How to Appreciate What You Have: Ecclesiastes 5:8 - 6:9

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways.

You're back, Chris, I am back better than ever.

Who's back better than ever? Hey? I think I am

better than ever?

Really?

Yeah, when I wake up every day, that's what I

try to tell myself, Jeff.

Better than ever. Okay, it's a new day and it's

got better. Keep telling yourself.

So, hey, I do this thing at our church has

a gym called HFP Heritage Fitness Project, and Josh, one

of the trainers, has a saying and so as you're

working really hard, he always says, you're one percent better today.

Yep, that's right. Better, that's all you got to do.

Hey, think about it, right, that's a really great perspective.

So so then in ninety nine days, you're right on

the edge of being one hundred percent. You've doubled yourself,

doubled yourself. That's right, twice as good as I was.

It's a hundred days ago. That's right, every three months,

every three months, right, Okay, Wow, there you got it

for you, Chris, Yes, thank you. Good it is It

is good for me.

The unfortunate thing is.

And our listeners just totally picked up on your flex.

There by the way.

You know, I go to the gym all the time. No, no,

my trainer.

Because what I'm about to say is is that, unfortunately,

it's not true the order you get right, you can't

be five years older and be one hundred and fifty

percent better than Yeah.

That's right, that's right, because you're not five years older.

Right. So anyway, well, good, well, hey today, Chris, we

have a very very big things. It's one of our

most important segments. Yes, mail Banks rights, right, it's our

only seg Well, it's not our only segment, but it's

one of our only segments with its own theme song.

Wait a minute, what else has the theme song? Oh well,

we've sung a couple of times for other things. Okay, yeah,

so anyways, dead joke Sarah Kay Hi, Sarah Hey, Sarah.

Sarah Kay says what's the best concert or live performance

you've ever been to? That's a good question. And then

it says, p Jeff, you can't say it was hearing

Chris sing on the podcast.

Ha ha, Yeah for sure.

Well, no, I don't know what I'm going to say,

right right, I don't know what I'm going to say,

because truly that was the case. I've been around some

really great music, and yours this some music you see.

The opera's his name, but the opera guy?

Oh Andrealli? Yeah yeah, it's either me and the podcast

or Andrea.

Yeah oh yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, that's so funny.

I just I know I know who he is. I

just can't say his name correct. I don't want to Butcher, right, Okay,

So are you go ahead?

Yes?

Okay, So I'm going to.

Give you an answer that will probably surprise you, Okay,

because I've been to, like you, probably quite a few concerts.

I've been to.

I mean, you know, I would say dozens and dozens, right,

what fifty concerts?

Maybe forty, I don't know, in your lifetime.

You know, the kind you pay for and you go

and it's a big deal. I would say my absolute

best live performance I've ever been to, because it does

say live performance is Lady Gaga in Las Vegas.

Yeah.

I think you've told us this before.

Because it was unbelievable. Tony Bennett passed on to her

the mantle of carrying the uh the baton for jazz,

and so she did jazz and so what I had

discovered is is that she is a phenomenal musician, and

she's so technical, and she's so knowledgeable, and her performance,

her ability to perform for the audience is almost higher

than anybody I've ever seen. She's unbelievable, Okay, And what

I mean by that is I mean like total respect.

My respect for her went through the roof because you know,

remember when she first came out.

It was all goofy. It was just goofy stuff, right,

It was just you know, how different can I look? Yes? Yes,

And I just never could have imagined that she was

who she is.

Okay, Well, so I have a weird answer for you too.

I don't think I've paid for a dozen concerts in

my lifetime. Whoa, Yeah, I've played in hundreds of concerts. Yeah, yeah,

but I don't think. I don't think I've paid for

twelve concerts my whole life, for the for.

The listeners who don't know, Jeff used to play the trumpet. Well, yeah,

I guess I could say used to write.

Sure, I don't play it very much anymore. Yeah, yeah, okay,

And I don't play for money, yeah, for money anymore?

Yeah.

So yeah, I've played in hundreds of concerts, but I

don't think I've ever paid to go more than maybe

ten times. We love Broadway, but I've been to like

five Broadway shows. I just we don't do the theater.

I wouldn't consider that a concert, although maybe it is.

Yeah, yeah, well they're singing and dancing. I know, but

what what do you need?

I call that a musical play, and I don't know concert.

What it says or live performance.

Oh it does say that live performance. Well then hey,

hey reading, wait a minute, wait a minute, a minute,

because now I'm changing my mind. Okay, it's got to

be Wicked in New York.

Yeah, I was gonna say, we saw Wicked in New

York twice and I like that. Yeah, that was a

good one.

Yeah, that was good.

We saw it with the original original Holy Christmas. Yeah, yeah,

that's so phenomenal.

That's a privilege.

It was a few years into the show, you know. Yeah,

so we had I was going to do a matinee

and then we changed it. The first time we went

and saw it and we changed it and went to

the evening, and the evening was the two original cast members.

So that was pretty great.

That's crazy, is what that.

Is hysterically funny because they'd done the show so many

times that at this point they were fooling around with

it and you know how they turn and look at

the crowd anyways, or you know, break that wall. They

were on purpose trying to make the other one laugh.

It was. It was really funny. So that was great

when when the characters are they're not breaking the wall

entirely other than when are supposed to in the show,

but they're on purpose trying to make the other one.

Yeah, and you can.

Get out a character, you can tell. It was hysterically funny.

And then there were things where they were supposed to

say a thing but they said a totally different thing.

You know, stuff like that. Very very funny. So that

was great. It was it was hystorically funny. I would

say that was as far as live performances go, and

we've been to a few Broadway shows, that's probably my favorite.

As far as concerts go, I don't know. I the

last time we saw Andrea Butchelli was pretty great just

because of the level of musicianship. It is just insane

through the roof. Yeah, you know what, as far as

one of my favorite, let me say this because we

have another another couple of seconds. One of my favorite experiences,

and this is so dumb because it's not that high level,

was my wife and I went to the Detroit Symphony

and they they played the Princess movie, yes, and then

they played all the music. But there's no music to

Princess Bride if you've ever if you think through it,

there's no soundtrack. Okay, music, so.

Well they did that goofy music.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean there's not like just

John Williams soundtrack. So I forgot which which symphony or

which which writer did it, but somebody went back and

redid the whole thing and it was magnificent. It was

just fabulous, hysterically funny, the whole crowd shouting out all

the lines, you know, and stuff like that. So that

was a really fun night. And of course the Detroit

Symphony is one of the top symphonies in the world.

So yeah, and I'm I'm gonna say honorable mention the

Rockets in New York.

Oh you've said that before too.

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was top notch.

So okay, well there you go, Sarah Kay. We sorry

to disappoint you on that one as much as we

like music and shows.

We kind of yeah, well I thought they were great answers, Jeff,

I thought.

We did well. Yeah, okay, yeah, yes, man, we did

such a good job. Thanks for asking a good question, Sarah.

So talking about doing a good job. Solomon is pretty

miserable about his life and isn't so happy about all

of his work.

But he did a good job writing this.

Yeah, good job, Solomon, job Solomon. People like you, got it,

gun it? People love you. So we are in Ecclesiastes

chapter five, and just as a reminder, if you're joining

us for the first time this week, we've already gone

a couple chapters. In the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon is

incredibly wise. He's the wisest man apart from Jesus, that

ever walked the planet. But yeah, but he made some

really bad choices. So there's a different between being having

wisdom and acting in a wise way. So he kind

of fooled himself into being more clever than he was

wise with regard to his diplomacy, and he winds up

being led astray by all of his wives into worshiping

other gods, and God winds up taking his kingdom away

from him over it, Yeah, well, from his family. So

by the time he gets to writing Ecclesiastes, he's kind

of spiraling, like, man, I think I've wasted my life.

None of my work matters, none of my wealth matters,

none of the things I've done matter, right, And he's

kind of spiraling. Every once in a while he'll say

something really meaningful, like, oh I did learn this. You know,

we should have learned to enjoy the fruit of our

work every once in a while. There's wisdom in that.

But then I'll start to spiral again, and then to

come back out of it, and then they'll spiral again.

And so what does that say about life?

That here's the wisest man who has ever lived or

will ever live and his downfall is women?

Right? What does that tell you? That means? You know?

It's like reminds me of the favorite joke we did

last week. Did you do the joke with the arm

and a leg with Adam and Eve? No, you didn't

do it.

I didn't do it.

Did you read it?

Though? Yeah? Yeah?

Yeah yeah.

So God approaches Adham, he creates him in the garden

and says, hey, I'm going to create for you a

creature that's so wonderful.

She's going to be perfect, she's.

Never gonna be moody, and she's going to be You're

going to know exactly what she thinking at all times,

and she'll always be pleasant.

And he says, and she's gonna be called woman. And

he goes, that sounds fantastic.

And God says, this is going to cost you an

arm and a leg, and he goes, Oh, what can I.

Get for just a rib?

So that's terrible, Chris, it's terrible. You're gonna so I

seizar ball at the maible guys dot com.

You have a tendency to avoid all that stuff.

I do, man. I wrote it in.

I wrote it in the message. I tossed it out there.

And it's no surprise that you.

I'm the one that always gets all the hate mail,

right right. Yeah, So that was that was a funny.

It was a funny one. It didn't fit in that

spot where I was at in the message. That's what

happened there. Yeah. So, if you don't know, we work

in teaching teams and Chris is the leader of our

teaching team, so often he'll send us up a proposed

transcript for the message for the weekend. And I was

speaking at one of our locations. He was speaking at

the other, and he told the joke from stage and

I did not yes, correct, correct, Yeah. So anyways, here

he is now. And he repeats a number of things

throughout the book, and one of those is he struggles

with the value of work. He struggles with the injustices

in life, and also with the futility of wealth. And

so he says, 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. Mouthful, even the king

milks the land for his own profit. Those who love

money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that

wealth brings true happiness. 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.

People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little

or much, but the rich seldom get a good night's sleep.

There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun,

courting riches harms the saver. Money is put into risky investments,

turn sour and everything is lost. In the end, there's

nothing left to pass on to one's children. 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, and this too is

a very serious problem. People leave this world no better

off than they came. All their hard work is for nothing,

like working for the wind. Throughout their lives, they live

under a cloud, frustrated, discouraged, and angry. Even so, I've

noticed one thing at least that is good. It's good

for people to eat, drink and enjoy their work under

the sun during their short life. God has given them

to accept their lot in life. 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.

God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they

take no time to brood over the past. There is

another serious tragedy I've seen under the sun, and it

weighs heavily on humanity. 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, and this is meaningless, a sickening tragedy.

A man might have one hundred children, live to be

very old, but if he finds no satisfaction in life,

doesn't even get a decent burial. It would have been

better for him to be born dead. His birth would

have been meaningless and he would have ended in darkness.

He wouldn't have even have had a name, 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. 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?

All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they

never seem to have enough. So 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? Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what

you don't have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless,

like chasing the wind. He uses that phrase like chasing

the wind over and over and over again. So well,

there you go.

Right, hey, I remember this passage, particularly chapter five sticks six.

Excuse me, let me start over.

It sticks out to me because when I was in

high school, I had just become a Christian and I

was reading through the New Testament. I get through that,

and then I was going through the Old Testament, and

you know how God does these things sometimes that seemed

to be more than coincidence. And I was in Ecclesiastes

and I had read it and in my mind, you know,

just being a teenager not having any life experience at all,

I read it and thought to myself, Okay, this is

number one one of the most depressing things ever.

Right.

It feels like to me like Solomon is just you know,

down on his luck or keep in mind, I'm.

Fifteen at the time, right, so I just didn't quite know.

So I thought to myself, here's a guy who's depressed

and you know, he's just sitting there feeling sorry.

For himself or something like this.

I'm like, this is just an unrelatable chapter completely to me.

And then I remember there was this guy that went

to my church, and he was like, it didn't matter anyway.

I just had a conversation with him, and I remember

him saying, I relate to Ecclesiastes chapter five, And.

I thought to myself, what like.

I literally just read Ecclesiastes chapter five.

And he had lived this story.

He had lived having a ton of children, you know,

pursuing wealth, having no satisfaction.

You know, nobody really cared.

For him, and he understood why he accepted that lot

in life, and he had a fear of going to

his deathbed thinking that he has absolutely made no impact

in this world. Now, while the conversation was completely tragic,

and it really truly was, especially for me being fifteen,

it stood out to me and what brought what brought

to my attention was is that, Wow, isn't it amazing

how God's word is for everybody and what probably hopefully

will never be able to be related to me. I

can't read that and go wow, that's me. I could

probably never do that. I mean principles, yes, right, but

in terms like truth and wisdom.

And all that, but really you say, wow, that's me.

The richer you get, the more the more hangers on

you have, everybody wants to spend all your money.

Right, right.

But you know what I'm saying, just just to whole

like die and every imagine not I have been born

that kind of thing. Sure, that kind of thing, and

and uh but yet I'm thinking to myself, isn't it

funny how God's word can speak to different people at

different times?

And and I just love it.

And I also love how maybe perhaps you can go

back and read ecclesiast these maybe twenty years later, and

it would mean something completely different to you. Yeah, right,

because you know, it's just how God's word is is

very powerful.

So as I mentioned, he kind of spirals, he goes

in these really bad loops, and it's I think what

you have is you know, at this point, he's made

his mistakes, he's he's been informed he's gonna lose his kingdom.

He's already tried to kill ray Boeham and so you've

got a little bit of this. He's looking at his

life and going, I wasted my life, Right, there's a

little bit of this. Really, why did I spend so

much time trying to get more money? I already had

more money that could spend in my life. He's the

richest man that had ever lived up to that point.

To that point, yeah, and you know, kings and queens

from around the world brought him even more wealth. And

when we say bringing more wealth, remember when we talked

about the Queen of Sheba. She brought him like a

ton of gold, tons of gold. Yeah, billions of dollars.

They just he was so absurdly wealthy. And yet he's saying,

but I found myself chasing just a little more. And

then I had so much power, but I found myself

chasing just a little more. And so you find himself

many times to here going, you know, the one thing

I did learn, so the one good thing, he says,

Even so I've noticed one thing at least that's good,

And it's good for people to eat and drink and

enjoy their work under the sun during the short life

that God has given them and to accept their lot

in life. He's like, you know, I think almost every

time you see him spiraling for a minute, he pivots back.

You'll give you something good. There's like always this good nugget, yea.

And in here he's going like, you know, you know

what I wish I'd done. I wish i'd stopped to

smell the roses. I wish that stopped and pet the puppy.

I wished I would have stopped and thrown the ball

with the grandkids in the backyard. I wish that we

would have gone to Disney one more time. I wish

I would have right. I wished I would have spent

my life doing the things that really matter, have you know,

sitting down and taking time instead of getting all my

food through the window in a drive through because I'm

hurrying now into my next meeting. I wish we sat

down for one more good meal. And there is something

to that. There's a lot of people I know that

have been very successful that matter of fact, I was

with a guy in Naples, Florida a while back, and

he's wealthy beyond comprehension to me. Just the amount of

money this guy has is staggering to me. And he's

he was about I think he's ninety now. So I

was with him when he was like eighty eight, and

he was with one of his best buddies who's wealthy,

but not that wealthy. Right, when you're worth several million

and you're around a guy worth hundreds of millions of dollars, right,

you're just kind of yeah, you're hoping he picks up

the check, right. And so we're at a little diner,

do nothing diner. It's just it's one of those you know,

with like the stainless steel and the shiny sign outside.

You know, it's one of those, the stools of red

and silver all in the building, all this stuff, the

lady chewing bubblegum when she comes up and orders the food,

and very clearly they're putting on this diner show.

Yeah.

So he it's his favorite little diner for breakfast. So

we go there for breakfast, and he just clearly is

a miserable person. He's done a lot of things. He

has some health issues. But then his buddy got him laughing.

Then he starts laughing and telling funny stories. And so

he comes in grumpy, challenging me. I was with David Elms.

He's challenging David Elms kind of a little foul because

he's wanting to measure money and he's wanting measure investments.

Then his buddy gets him laughing and then it starts

to like poking fun and he's really sarcastic. So then

he starts poking fun I was delighted at how funny

he was. So I'm laughing. We're going back and forth, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh,

slamming each other, doing all these things. And next thing,

you know, by the time we were done, he's like,

I need more of these. How about I fly you

guys down again next week, We'll do it again. Oh right.

So you had this grumpy, old, very wealthy man great

who laughed and laughed and laughed for a now when

we decided, okay, we're not going to talk about money,

and his buddy got him to pivot off of money

and the funny things. All of a sudden it turns

and funny, and he was just he went from being

this guy that's just I got to control this dollar

two and he's got so many dollars he can't control weall. Anyways,

he's trying to give well, i'm not gonna say it,

he's trying to give away hundreds of millions of dollars

before he dies. So he's he's just uptight about it.

And this is exactly what how I'm saying. He said,

you know, poor people tend to think wealthy people have

it all, you know, and it's just the best ever.

And he said, man, wealthy people can't sleep. They're worrying

all the time. Everybody wants something from them. People are

trying to take advantage of them, right, So it's not

how much money you have. What he finally says is

I discovered enjoy the people you're with, Enjoy the meals

you're having, learn to laugh a little bit, and enjoy

your lot in life. And that's what I saw in

that very wealthy man is he's like, Hey, I'm going

to fly you guys down. We'll do this again next week.

It was so much fun, and he was a totally

different person in that moment.

Yeah.

Well, you know, there's a lot of wisdom in that

sentence where Sulivon says God keeps such people so busy

enjoying life that they take.

No time to brood over the past. Yeah, and so

I guess there's a hint of enjoying in there.

But there's something also, you know, whise about reflection, because

isn't it true you can get through seasons of your

life where you live so much in the present, meaning

like the only thing in the future that's on your

mind is like, what do I have to do? Today

or this week, just to get through this present season, right.

And if you live like that sometimes for years people live,

then then it's one of those things where you look back.

Those are the people, by.

The way, who get to the end of their life

and say, where did all the time go? And I

can't believe that they were this big five minutes ago,

you know, because they're just trying to do the daily grind.

And so, yeah, somebody who enjoys their lot in life,

accepts it, reflects on the past, appreciates it.

You know.

If you're a person who really truly soaks up the moment,

then I don't think you're gonna I don't think you're

going to ever really get to the place where you're

going to say, where did all the time go? I

think you're going to say, wile time went quick, But

I don't think you're going to say, holy cow, where

did it all go?

I missed it?

I missed it? Yeah. Yeah. The note Life application study

by Able says God wants us to view what we have,

whether it's much or little, with the right perspective. Our

possessions are a gift from God. Although they are not

the source of joy, they are a reason to rejoice,

because every good thing comes from God. We should focus

more on the giver than the gift. We can be

content with what we have when we realize that in

God we have everything we need.

Yeah, and that great, that's great.

And that's really the essence of this passage. So when

you see this guy who's kind of spiraling and struggling

with his decisions, he does give you these glimpses of

what really matters. And so whenever I read Ecclesiastes, I

plow through all the negative because his feelings aren't necessarily true,

they're just feelings, right, But every once in a while

he gives you this nugget of what really does matter,

And there's a lot of value with somebody that you

would look at and go, he has everything I want.

And then he finally distills it down into sentences like that,

I say, this is what really matters. And so the

whole book is peppered with those kinds of things. But ultimately,

it's way easier to be happy with what you have

when you realize you have everything you need in God.

Right, that's great, that's great.

Well, that sounds like a great place to end, and

hopefully we will see you tomorrow.

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