THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIASTES-Affluence & Hunger

 Affluence & Hunger Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:9 This is a particularly great text to start a new year with - because Solomon has set up this text to funnel you in to the center - like a vortex or a hurricane dragging everything in he pulls us into his conclusion as he moves towards it and away from it you’re drawn in. It’s about money and our relation to it - but it’s about more than that. He is pulling us to see life beyond the sun, so that we can live there. Now there is a 2017 goal! There is a since in which to be conscience of life, is to be miserable and dissatisfied. Our lives are lived out in a world, a land, and an existence without God but because God is so richly good - he didn’t allow this to be our everything, though it feels that way because we’re consumed by our current-reality. We live in the land that newspapers report: Any pleasure is a distraction (often a welcomed one) from a fallen world and world system. We so appreciate distractions of pleasure that we become addicted to them so how are we to find balance here is the key that Solomon drives us towards on the way in and the way out, he points us to a life beyond the sun, so that we can live there. Ecclesiastes 5:8–6:9 (ESV) The Vanity of Wealth and Honor 5:8 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. 9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. 10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? 17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. 18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 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. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. 6:1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? 7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. The preacher, who’s had something to say - leads us in here through this framework we know all so well, finances and money. But it’s not just about that - in fact, I said earlier the passage is like a funnel that draws us in, pulling our attention to the vortex like a tornado. Here is the shape of the storm: 5:8-12 - The stage is set the world isn’t fair and it’s set up to keep the rich, rich. 5:13-17 - All things point to our need to get rich, yet getting rich gives us no pleasure or rest. 5:18-20 - The vortex 6:1-6 - The stinging of dissatisfaction 6:7-9 - The system of life is a cycle of displeasure And so to be conscious of the world around us and the condition of things is to be in pain, that is the reality of separation from God - our creator, our purpose, and the author / sustainer of love is pain. Maybe you’ve felt it. Maybe you’re feeling it I pray 2017 is a year of pursuing the vortex where we’ll spend our time today: 5:18-20 Ecclesiastes 5:18–20 (ESV) 18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 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. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. The great amazing news that the preacher, Qohelt didn’t yet know - is that God the author of life and love, was pushing through his discontent, through his wisdom, and his informed musings to bring comfort to despair to break the horizon of life’s pain of conciseness of under the sun living, to give us a glimpse from beyond… He is pulling us to see life beyond the sun, so that we can live there. Michael Fox, the theologian not Alex P. Keaton or Marty McFly, said that “pleasure is anodyne to the pain of consciousness” if that temporary gift of pleasure takes away pain imagine in this life, imagine what the knowledge of a new reality brings - it brings hope, and a conscious awareness, a new consciousness that we are to be after, because of the reality of Christ. I believe he points through riches, for 2 reasons 1: he was crazy rich, 2 most people understand money from one pole or another - having a lot, or wanting a lot. And so this text finds us at the place of want, and moves from want of something temporal to ultimate satisfaction not being in satisfaction of want and being in a outside the sun, reality. Knowing mentally that God’s goodness in Christ is for us, and grants us passage to life with God outside of under-the-sun living. I pray as we kick off this New Year, that you’d find encouragement to seek truth in God from a beyond the sun perspective. He is pulling us to see life beyond the sun, so that we can live there. The reality we’re left with is that the essence of Christianity is satisfaction IN this life, not from this life - our plight is to find this balance as we live and breathe as God’s representatives is not finished (2 Peter 3:18) This morning we start our new year - focused on God, and now heading into communion lets celebrate the view beyond this life necessary discontentment, the looking glass God has given us into the reality of Him that we can KNOW and lets us be pulled to see life beyond the sun, so we can live there and find contentment as we pass through this life. THE OUTER LIMITS: ECCLESIATES – Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 4 of 4 Sunday 1/1/2017