Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

Last week Solomon did for us a great favor by teaching us to consider God’s hand in providing our prosperity or our poverty, and our response to either should not be a want for more or less, but a want for righteousness over unrighteousness.

In verses 8-20 of chapter 5, we were able to see righteous rich, righteous poor, and unrighteous rich, so that we will stop asking “is it better to be rich or poor?” and begin asking “am I righteous our unrighteous?”

This week we are going to read his conclusion of this matter so that there is an exclamation mark at the end of this line of thinking.

What God through Solomon wants us to think about this morning is how we define wealth. Like last week, he does not do this by exalting riches or poverty, but rather by redefining wealth for us as a quality of life lived in simplicity with God according to His wisdom and grace.

All for us to uncover how we can become a wealthy people, whether we are rich or poor in money or material, we will investigate our own lives in light of his probing questions.

Ecclesiastes 6:1-12

Verse 1- There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men--

Again, Solomon is no detached philosophy professor. He is a first person observer because he is the object of this devastating experiment in life “under the sun.” It is he that has seen this futile evil which is so common among men.

Solomon surveys life without God, apart from meaning, apart from true happiness, apart from His grace, and determines that what his eyes have seen and his heart has felt, and his hands have touched, is in fact evil.

Verse 2- a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat (enjoy freely) from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction.

The limits of prosperity are set by God. It is God who “has given” riches (money), wealth (material possessions) and honor (respect from others). Prosperity is not necessarily good or evil. We want to evaluate everything by assuming that material blessings are always a blessings and poverty or adversity is always a curse. Not necessarily.

We can’t tell God’s disposition toward a man through his outward condition alone. God may make a man wealthy to be used for His glory or for the mans destruction. God may make a man wealthy for His glory or for the mans destruction.

Ultimately it is God who sets this line of limitation and we would do well to remember that.

But if God does give a man money, possessions and honor, and yet does not give the spiritual taste buds to enjoy those gifts in a proper relationship to the giver of those gifts, it becomes an evil.

Notice who Solomon ascribes the causation of this adversity- God. Solomon is not confused. Even if there are several secondary causes to a loss of money, possessions and honor, it is God who is working through His providence to control all things for His own glory.

Sovereignty is God’s overarching and ultimate control of all things through all ages. Providence is the day-by-day working out of God’s eternal plan for this world and for each individual in it. It encompasses all that happens in this life and every detail of our existence. It isn’t a trite, bumper sticker slogan to say that “God’s providence is at work.” We need to remember that and counsel each other with that because that makes all the difference in the world when we feel as if life is futile and meaningless. Nothing is outside of God’s intelligent, purposeful control. There is meaning to life because an all powerful Creator is at work in His creation, doing as He pleases to bring about righteous results to His glory in everything.

To forget that, and to think of life as only “under the sun” apart from God, is a disease that eats away at your bones until you are a hollow shell.

This is important because we often talk like Calvinists about God’s sovereignty and providence, but we act like Arminians or Open Theists when it comes to poverty, sickness, or adversity. Our systematic theology is no help to us if our practical theology doesn’t respond to what we know or think intellectually.

God not only gives us money, stuff and honor, he also needs to give us the empowerment to freely enjoy (eat from them) these things.

So here is what I think God is getting at in this passage.

Q #1- Do you enjoy the wealth, possessions, and honor that God has given you?

If you don’t enjoy the things God has already given us, there is no need for more.

Some of you think that having more money and things and respect would make you happier? Is this true? Not if your heart stays the same. If your heart does not change, no matter the increase or decrease of these things will make you truly happy so that you can ENJOY life. Why? Because ultimate joy and the ability to enjoy the gifts given by the giver, must be attached to desiring and delighting in God above all else.

Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Psalms 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

How many of you promised your mom and dad that if you got that toy, or that thing at Christmas, just that one thing, you would never ask for anything again? You would never break it, make it dirty, or lose it and it would make you happy forever. How long did that promise last? The longest I can remember is about 6 months- it was my Evil Knevil set with the plastic boulders I could jump through. You know what I ended up using that heavy motorcycle toy for? To throw at my sister and whack her in the head!

Wealthy people are not the people who have all the things and all the status of a rock star. Wealthy people can enjoy their life apart from their circumstances.

How about a long life and lots of kids? With that make you happy?

Let’s see…

Verses 3-6 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, "Better the miscarriage than he, 4 for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. 5 "It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he. 6 "Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things--do not all go to one place?"

I would venture a guess that the man’s role in the birth of a hundred children would be far more enjoyable than that of his wife!

Here is another pesky word- “satisfied.” Is it possible to really be satisfied in all of your money, in all of your possessions, in all the honor man can give, in a long life and in a multitude of children apart from the giver of each of those things?

Who will be at your funeral?

Q #2-Will your funeral be a sad day because they have you, or will they celebrate that you are finally gone?

You funeral at the end of your life is the point in which your true wealth in this life is seen. Are you a blessing others or a curse?

Verses 7-9- All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? 9 What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.

This is an issue of contentment. Are you content? Our entire economic system is build upon a lack of contentment.

People who come here from other countries that were content with very little, find themselves discontent after a very short period of time here. Why? We are covetous and greedy.

Q #3- Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the lot God has given you in this life?

Verse 10- Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is.

Man’s arms are too short to box with God.

We are too short to box with God. Apart from the gift of God, the more man struggles with his condition, the more the futility increases.

If God does not give the power of enjoyment, then a man cannot help himself. It doesn’t matter how man cans a man might accumulate unless the Lord gives to His people a can opener to go with the cans of peaches He gave them.

Some of you don’t like God being sovereign, because you think you have a better solution and would be a better god. But the fact is, God has already called out what is, and has already given what He has, and there is only futility in disputing with Him.

This is not fatalistic determinism. God still holds us accountable for our decisions and for our efforts or lack of. Yet God is sovereign, and this should be a comfort, not a hindrance to our lives.

This same God who is sovereign, is sovereignly good, and sovereignly loving, and sovereignly holy. And this God has sovereignly communicated with us the greatest of news found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Q #4- Does the thought of God’s hand ruling over your life comfort you?

Verse11- For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man?

The more we talk about these issues with an attitude of doubt or dissatisfaction, the more futility increases. It is the ultimate vanity; the more vain he shows himself to be. The case with God is open and shut. God is in heaven, you are on earth, how then can we argue with Him who knows all things?

Can you be happy not being sovereign? Can you be happy not being omniscient? Can you accept this in your life?

Q #5- Can you accept the fact that you are not sovereign and omniscient but still trust in the God who knows you and loves you?

Verse 12- For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

God knows. The bible speaks to us about what is good in our life.

Q #6- Do you know the meaning of life and what will happen to you when you die?

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