186 // Why Money Won't Make You Happy

Embracing and under the sun perspective will cause you to be afraid of God.

It's going to numb you to injustice, and it's going to enslave you

to financial vanity.

Now, I assume most of us did not write on January 20th, January 1st,

2024 that our life goal for the year is to be numb to God

is to be fear God to be numb to injustice, and to being slave to financial vanity.

So whether or not you're avoiding that or whether or not you walked in this morning

and you would say, like,

hey, I'm already ankle deep or knee deep in those feelings,

I think we'll do well to listen to the teacher's words together.

Well.

Good morning, City Bridge. How are we doing?

Hey, man, what a great joy this to be with you this morning.

If I have not had the chance to meet you.

My name is David Leventhal, and it's my privilege

to continue to walk us through the book of Ecclesiastes, our summer series.

We're in week five this morning.

We're going to be in chapters five and six.

If you want to be a get ahead of the game, you can start turn your Bible there.

Just by way of reminder before we jump in,

to the book of to what we're going to talk about today,

I want to remind you guys that it's really critical

if we're going to understand this book, to remember a couple things.

We talked about this a lot in week one,

and we've referenced it in subsequent weeks.

But I want to remind you, the book of Ecclesiastes

has one author.

So it was written by one guy,

and the way he presents his message is through two distinct voices.

He has the voice of the narrator, which we find in the beginning of the book,

and we're going to hear again at the end of the book.

And in the middle of the book, the book we have the voice of the teacher.

Okay.

And each voice, the voice of the narrator has a message,

and the voice of the teacher has a different message.

And as we unpack this week,

we're going to see that the teacher's

message of discouragement and pessimism is going to be on full display.

We show them this chart on week one.

But just by way of reminder, the message of the teacher.

The center part of the book is this that life under the sun is meaningless

and it's full of trouble.

The best that you can do is to try and enjoy what little

you have, and then you are going to die.

Okay, that's the message of the teacher.

But the message of the teacher is not the message of the book.

The message of the book is this that we should fear God,

keep his commandments, and trust that he will bring justice.

And as we're going along the way, we should beware of pessimistic,

skeptical wisdom, and we're going to see some pessimistic,

skeptical wisdom this morning from the teacher.

We've got a lot to cover.

We're going to cover all of chapter five in the first nine verses of chapter six.

And as we unpack that this morning,

we're going to see three main buckets of of information.

These are really reflections from the teacher in chapter five

1 to 7, we're going to see some reflections on how we approach God

or how the teacher says, you should approach God in five, 8 to 9.

We're going to see reflections on oppressive government,

on oppressive politics and the bulk of our passage.

510 to 6 nine.

We're going to see reflections on wealth and possession and what we're going to see

as we work our way through this morning

is that if you embrace an under the sun perspective.

It's going to cause you to be afraid of God.

It's going to numb you to the injustice

of this world, and it's going to enslave you to financial vanity.

That's our big idea.

Embracing and under the sun perspective will cause you to be afraid of God.

It's going to numb you to injustice, and it's going to enslave you

to financial vanity.

Now, I assume most of us did not write on January 20th, January 1st,

2024 that our life goal for the year is to be numb to God

is to be fear God to be numb to injustice, and to being slave to financial vanity.

So whether or not you're avoiding that or whether or not you walked in this morning

and you would say, like,

hey, I'm already ankle deep or knee deep in those feelings,

I think we'll do well to listen to the teacher's words together.

Last reminder,

and this is important

because I don't want to qualify it every time I say it.

When you hear me say, under the sun,

the teacher talks about under the sun, what I'm referring to

is an individual who goes through life

as though God were uninvolved, absent, and disengaged from daily affairs.

That's what the teacher saying when you use the term

what I've seen under the sun, that is what I have seen in a world

where I believe God is uninvolved, absent and disengaged from daily affairs.

That's what it means to have an under the sun perspective.

Okay. All right.

Ecclesiastes five.

Let's pull apart 1 to 7, guard your steps

when you go to the house of God to draw near.

To listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools,

for they don't know that they are doing evil.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty

to utter a word before God.

For God is in heaven and you are on earth.

Therefore let your words be few, for a dream

comes with much business and a fool's voice with many words.

When you vow a vow to God, do

not delay in paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools.

Pay what you vow.

It's better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

Let not your mouth lead you into sin.

And do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake.

Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

For when dreams increase and words grow many there's vanity,

but God is the one you must fear.

So the teacher wants you to remember this key fact God is in heaven

and you are on earth.

You and God are not on the same page.

Remember, he comes at life under the sun.

God is distant and disengaged.

He's not intimate.

The teacher, in fact, never in this entire middle section.

He never speaks of God

the way that the covenant keeping Jews would speak of God with a covenant name.

God to the teacher is distant and unengaged.

And so when he thinks about how do you approach God,

he comes at it from that perspective.

God's disengaged and uninterested

so he would say, hey, don't start making vows that you don't intend to keep.

God is not impressed with your words.

God doesn't take it lightly.

When you say you're going to do something, you failed to do it.

The teacher's perspective is that God is not your friend.

You fear God, but not in the sense of reverence for all.

Okay, you fear God the way you would be afraid of,

an unruly parent or your high school football coach

who threatened to make you run until you vomit in 100 degree heat.

That's.

You're afraid it's not a reverential fear.

And that's what you get when you embrace an under the sun perspective.

You're afraid of God.

Just what we see here.

We're going to see you become numb to injustice

and you enslave differential vanity. Now, to be fair,

some of what the teacher says is true.

Okay, Jesus, in fact, would say something very similar in the sermon on the Mount.

But the difference is, and that which is important is

the motive is the undergirding point of where it comes from.

Similar words coming from a very different place.

Jesus would say in Matthew five

again, you've heard that it was said of those of old, you shall not swear falsely,

but you shall perform to the Lord what you've sworn.

But I say to you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven

first the throne of God, or by earth for his footstool,

or by Jerusalem for the city of the great King.

And do not take an oath by your head.

You cannot make one hair black or white.

Let what you say simply be yes or no.

Anything more than this comes from evil.

So the difference between these two messages, although the words are very

similar, is the motive underneath it.

And these verses

from Matthew and other verses that are a part of the sermon on the Mount,

Jesus is effectively saying, listen, guys,

your father in heaven is a promise keeper and he wants his kingdom people,

which is what the sermon on the Mount describes.

The sermon on the Mount describes what does it mean to be a kingdom of God

type person?

And Jesus says, God wants his people, his kingdom of God people to be promise

keepers, to follow through on what they say they're going to do.

And by the way, he would say in a couple verses after this, God cares about you.

He knows the birds of the air, and he provides for them.

He sees the flower of the fields and he provides for them.

So there's no need to make a vow.

There's no need to get over your stewardship

by making a vow that you can't keep.

God has got you.

Same words, similar words, but coming from a very different perspective on God

and our perspective on God determines

how we're going to go about through this life.

If you have an incomplete or a flawed perspective

like what we're seeing in Ecclesiastes, then it's going to lead you

into an unbiblical way of life and you're going to become afraid of God.

You're going to do things that have an improper motive.

But if you commit life the way that Jesus has described

and laid out for you, then you realize that you can,

you come at life with different healthy motives and motives matter, okay?

Motives matter. And,

I don't know how you feel, but if I'm being honest,

sometimes I fall into the trap of what the teacher says in Ecclesiastes.

He said that I've got to come before God.

Like when I walk into church,

I got to be on my very best behavior, so got angry at me.

I've got a when I go to community group, or I sit down at my Bible study

or I want to try and focus, I pray I better do it right.

So God's not mad at me, right?

It's a it's an under the sun perspective.

It's it's I move into a place where I see God is distant and disengaged,

and I don't do it on purpose. It just kind of happens.

And I've got to be reminded that no, no, no, no, no, God loves me.

He's not angry at me.

That was all dealt with on the cross, that the wrath of God has been dealt with.

Okay, I don't know if if I'm the only one.

Or maybe that's how you feel.

So having shared some observations about what is it like

to approach God, the teacher now is going to hit the clutch.

He's going to change gears and he's going to hit another topic.

He's going to show share some reflections on oppressive politics.

five versus eight.

If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice

and righteousness, do not be amazed at that matter.

For the high officials watched by higher and yet higher ones over them.

But this is gain for a land in every way a king committed to cultivating fields.

The teacher now turn to the topic of oppression and justice,

which is a frequent topic for him in this book.

He talks about this in chapter 316,

in four, 1 to 3, in five, eight and 777, 15 and eight, four and ten five.

This is a big deal to him because he's looking around,

he goes through life and he's reflecting on all the corruption he sees.

Everywhere he goes, he looks around, he sees corruption from the king

all the way down everywhere.

The higher ranking officials are fleecing the officials that are right below them,

and they're doing it to those the writer, to those tribalism, all the way down

to the poor who have no one to oppress and no one to defend them.

And notice what he says.

He says, if you see oppression and corruption, don't be amazed.

So he's been around the block and he says it's everywhere and shouldn't

shock you that there's oppression, that there's bribery, that there's,

the injustice being aborted in the government.

In the teachers world, there's two classes of people.

There's the oppressed, and there are oppressors.

And it's not good for you if you're in that first group, no one to save you.

And so what do you do?

The best bet for you is just to go numb to it all.

Don't be amazed by it. Just it's just a part of life.

You can't do anything about it.

That sound familiar?

If you look, you look around.

Lately in our culture, there's corruption that has overtaken this American culture

up and down, left and right, blue and red.

And don't get me going on our optionality

in November and the corruption on both sides of the aisle.

I could go on, but I don't want Kyle to get overwhelmed with emails.

No, the teacher just sits under the sun.

And when you live under the sun, you end up afraid

of God, numb to injustice, and enslaved to financial vanity.

Now, as you guys have gotten to know me, as I've taught up here more and more,

maybe you're starting to catch on that I like teaching Ecclesiastes

because I kind of come at life with a darker set of tones.

some might say that

pessimism is my love language and skepticism is my spiritual gift.

I don't mean to, but when I walk into a room, I see what's wrong.

I don't try to it. It's just the way my brain works.

I see what's not going well.

What's wrong now that's helpful in a small context and largely not helpful

in most other context. But that's how I'm wired.

And so I can get discouraged.

I can get angry, I can grow numb to the injustice

of because it's just like this whole world is a giant mess.

You ever feel that way?

I hope so, because I don't want to be the only one.

But if I am, I am.

And in those moments when I find myself going down the

the wormhole of discouragement and and numbness,

if I'm self-aware enough and I'm not always self-aware enough,

I realize if you're looking at life under the sun,

you're failing to see that God is doing incredible things on a day to day basis.

I mean, that climate video was awesome.

God is doing amazing things all around us and all the time.

But when you live under the sun, you don't see him.

Okay, the fact that I woke up this morning with breath

in my lungs, it's a gift from God.

I didn't deserve that.

Now, having talked about how to approach God, having talked about,

corruption in politics, he's going to hit the clutch again.

And we're going to now spend

the rest of our time on his reflections on money and possessions.

It's going to go from 510 to 6 nine.

We're going to see that he goes full tilt on the vanity of it all.

Vanity is going to be repeated four times.

And not only that, but he's also going to try and indict God

by declaring four times that the whole setup is evil.

Now, the way he does this is by through a structure, Hebrew parallelism.

And I've put together a cool chart because, let's be honest,

who doesn't love a cool chart?

You're not going to get all this is too much stuff.

So take a picture.

We'll also include it in the bridge email this week, but let's talk

quickly about the structure that unpacks this passage.

What's going to happen here in this next set of verses is

the teacher is going to have an introduction five

verses, ten, 11 and 12, where he's going to introduce his key themes.

And then in chapter five, 13 to 17, and then again in six,

1 to 9, he's going to share three observations on the front,

and then three more corollary observations that parallel each other.

And right in the middle he gives you his big idea, which we'll talk about.

So introduction three observations big idea.

And then he finishes with three more observations

that correlate to the first three.

And we'll walk it through together okay.

So that's the structure I think it's neat because I think structure is neat.

And who doesn't love cool charts.

So you're going to hear some repetition in this section because

he's going to touch on introduction.

He's going to touch on it. And one of the first three observations.

And these going to have a corollary in the three.

So you're going to hear some repetition from his ideas.

And there are some nuanced differences

that hopefully we can identify as best we can okay.

All right.

Reflections on chasing.

Well 510 to 12. The introduction.

He's going to say

that chasing wealth is vanity because you one can't get enough of it.

Two you can't keep it in three.

You can't enjoy it.

Verse ten he who loves money will not be satisfied with money,

nor he who loves wealth with his income.

This also is vanity.

You can't get enough

no matter how much money you have, there's always the possibility of more money.

And where is that? Where? There the possibility of more money.

There is the desire for more money.

You set your sights on acquiring money as your top priority.

You are stepping onto a treadmill that you will never be able

to get off, because you will never get enough money.

There's always one more dollar.

And when you step, when you start a task, a goal that you know you can never meet,

you are doing something that the teacher would say is vanity.

I remember in my early 20s when I got my first real job out of college.

It was basically like,

think like entry level

loan processor, super sexy.

And they paid me $24,000 a year.

And I had this is a long time ago.

I had two thoughts.

The first thought was, what am I going to do with all this money?

This is amazing.

I can't believe they're paying me this much.

And the second thought was genuinely, I'm not faking it.

I thought to myself as I'm thinking down the road,

you know, when I get to $50,000

a year, when I get to that mark, that'll be enough.

That'll be the number.

And then a couple more trips around the sun.

I end up some years later getting the $50,000.

And I remember thinking to myself, you're an idiot.

Not only is $50,000 not enough,

it doesn't even scratch the surface.

It's I got a taste of more dollars.

I realized I wanted more and more dollars and $50,000 became not the goal,

but it was like, oh, this is like, this has got to be the bottom.

And I'd love to tell you that I have conquered that struggle in my life

and that that's no longer a struggle for me.

But that'll be a lie. And I don't think it's good for me to lie up here.

So I'm going to tell you, I still struggle with that.

I still struggle with the idea of one more dollar.

Okay.

So he's going to say, you can't get enough of it.

He's going to say you can't keep it.

Verse 11 when goods increase, they increase who eat them.

And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes.

So you start accumulating.

You get a bigger refrigerator.

And now you got to work to fill that big refrigerator with food.

And then you've got kids like, I've got seven kids,

and they come in like locusts, and they just clean it out.

That's a fact.

More money means more bills.

It means more taxes.

It means more credit

cards, more creditors, more people asking for your money.

You get wealth.

You get an entourage, and then you get to sit back

and watch it all disappear into the hands of others.

The teacher would say, where is the advantage in that?

It's all vanity, and he's going to say, and you can't enjoy it.

Verse 12, sweet is asleep of the labor, whether he eats a little or much,

but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

This teacher wants you to know that labor, the guy

that's out there actually doing the work in the field or in the factory, he's

the guy that gets to sleep well, whether he has a big meal or a small meal.

Why does he sleep well? Because he's exhausted.

But the rich guy doesn't sleep well because he's got his mind going.

How am I going to hang on to my money?

How am I going to not let these leeches take it all for me?

So that's his introduction.

Can't get enough, can't keep it, can't enjoy it.

And now he's going to move into the first three. Observation.

Observation one chasing wealth is vanity because riches are gained

and they can be lost. Verse 13.

There's a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun.

Grievous evil

riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,

and those riches were lost in a bad venture.

History is littered with men and women who have made a lot of money

and then lost a lot of money.

You can turn in your Bible three books to the left, and you can read about Joab,

who had all kinds of stuff, and then lost it to no fault of his own.

And notice the teacher doesn't tell you how this man lost his money,

what the bad venture was.

He leaves it vague so that you and I, as the reader, could fill in the gaps.

What I don't know, what's it going to be like for me to lose my money?

He wants you to fill in the gap.

Earlier this year,

I had the opportunity to do a little bit of consulting for an organization,

kind of a short little bit, and they paid me $2,500.

Listen, you got seven kids, you got two in college.

I got a third going off in about six weeks.

That little money helps. So I got that check.

I deposited that check on a Monday, and I'm not kidding.

Two days later, missing and I got scammed out of $2,000.

And I told Missy two things.

One, this is about me.

This is my fault.

This is the Lord working on my heart.

And two, at least they left us $500 to pay the self-employment taxes.

So there was a little blessing there.

Money lost in a bad venture vanity.

Second observation chasing wealth is vanity

because you are going to die and you cannot take it with you.

Teacher goes on.

This guy who lost money in a bad adventure says he's a father of a son,

but he has nothing in his hand as he came from his mother's womb.

He shall go again naked as he came, and he shall take

nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.

This is also a grievous evil.

Just as he came, so shall he go.

What gain in there?

What gain is there to him who toils for the wind?

The teacher keeps going with the story that he is the father.

This guy, as you mentioned, losses money in a bad venture.

That man has a son.

And now that son has no inheritance.

And the teacher asks, what gain is it?

You come into this world with nothing and you leave with nothing.

Doesn't matter which in your bank account.

You're not taking any of it with you.

And he says, what's the gain for all the toil?

And the answer is,

when you live life with an under the sun perspective, there is no gain.

Holding on to wealth is difficult in life, and it is impossible in death.

You are toiling for something of little substance.

He would say, you're wasting your time.

Observation number three

chasing wealth is vanity

because the pursuit brings darkness for 17 moreover,

all his days he eats in darkness in much,

in much vexation and sickness and anger.

All your days he eats in darkness.

The life spent

dedicated to the pursuit of wealth under the sun is void of true joy.

Because you're on that treadmill, it lacks fulfillment.

It fails to bring the light into your lives.

And so he says, it's like eating in darkness all your days.

Perpetual dissatisfaction, turmoil, vanity.

Observation one two, three.

And now he gets to the main point.

Verse 18, behold,

this is what I've seen to be good and fitting.

What I've 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.

I think that's my new life verse.

Everyone also, to whom God has given a wealth and possessions and power

to enjoy them and to accept his lot and to rejoice in his toil.

This is a gift of God, for he will not much remember

the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

Key point the best you can do.

The teacher says, the best you can do

is to try and enjoy

what God's giving you during your few days on earth.

Your few days are what are you supposed to do?

The teacher, the reader would ask.

Well, great, thank you for laying out these observations about

what do you expect me to do?

And the teacher says he goes back to what he's already said

in chapter two, 24 to 26, what he's already said

in 312 to 14, what do you said in 322

and what he is going to say in 815 and nine, seven and ten?

Is that the best you can do?

You just resign yourself.

The life under this joy is just to eat, drink and find enjoyment.

Since there's no ultimate meaning in work, in money,

in possessions, then you've got to look to find

opportunities, to experience joy as they come.

The teacher says in a in a in a life that is marked by vanity,

you should jump on any temporal pleasures

you can get your hands on to ease your burden.

If you have the opportunity to squeeze some enjoyment out amidst the joke

that is your life, the teacher would say that you should take it.

You should take as much as you can get.

Eat, drink because you are going to die.

So that's his big idea

under the sun.

So we've got first three observations that walk us up this big idea.

And now we're going to walk our way back down with observation 4 or 5 and six.

Observation four chasing wealth is vanity

because the riches you gain can't be enjoyed and end up lost.

Verse chapter six one.

There's an evil that I've seen under the sun, and it lies

heavy on mankind, to whom God gives wealth, possessions,

and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires.

Yet God does not give him the power

to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.

This is vanity.

It's a grievous evil.

This is the parallel observation to observation number one.

We're back to the fact that chasing wealth is vanity because you can't enjoy it.

You're going to lose it to a stranger.

No ultimate meaning. But here,

unlike the first

observation, the teacher adds an accusatory clause.

He says God does not give him the power to enjoy him.

So the teacher saying, you may have stuff, but God is preventing you

from enjoying it. Think about that for a moment.

Think about that coming from the mouth of an Old Testament Jew.

And he's not done.

To add insult to injury, he says, not only does God

prevent you from enjoying it, but a stranger is going to get to enjoy him.

Chasing wealth is vanity because you can't enjoy them and they're going to be lost.

Observation number five

chasing blessings is a man and he, because they don't guarantee satisfaction.

And in the end you're going to die.

Verse three 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 he, for it comes in vanity,

and it goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.

Moreover, it is not seen the sun or known

anything, yet it finds rest rather than he,

even though he should live a thousand years twice get enjoy no good.

Do not all go to one place.

So this is observation five.

It's the parallel observation of two.

In the ancient Near East, children and long life were two clear

signs of blessing.

And he says, you can have 100 children, which, by the way,

that doesn't sound like a blessing to me.

Just if I'm being honest, that seems like a large refrigerator full of food.

I'm not going to get to you.

But he says you can have 100 children and you can live for 2000 years,

more than double what Methuselah lived,

and you can still not experience satisfaction.

It's so vexing to the teacher.

It's so nonsensical that he says it's better

to be a stillborn baby than to be a person that experiences that.

I think about that stillborn child's tragedy.

Nobody rejoices in that.

And the teacher says, it's so awful that it's better to be stillborn

and not have to experience the nonsense of this earth.

Vanity under the sun.

Observation number six chasing.

Chasing wealth is vanity because it fails to bring satisfaction.

Verse seven.

All the toil of a man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.

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 king better

is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.

This also is vanity and a striving after the win.

So this is observation six is parallel to observation three.

Your appetite is never satisfied.

The thing that characterizes humanity under the sun is our constant striving.

We never reach the goal. In the ancient Near East,

wisdom and wealth were tightly correlated.

The thought went something like this

we know that God blesses those who follow the Mosaic Law.

For God says, if you follow the Mosaic Law,

your crops will grow, your sheep will have more sheep,

you won't be taken over by enemies.

And so that's baked in the mosaic law.

And so the thought was, if you're doing well financially, you must be a follower.

You must be intimately following the Basic Law.

And if you're follow the Mosaic Law, then you must be a wise person.

You must know God. And so the teacher says,

hey, just so you guys know, there's no advantage to being wiser for being a fool.

Don't failure to that, to being wise because you're both going to die.

You don't get to keep what you have under the sun.

Wisdom may have made you rich, but it sure hasn't helped you.

Finding and finding satisfaction and contentment.

Oh, by the way, you're going to die.

And with that little gem,

we close out our passage this morning.

How are we feeling?

Yeah.

They're teachers.

Reflections are dark, they're pessimistic and they're hopeless.

And if you follow his under the sun perspective, then it's going to cause you

to be afraid of God, numb to injustice, and enslaved to financial vanity.

But we're not going to end here.

I've left some time.

Not as much as I'd hoped,

to take the teacher's message and to plug it into the larger

message of the book, and then, more importantly, into the gospel.

So when I started this morning, I reminded you

that the message of the teacher is not the message of the book, right?

Remember that the message of the teacher, if you recall, is

that life is meaningless and full of trouble.

And the best thing you can do is to try to enjoy what little you have

and then you die.

And we've seen that in full force this morning.

And if that's true, and that's a really critical

if if the teachers under the sun mentality is true, if God truly is

uninvolved, absent and disengaged, then the teacher is right.

You should just suck up what little joy you can in this rotten, corrupt planet.

And you know what?

The Apostle Paul agrees with him.

The Apostle Paul in first Corinthians is sharing with the church in Corinth

the the, among other things, the benefit of the value of the resurrection.

And Paul tells his church in Corinth that if Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

then we are of all people most to be pitied.

But he's not done.

He goes on to tell them that

if there's no resurrection from the dead, which is Paul's way of saying,

If Jesus wasn't resurrection of the dead, which is to say to God, If God really is

uninvolved, absent and disengaged,

then Paul would say in verse 32, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Paul would say,

If God is not who he says he is

throughout Scripture, then it is a big joke.

It's all vanity and I will meet you at the bar.

As a Paul says.

But the reality is, is that God is involved.

God is engaged.

God does see us got it does pursue us.

God is patient with us.

He's moving with moving towards us.

Even this morning, he's moving towards us.

And while that's a fact and that is a fact,

some of us walked in this morning and we are living life

as though that weren't true.

We're effectively functional atheists.

I mean, we show up in a building like this

where people say they believe in God, but you don't believe in God.

You just got kind of going through the motions

and you're saying one thing, but you're living life.

Your day to day experience reflects that. Really?

You think God is uninvolved and distant and disengaged,

and if that's where you're living, if that's your zip code,

then I want to say as gently as I can,

that the teacher's words are your words and this

rotten, corrupt

planet is the best it's going to get for you.

It's the best.

It's going to get.

It's like you're going through this life

investing your time, effort, energy as though there were no God.

It's like you're building a

a massive, intricate sandcastle

right in the path of high tide.

And it may look impressive, it may look awesome,

but high tide is coming and it is going to destroy everything you've built.

Everything you've built is going to be wrecked, meaningless.

The teachers, right?

You and I are going to die. I'm not taking it. It was with us.

But we got to remember, we don't have to live that way

because the message is the teacher

is not the message of the book, and it's not the message of scriptures.

The message of Ecclesiastes is we should fear God,

keep his commandments, and trust that he's going to bring justice.

We need to beware of the teachers.

Pessimistic and skeptical is not. Embrace it.

And the message of the gospel is this For God so loved the world

that he gave his

only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

See, God loves humanity

even in our perpetual state of rebellion and even in our tripping over ourselves.

He's not content to allow us to self-destruct.

And so out of the center of His Holiness,

out of the depths of his love, he sent Jesus Christ

to enter into humanity, into this broken and mangled world,

marked and stained by futility and by sin to save humanity.

He did this by living a perfect life.

See, Jesus obeyed all the commandments, not just in word, but in intent.

And then he willingly sacrificed himself on a cross, but he didn't stay dead.

See, a dead Messiah is not helpful.

That's just another guy.

Jesus didn't

stated he was resurrected from the dead, and Jesus would say, it's

through my resurrection power that I will then offer as a substitute.

I'll take your judgment.

I'll take it from you, and I'll give you my righteousness.

It's an exchange.

It's a substitution. And Scripture is clear.

Jesus has made this substitution and he is coming back bodily.

And when he comes back, he's going to fulfill his covenant promises to Israel.

He's going to gather his people to himself,

and he's going to deal once and for all with the vanity of this world.

Now, the thing about the gospel

that's amazing is that it's not that Jesus just came to save us from hell.

The gospel is not fire insurance.

There's no category in Scripture for that perspective on the gospel.

Yes, the gospel brings us into right relationships,

right relationship with God, and allows us to be with him forever.

But the gospel works itself out in every day to day living.

It frees us today from being enslaved by the vine in this world.

So when we look at our passage this morning and we bump it up against

Jesus and the gospel, we're reminded that we can indeed be free

from the pessimism, from his folly, from the vanity of pursuing wealth

and possessions and pleasures as a mechanism to numb ourselves.

And I don't know where you are this morning,

whether you came in as a functional atheist, atheist or

maybe you're a believer that's just in a really hard season.

Or maybe the wind's at your back and you're

just you're saying you're feeling great right now, regardless of where you are.

I think if Jesus were here this morning physically on the stage

one, I would get off the stage quickly.

But two, I think he would have some things to say for us

if Jesus were here this morning. Here's what I think he'd tell you.

I think.

I think he would say I'm enough.

You don't need to go chasing anything else as a mechanism for joy.

You don't need money. You don't need possessions.

You don't need a long life.

You need me.

And if you got me, then you've got the father in heaven.

And if you've got me, you've got the spirit as your as your helper.

Jesus would say, I'm the way, I'm the truth.

I'm the life.

If he were here, he would say, I am the source of all joy,

all purpose, all meaning true life.

In fact,

the reason I came was

so that people would have life and have it abundantly deep, purposeful life.

And there are moments in each and every day to get to experience

the joy of being in right relationship, of seeing my hand in your life.

And can I just be honest?

I struggle with this, that pessimism that's inside of me.

Naturally, it prevents me often from seeing all that God's doing.

And there are a hundred ways that God is speaking into my life

and bringing joy in my life.

I just got to stop and see him.

My daughter Lily gave this to me for Father's Day.

No, you can't see this, but this is an example of joy.

So she painted me

this picture of the mountains because she knows a lot of mountains.

And she

wrote the text of Psalm 127, which is a important psalm to me.

It's that why the inspiration for this tattoo?

And she put the song,

the text from Psalm

one of three, which has been really ministered to me in the years.

And then she put at the top the lyrics to

faithfully from journey's 1983 frontier album.

Because it's a great album.

We listen to it together, and then at the bottom she put the lyrics to,

a song called The Promised by When in Rome from their 1987

self-titled album, which is a gem if you can find that on vinyl.

And when I got this, I was like, this is somebody who knows me

and loves me, and there's joy in that.

And I got to look up from under the sun and recognize that God's at work,

bringing me opportunities to see him day in and day out.

Text message from a friend or a community group member.

I'm praying for you.

I'm thinking about that thing we talked about.

It's the joy of knowing God's got his people looking out for me.

It's the

conversations that the Lord allows me to have with somebody who's struggling.

And I'm getting to share things that God's taught me, sometimes out of hardship

and sometimes out of joy.

And you can see the light begin to come on in their eyes.

Jesus would say, that's part of the abundant life.

Seeing somebody else's life transform.

It's for me, it's moments of quiet solitude,

which I don't get a lot of on my back patio.

Whether it's cool fire pits on,

it's probably an 80s playlist going, and I'm just like, this is awesome

that the Lord give me this moment to reflect on

how good.

The life is.

If Jesus were here, he'd say, I know this world is hard.

I know it's tempting.

I know it's tempting to pursue a path of ease just to find something

to numb the pain and the monotony that we experience.

I know there's temptations.

I know there's hardship and suffering and pain.

And I came to bring you freedom from all this, not just in eternity,

but right now on the streets of Collin County.

Jesus would say, I know

that there are competing kingdoms in your life.

I know it's tempting to fixate on the here and now.

I know it's easy to forget your true identity, your true home.

I know that there are shiny little objects and you're like a squirrel.

You just can't keep your your attention focused.

That fight to distract you.

But remember, I came to give you a new citizenship city bridge.

Our citizenship is not primarily the United States of America.

Our citizenship is in heaven first,

and we need to remember that, especially come November.

We don't get tangled up in all this nonsense.

We are citizens of heaven.

First by a long margin.

Jesus, which I have not forgotten you.

I am coming back to get you.

I'm not blind to the brokenness of this world.

I see all the ways people want to pull you off sides,

all the ways the world lies to you about what's important, what's valuable,

what's we're chasing, what's worth investing

your time, talents, and treasure. And I see it,

and I'm coming back to deal with it.

Got to be patient.

You got to be diligent.

Jesus would say, I love you.

I love you so much that I took on flesh and blood so that I could be

with you physically so that I could walk your streets, fight your battles.

I was betrayed by my closest friends.

I was nailed to a cross.

I suffered and bled.

I was beaten, and I did this because I love you.

And I want you to be free.

Not just from the penalty of sin, but from its day to day power in your life

and my death and my resurrection of accomplishes.

Remember, I love you and I'm for you.

And this is another one where I struggle.

So I don't know a lot about everything, but here's what I do know.

I do know what's in the heart of man.

I feel like I've got a pretty good bead

on the honor, the depravity, and the brokenness.

This world, I feel dialed into that, and that includes me.

And I think about the things that go through my heart on Any given Tuesday.

And I'm like, how big?

I don't? Why would God love me?

Don't you see how broken I still am after

32 years of walking with you?

And Jesus would say, bro,

that's why I came.

I came for the sick.

I came for the broken.

I came for those who can't.

You're in brokenness.

You're the reason I came.

I'm making all things new, Jesus would say,

including the darkness that still resides in your heart.

So what do we do after a message like this?

I've given a lot of messages over the years,

and I've ended them with, here's five things on a checklist.

You should go do

less so recently, and I'm not going to do that this morning,

because what I believe the Lord is calling us to do is our next

step is just to reflect on a couple things

I think we should reflect on the big idea

that if we embrace an under the sun perspective, if we embrace a life

that views God as distant and disengaged and uninvolved,

it's going to cause us to be afraid of God.

It's going to cause us to become numb to the injustices of this world.

And God calls his people to be involved in dealing with the injustices.

And it's going to cause us to be enslaved to financial vanity.

Are you afraid of God?

Are you numb to injustice?

Are you enslaved to the vanity of chasing wealth?

I think the Lord would have us reflect on that and ask those hard questions.

And then I think the Lord would have us reflect on what Jesus was.

Say I was going to say.

So there's all those things I read just it's going to go.

They're all grounded in Scripture. Every one of them.

And we're going to put the references to those, every one of those points

and the scripture references.

We'll send it out in the bridge, email.

And so maybe it's just like, hey, I'm gonna

I'm going to meditate on those verses, and I'm going to simply ask the Lord,

Lord, would you move my heart a click or two closer to you?

Would,

Would you help me

to see Jesus?

The way that Scripture describes Jesus?

Would you help me to see the father, the way the Scripture describes

the father?

And I believe as we do, that,

then the Lord will make clear what your next steps are.

Whatever the next to do is for you.

I trust that God is spirit.

I trust he'll make it clear to you.

And then you get to decide. I get to decide.

Do I do it or not?

Father, thank you for

the book of Ecclesiastes.

Thank you for preserving it for us and.

Even just the difficulty of wrestling

with the truths that are in it and the under the sun perspective.

Lord, I just pray for my friends this morning for any of us

who are are going through this world, and we're going through it

under the sun, and we're not lifting our eyes

on the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Would you help us lift our eyes

out of the vanity?

This world set them on Jesus, the author

and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, for him

went to the cross, and endured its shame on our behalf.

It's going to take you

moving us where I can't I can't white knuckle this.

My friends can't white knuckle this.

It's going to take you and your spirit moving in the right direction.

So we're asking that you would do that in Jesus name.

Amen.