philippians 1:21. As we seek to live in light of eternity, may our hearts find enjoyment in God in everything and enjoy everything in God. For this is what it means for us to truly live as we seek to glorify God.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, we must look more to God and see his beauty and glory in all that he has done. We need to be occupied with joy in our hearts as we accept and rejoice in the toil and lot God has given us. If we are to overcome the battles of the love of money and discontentment, then we must check our hearts and what has a hold of them. Worldly treasure or heavenly treasure? God helping us, let our treasures be stored up in heaven and our hearts occupied with joy as our eyes behold the beauty and glory of the LORD, our God and all that he has done for us in the Suffering Servant of Jesus, his beloved Son.

Let’s pray...