Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter five? We look tonight at the subject of worry and work and wealth. I am like you. I wear a lot of hats Have a lot of rules and titles in life, but one that is Fundamental and basic to them all is that I am a husband and a father. I'm a family man And like you, I hate to see my Children and my wife struggling I don't like them to worry about anything or to ever be disappointed or have their feeling cert As I watch my four children grow up and Get married and establish their own families. I watch them working on their marriages. I Watch them struggle to raise five children. I Have two young bachelors who are finding work and after that they're trying to find a wife The uncertainties about the economy and Health issues with their little grand-child and their little ones and worries over Financing homes and managing debt and doing all these things makes me want to reach down continually with some Mystical screwdriver and make a little adjustment in their life so that all of the worry and all of the pain would go away It's not possible But that's what I'd like to do. I'd like to take away all the difficult things in their life and Make their life easy And that's probably one of the many reasons why it's good that I'm not sovereign and I'm not God Because that's not necessarily good for them But Solomon was the same way He was a man who had many wives and a lot of children But there was one in particular that was dear to his heart a young man named Reha Bologna Who was to come after him as the king in Jerusalem? For Solomon was the son of a great king and the father of an immature prince and Having experienced his own ups and downs in life he writes a lot of wisdom literature Books about love and marriage and sex like the song of Solomon or Proverbs Maxums and exhortations and wisdom pieces for children written by a father and Here in the book of Ecclesiastes he pens his memoirs the story of his own Spiritual wandering to the far country of the prodigal and his journey back and as an old man He writes this piece of wisdom for his son. He would say in chapter 7 verse 5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools And so he's trying to write to Reha Bologna You can tell as he writes that he's writing as a king to another king because the subject of the crown prince and and of government and of Help to treat people as subjects of the king and they're constantly woven through This memoirs of his known as Ecclesiastes which means the preacher and He writes in four long Discourses four letters so to speak Penned to his son the first Begins in chapter 1 goes to the end of chapter 2 and it's about enjoying life as God planned it as a gift from God The second Discourse that we're finishing tonight is about discovering God's mysterious plan behind all of the difficult things we see in this world In the next discourse which will be the longest He will he will talk about How to explain God's plan for life so that we can live comfortably with it and In the last one he will talk about overcoming obstacles that keep us from a life with God At the end of each one of these letters. There's a refrain It goes something like this There is nothing better for a person that that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his work This I have found is a gift from the hand of God So when each one of these discourses he comes back to the same truth that what really makes us happy in life is to find what he calls Are a lot our portion our place in life and to do the things that God has called us to do now in discourse number one Just to review for people who haven't been here in a while He talks about pursuing three things. He said I wanted to find the meaning of life And so I pursued pleasure. I searched for wisdom. I Drolled myself to our success only to find that those things were empty Vane and a striving after wind I discovered this truth There was nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil This also I saw is from the hand of God So he goes to his second letter his second long email to his son and he talks about God's mysterious plan in life and he arrives at this conclusion that there was a time for everything under sun And there's a timeliness on all that God does He begins his thoughts at the beginning of chapter three and concludes at the end of chapter five And there are three things he lists a number of things, but three things that he comes back to again and again and again that He struggles within this light and that he knows will cause his son Rehoboam great personal pain and great professional frustration And those three things are oppression and injustice competition and rivalry And the loneliness of a wealthy man He talks about those in chapter three verse 16 through chapter four verse 15 Only to bring his concluding thoughts in chapter five around two great ideas One that God should be the number one priority in life 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 do not know that they are doing evil Be not rashed with your mouth nor let your heart be hasty to utter word before God for God is in heaven And you are on earth He tells us in these first seven verses of chapter five that our number one priority is a fear of God a reverence for God in fact That's how he end his book At the very end of chapter 12 He says the end of the matter is this when all has been heard Fear God and keep his commands for this is the whole duty of man toward God And then he returns at the end He's been musing over something we call Theotasy the justification of God How can a good God allow injustice and oppression Death and frustration the abuse of wealth and the loneliness of the individual so how can he let that exist in his world And not do something about it and so he comes to the conclusion that indeed God does Something about these three great eagles of oppression rivalry and loneliness Walter Kaiser says having established his dominant theme the fear of God as man's number one priority Solomon now turns to some of the cases that have caused him previous anxiety The things he has previously introduced to us in chapter three and four His work moves more and more in the direction of a theotasy that is an explanation and Adjustification for the ways of God that appear to be difficult He says three things God will govern the government God will manage your work And God will redistribute wealth He turns again to the sovereign God and says that God will govern governors Manage your job in mind and take our wealth and use it however he wants to after work on So let's look at those three things that he tells us tonight's number one The God will govern the government beginning in chapter five versus eight nine 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 officials watched by a higher and there are yet higher ones over them But this is gained for a land in every way a king committed to cultivated fields Now Solomon was perplexed and vexed about the injustice and impression he saw in his own government As the king over everything If you look back in chapter three Verse 16 he brings up that subject I saw under the sun That in the place of justice even there was wickedness and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness And I said in my heart God will judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every matter and every work In chapter four Verse one 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 On the side of their oppressors There was power and there was no one to comfort them Bathers him that in his own land and perhaps inadvertently by his own hand His government and Israel had oppressed the poor and abused their power In an unjust manner over the righteous So he says in chapter five verse eight if you see in a province the oppression of the poor And the violation of justice and righteousness what we call injustice Do not be amazed For the high official is watched by a higher They're yet higher ones over him But there's one thing that is a benefit to the whole land and that is a king committed to cultivated fields He speaks of what he calls the Medina His provinces or districts or regions what we'd call states And in them he sees oppression The abuse of power over the week And something he calls gazelle what we translate Violation of justice and righteousness it really means to pray upon the poor He sees these two things and he says Don't be amazed It comes with the system These are common evils he says in all government Not much of a comfort on the front end, but hang with him for a minute H.C. loopold says one attitude to assume is that this is a common evil that honeycomb the entire fabric Of government and bureaucracy We see it all the time in our own government one of the The more compassionate and just governments on the face of the other Little person can get lost in the cogs in the machinery of this thing called the federal government or the federal budget Or the national law And inadvertently or purposefully Oppression and injustice can take place Dwayne Garrett says the reader is warned not to be shocked If corruption in high places is discovered the more existence of many levels of government administered by many officials makes at least some corruption inevitable A certain justified cynicism is displayed here If enough people have opportunity to enrich themselves by abuse of political power Some are bound to succumb to that temptation It's just something we have to live with Corrupted bureaucracy There's successive tears of authority and all of them as Solomon says appears to be shady, but we're not to be discouraged by this Because God is still in control Now there's two ways maybe three ways to look at what he's saying here some people say Because the Hebrew quite frankly is not easy But some people say that Solomon's being negative what he's saying is that Corruption from runs from top to bottom in any government And even the king will get rich off the farmers who cultivate their own fields So live with it Others say no Really he has a positive message The message of checks and balances The corruption is widespread in the government but because there are so many tears of officials going all the way up to the king There are some checks and balances so at least the government functions and there was prosperity in the economy I quite frankly think he's saying both I think he's acknowledging that corruption is systemic But at least the king's rule is better than anarchy and brings with it a stability to society Solomon would not think like a modern evangelical thinks He would say the whole system reeks of greed and illegal actions But there is a king that brings benefit to life because Whether for greed or for good he assures the fields are cultivated There if I Producing goods and services creating jobs and taxes And by default putting people to work so that they make a profit while the government gains either from legitimate taxation or from graft The very greed of the government officials establishes an imprecise but effective system of checks and balances This is better than anarchy No order whatsoever Better than revolution Violence and civil war and even better than decentralized government Where corruption has no checks or balances What he's saying Derek kidner says is a developed country needs the strength of central government even if it entails the burden of officialdom We tend to be people who Revolve in the idea of decentralized government But that's because we really don't understand The depths of depravity in the human soul And somehow we think the mayor of our town Will be more honest than the governor or senator or president whom we don't really know Solomon says It's not true Human fallenness runs through all of mankind at every level of work and government and bureaucracy And yet God controls those things This is what Joseph said to his brother and he said what you intended for evil God has used for good Paul talked about how God caused us all things Even the government to work together for our good Peter tells us to be subject to every human institution and all the levels of power in the government And Jeremiah and lamentation says With this provocative question that God is sovereign. Is it not from the hand of the most high That both good and ill go forth true corrupt government eventually will ruin a nation Son of acknowledges that in Proverbs 29 verse 4 By justice a king builds up the land but he who execs bribes tears it down But he also says that God does whatever he wants with kings Whether they're just or unjust whether they're men of freedom or men of oppression The king's heart is like a stream of water a hand in the Lord. He turns it wherever he wants it to go You and I have read the Bible and we've read what God did with a man like Nebuchadnezzar Or Cyrus the Persia or the emperors of Rome Pontius bylet King Herod He used them for his sovereign purposes And Solomon would tell us That includes American presence whether they're good in Godly men or not God governs the government He would say to you and me today I think That you evangelical Christians worry too much about party politics and who was in the White House You need to hear this Both Democrats and Republicans tend to be corrupt The Democrats promote abortion and homosexual marriages Big taxes government intrusion in the churches and they are generally hostile towards evangelical christianity and Catholicism but They also promote programs for the poor and the elderly Well for single mothers farm subsidies unions for workers education and domestic programs for their general populace They are good and they're bad at the same time And Republicans tend to favor the wealthy Grandtax breaks to the rich Ignored domestic issues use evangelicals to get elected and then Not do with a promise and allow wall street and capitalism to run rampant But they also promote traditional values about life and marriage build up the military and keep us safe Support religious freedom Great jobs for people keep taxes down reduce government intrusion into private lives and create opportunities for small businesses to succeed And they usually put people to work They are good and they are bad at the same time And God allows that to be so so that The warp and woof of who's elected and who holds the majority in house and senate are the checks and balances But the best thing he says is a president who puts people to work This is the benefit of the land he says a king committed to cultivated fields That's the bottom line The land is blessed by God Who sovereign rules over the government even though injustice and corruption and pressure are throughout all levels of politics and policy As long as who's ever in charge Creates work And puts people into gaitful employment Then things tend to work out Because God governs the government Here's the second thing he says God will manage our work He's not only concerned about oppression and injustice He's concerned about competition and rivalry If you remember over in chapter 4 if you look there for a minute in verses 4 through 6 He says this is a second thing that's vexed his soul Then I saw all the toil and skill and work comes from man's envy of his neighbor This also is vanity and striving after win The fool folds his hand and eats his own flesh Benders a handful of quietness and two handfuls full of toil in striving after win This the problem of of competition And mean-spirited jealous senseless rivalry that seems to drive This economy that the king wants to produce Solomon says don't worry about that God will manage your work God will manage the economy He says then in chapter 5 verses 10 through 12 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money Nor he who loves wealth with his income This also is vanity When goods increase they increase who eat them And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes Sweet is the sleep of a laborer Where they eat little or much But the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep He's concerned about All this competition rivalry says you know there's three things that we need to keep up in our mind. Here's the first thing He says This Drive for money Will not be able to satisfy you That's a hard thing for us to accept But Solomon says the more money you make The less satisfied you often are Remember the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglass he played this character called Gordon Gecko His famous line Was that greed is good And Solomon says Not true Human craving always exceeds limited supply Verse 10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money Nor he who loves wealth with his income This also Is vanity I don't know who it was but I'd love to remember because I'd love to quote him But recently I had dinner with someone and they were saying to me or lunch or something and they said you know faster They were talking with someone in the police department The Charlotte Mecklenburg police department about all of the increase in suicides Since 2008 in the city of Charlotte all these people with great incomes and big companies And multi-million dollar houses where the houses went to have their value And the economy collapsed and took away their company and they were unemployed and how many people each week Took their own life Because all of their wealth Could not satisfy them The second thing he says is the more wealth a man has The more people there are to consume or eat That wealth verse 11 when goods increase they increase who eat them And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes parasites Attached themselves to wealthy people more taxes are paid More insurance needed more friends looking for a handout a rich man discovers he has relatives all over the world he didn't know about And people who all the sudden want him to donate to this cause and to that cause The rivalry that got him all this wealth creates no friends But his money reads him many parasites Increased wealth brings increased responsibilities And more people who say Give me some of what you have The third thing he says is that honest work brings sound sleep But wealth will keep you awake at night verse 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer a worker Whether he eats little or much But the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep What irony That you and I will live under the stress of rivalry the angst of wealth the worry of protecting our Advances and our investments and our accomplishments and and what we've accumulated only to have sleepless nights End up paying thousands to doctors for stress test sleep apnea Medications fitness programs and psychologists to say nothing of the lawyers The accountants and the investment managers that we need to have But the Lord gives to his beloved Sleep Look what he says in chapter 4 verse 6 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after win We can see in this Solomon implies the hand of God as well We're envy and rivalry and competition and greed seem to drive the world if you look carefully It's not true Hard driving businessmen who get rich eventually burn out and break down If they will not slow down and enjoy the gift of rest Volunteerly God will make him do it In fact my alma mater now has a very famous coach a name is urban Meyer You're aware of urban Myers story of amazingly successful coach in college football And yet after two national championships and one Heisman trophy winner a young guy named Tim Tibo he just burned out Had health problems and took a sabbatical came back and then resigned and said I can't do this anymore But we don't know as behind the scenes Tim Tibo is asking a urban Meyer Some questions about eternal things and a friend of his Friend of urban Myers led him to Christ So he went back and said I'd just be an announcer I'll talk about football rather than have to do it until God's people from a high estate called on him And then he said well, maybe this is the Lord's will But he made a contract with his wife and his children that he would do certain things And there was a weekly checkup with the athletic tractor at a high estate to make sure that urban Myers keeping his family contract And the number one thing on his contract is that he rest Jesus told us a parable about this and Luke chapter 12 He said to them take care and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even one no one has an abundance This his life consists of his possessions So he told them this story Saying the land of a rich man produced plentifully and he thought to himself what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops So he said to himself I will do this I will tear down my barns and build large ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul soul You have ample goods laid up for many years relax each drink and be merry But God said to him you fool This night your soul is required of you And all the things you have preferred Who's will they be So is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God that this is a sensitive subject God Messing with our work and our wealth But folks God speaks to us in two ways He speaks to us through special revelation in his Christ and in the canon of scripture But he also speaks to common grace in general relation and what we observe in the world And I want to ask you a question tonight What occupation has the highest rate of suicides
the answer is physicians doctors What is interesting is that in the general population Men kill themselves four times more than women do Now that either says something about the male temperament Or living with a woman. I'm not sure which What psychologists are beginning to see it's the stress of the work life That drives men to suicide more than women because as women enter the workplace Guess what their rate of suicide is going up Except for one profession In one profession women take their own life as much as men do And those are women physicians People that are wealthy Brilliant. I mean you can't be a simpleton and be a doctor And they make Lots of money and have lots of respect there at the top Of a society especially that worships its own mortality And yet two men who have done research on this say in some There are several reasons for the higher rates of suicide among physicians greater stress Social isolation access to powerful drugs barriers to getting treatment Loneliness and especially for women greater role conflict and sexual harassment It's everything that glitters is not always of God and it's certainly not gold And what God tends to do Is manage work and the economy And force people to rest Or destroy themselves Here's the third thing and last thing God says Maybe the hardest one for us to accept Because it sounds so political God will redistribute wealth Solomon's thoughts in chapter 5 verse 13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt And those riches were lost in a bad venture And he is 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 shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand 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 More over all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation And sickness and anger He'd already talked about this in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 about the man who worked and worked and worked and worked and worked And just kept himself in a mass this great amount of wealth Only to die and leave it to no one no wife no children no grandchildren no friends He was just a workaholic lonely and isolated and rich And then God took his life and took his wealth And he says This is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun Riches were kept by their owner to his own hurt He noticed how God redistributes wealth the guy hordes a mass of wealth Only to destroy himself Or only to be destroyed by bad business and investment or perhaps a downturn in the stock market Lost in a bad venture And he is a father with son be there's nothing in his hand to give his son nothing So he dies as he was born Naked with nothing in his hand as he came from the mother's womb So he goes back to heaven to the God who gave him life and spirit And his wealth has gone to someone else someone else on Wall Street Someone else in the partnership someone else through estate taxes God redistributes his wealth as God so desires As one man said looking at a rich man in a casket in the end It all goes back in the box and we take with us nothing When we stand before God more over he says All his days in life He eats in darkness and in much fixation and sickness And anger but a miserable way to live God owns everything The earth is the Lord and all it contains The world and everyone who dwells in it And it is God Not Barack Obama or the Treasury Department Or the IRS Who has the right and will exercise the option To redistribute wealth
So Solomon comes again to his bottom line in verse 18 That you and I should live for enjoyment Not for power or success or for wealth Behold what I've seen to be good in fitting is to eat and drink And find enjoyment and 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 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them And to accept this lot and rejoice in his soul this is the gift of God For he will not much remember the days of his life Because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart Here's the second time he comes to the refrain That work whether it's great or small Well-paying or low income Doctor or ditch digger Is a gift from God And you should find your lot in life what God's called you to do And to do it with enjoyment And God will decide who has power And who has success and who has wealth But doing what God called you to do Will fill your days with satisfaction so that the ugly things of life oppression And rivalry and loneliness will not rob you of the divine joy Of doing what God has given you to do I'm like all of you I have worried and still worry at times about the happiness of my children And now my grandchildren I took little Hannah Or eight-year-old granddaughter through a first buck-eye football game a couple weeks ago And so we're walking across campus. She said, Pample, did you go to college? I said, oh yes, I'm Ohio State University's most famous graduate She said be serious, Pample. I said, okay I did go here and she said, well, what did you study? I said business She said, you're not in business You're in the church I said, that's true Because that's what God called me to do And she said, well, which did you like better? Listen to this, an eight-year-old Did you like better making lots of money or being a preacher? And I said, well, I like being a preacher Because that's what God wants me to do And I said, what are you going to do when you go to college? She said, am I going to come here? I said, I hope so She said, well, I think I want to do what makes me happy Eight-years-old And I said, Hannah, what will always make you happy Is what God has given you to do Jane and I told our kids don't worry about making a lot of money Or saving up to leave us or other people, things when you're gone Just find out what God wants you to do For it's better to be a poor man with a happy life Than a rich man who is miserable I remember in high school I read a poem written by Edward Arlington Robinson called Richard Corey Wherever Richard Corey went to town, the people on the pavement looked at him He was the gentleman from sold to crown Clean-favorite and purely slim He was always quietly arrayed He was always human when he talked But still he fluttered pulses when he said, good morning And he kind of glittered as he walked And he was rich, he rest richer than a king And admirably schooled in every grace And flying we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place So on we worked and waited for the light And went without the meat and cursed our bread And Richard Corey one calm summer night Went home And put a bullet through his head
Not long after I had to memorize that poem in English class The guy named Paul Simon turned it into a song
They say that Richard Corey owns one half of this whole town With political connections to spread his wealth around Born into society, a banker's only child He had everything the man could want to have power, grace and style But I work in his factory And I curse the life I'm living And I curse my poverty And I wish that I could be Richard Corey The papers print his picture almost everywhere he goes Look Richard Corey at the opera over there, Richard Corey at the show And the rumors of his parties and the orgies on his yacht He surely must be happy With everything he's got, but I I work in his factory And I curse the life I'm living And I curse my poverty in which that I could be Richard Corey He freely gave to charity And he had a common touch And they were grateful for his patronage They thanked him very much So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read That Richard Corey went home last night And put a bullet Through his head
Richard Corey had everything a man could want Power, grace and style
He just lacked one thing
The favor of God
Don't worry about your kids You can't spare them pain of mistreatment The angst of rivalry or the worries of wealth But you can teach them How to find out what God has called them to do and to do it with a vengeance Be happy For Paul said whatever you do Whatever you do Do you work heartily as unto the Lord and not for men Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of your inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve And that let's pray Father, we are deeply concerned about our children and grandchildren And difficult world, a difficult economy And a culture consumed with Power And success And wealth All around us in life And in your word Or revelations of success that lead to sorrow Of wealth that leads to deep poverty And power that inflicts moons on one's own person But there are also pictures of bounding of people who love you Who have come to know Christ and his will for their life Or happy in their simple ventures Their common lifestyle Their meager fair Because they have their lot in life that you have a portion to them They are serving you in what they do Father bring us to that grace Push us forward in What is the great gift that you've given us Our work to serve you and bless other men Regardless of what it pays Make us happy in these things we pray And prepare us for the joy of eternal life Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ We want to ask you For us Our children and our grandchildren And in Christ's name Amen