If you have questions along the way this morning, as we go through the message, you can text 22383, that'll come to me and I'll try to answer those, or you can send me an email there. So the movie Chariots of Fire, based on the true story, of what happened at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. And it really centers around two excellent runners from Britain, from Great Britain, Harold Abrams and Eric Little. They ran at different events, but while they were both running for the British Isles, they had very different motivations. They had very different things driving them. So Harold Abrams was really driven. He was compelled to try to win a gold medal to validate himself. In fact, just before he ran the 100 meter race, he confided to one of his teammates, Aubrey. He said, I am forever in pursuit and I don't even know what I'm chasing. I have 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence. On the other hand, Eric Little was content and knew who he was. In fact, he was about to become a missionary in China. His sister was pushing him to hurry up and get to China, and there's an interchange between Little and his sister, and he knows he's going to become a missionary in China, but he says this, he, I know God has made me for China, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. I feel his joy. Both of them were passionate about running. But one of them ran out of anxiety in an attempt to validate himself, where the other one ran from a place of contentment and joy and gratitude. I think in our lives, there are always different winds blowing. There's that strong, maybe violent wind that blows chasing after something. And then maybe there's that gentle wind that blows the wind of contentment. It seems like sometimes they're competing against each other. Here at Harvest, we're working through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, as you can see on the screen, living with the end in mind. Last Sunday, Steve Thompson preached a sermon on Ecclesiastes 5, 8 through 20. And in that sermon, he talked about the path to contentment. And in many ways, today's sermon is like part B. Even though he and I didn't really coordinate who was going to say what, we always let the scripture do the, shape the sermons, but that passage talked about contentment, and our passage today talks about contentment, especially related to financial matters. A couple of the points that Steve made last week on the path to contentment were, you know, stop being tricked to think that money will make you happy, and then stop being thankless about the blessings you receive to put it positively, uh, be thankful for the blessings. And at the end of chapter five, right at the very end, some of those blessings were listed verse, uh, eight costs. That is his reward. Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth. He's also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward. from Joyce and his labor. This is a gift of God. Now, reading those verses leads us right in to explain our context for today's passage in Ecclesiastes chapter six. Immediately after affirming that God gives some people good gifts to enjoy, and they were listed there in 18, 19, and 20, Now the teacher turns in chapter six to mention other scenarios where satisfaction's not found. It's funny, there's different experiences in life. And so at the end of chapter five, we see that anybody who can experience those things and enjoy them, that comes from God. But now in chapter six, we're gonna learn how sometimes those things are there and there still isn't contentment. So I invite you to stand with me, if you will, please. We're gonna read Ecclesiastes chapter six, verses one to 12. This is our passage for today, and it starts out in verse one. Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires for himself, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. This is futile and a sickening tragedy. A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, If he's not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness and his name is shrouded in darkness. Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he. If a person lives a thousand years twice but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place? All of a person's labor is for his stomach, yet his appetite is never satisfied. What advantage then does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage Is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others? Better what the eyes see than wandering desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. Whatever exists was given its name long ago. And it is known, it is known what mankind is. But he is not able to contend with the one stronger than he. For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for mankind? For who knows what is good for anyone in life in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun? This is the word of God. You can be seated. Now what makes the difference between the end of chapter five when there's good gifts that come from God and enjoyment, and then when there are gifts in chapter six that aren't able to be enjoyed? We're gonna dive into that this morning. But I wanna remind you of something. Maybe some of you, this is your first time tuning in online or being here, hearing Ecclesiastes. There's different kinds of literature in the Bible, different types of genre. And this is wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, you don't interpret wisdom literature the same way as you would interpret, say, a gospel in the New Testament or history. or the epistles, like the New Testament letters give a lot of explicit commands, do this, don't do this, and things like that, whereas wisdom literature, it's from God. Everything that's recorded here, God wanted to be recorded here, but it's writers expressing thoughts about life, and sometimes they're wrestling with it, and that's another thing about Ecclesiastes. This person who's, we're calling the teacher, is doing a lot of wrestling, and it's a journey. And we're only in chapter six of the book. We're about halfway. So we're not gonna get all the full answers. So you can't take any one little verse and say, oh, well, that doesn't sound like it belongs in the Bible. You need to ask, what is he doing? Why is he saying that? And is he ever gonna correct himself? Or are other biblical writers gonna shape what he says over time? And a lot, all those things happen. So remember it's wisdom literature, remember it's a journey, but it also affirms God's providence. So let's make three observations today about contentment. That as we look at what this author said, the teacher, we're going to make observations from what he said about the bigger picture of contentment. And the first one is this, neither wealth, family, nor long life guarantees enjoyment. None of those things can guarantee you enjoyment. And Think about it. Think about how much in our society is built around becoming financially secure, having a good family or career, having a long life. And if you have those things, you'll be okay. But none of those things can guarantee it. Verse one, here's a tragedy I've observed. under the sun and it weighs heavily on humanity. God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor, so he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself. If this were today, we'd say this person has the American dream. But what happens, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and sickening tragedy. We have no guarantees about money. Now, why would it be that someone might have wealth or money, and basically, we should say that almost all of us that live in America are wealthy, even if we don't think we are, if you compare to the standards of all the rest of the world. But why would somebody have wealth and not be able to enjoy it? It could be all kind of thing. I mean, death is certainly gonna be one of those. right? Sickness, tragedy, maybe mental illness or chronic pain. Maybe there's domestic disharmony in a marriage. People don't get along or they get divorced and they can't enjoy those things. Maybe they're natural disasters. There are many reasons that happen in life. Verse 3, a man may father a hundred children and live many years no matter how long he lives if he's not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, which was very important for them in that day. I say a stillborn child is better off than he for he comes in futility and he goes in darkness. And his name is shrouded in darkness though a stillborn child does not see The son, and is not conscious, has more rest than he. These are hard verses. Miscarriage is a tremendously difficult experience for parents, not to be taken lightly, and we wanna tread lightly here. I don't think the teacher's trying to be insensitive, but I think his point is that a stillborn child never knew life's pleasures, And so it wouldn't miss what it never knew and compared this person who lived a life and had these things and wasn't able to enjoy them. And again, we would want to look to other scripture to fill this out fully. Family and children are wonderful. They are awesome. And let me give you a little secret. Parents close your ears for a second. Grandchildren are even better. I don't know how it happened. Well, I do know how it happened. But a few years ago, we had no grandchildren. Like 10 years ago, we had no grandchildren. Now there are nine of them. They all say that's it. We'll see. but it's possible to have a large family and still not be content and still not be happy. Look at the verses that we're reading. If you father a hundred children in verse three, right? And now in verse six, so you got the money, the possessions, you got, maybe it's a large family, you got all the, you know, a hundred children. I don't think you'd be content if you had a hundred children. I think you'd go crazy. But what about living a long life? A person lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness. Do not both go to the same place. You know, the writer, Cleese Essay, he talked about this. I keep saying the writer, there was a narrator and the teacher is all of the thoughts for most of the book here. It's already talked about being wise, being foolish, everybody ends up going to the same place. He didn't have a full understanding yet of resurrection and immortality. He had some inklings of it. But he's just observing life and he's looking around and saying, if you live all this length of time, but don't have happiness, so what, right? Well, the second observation is in verses seven to nine. And it's this, contentment can be elusive, but it's a great gain. It's a great gain, and what we have in 7, 8, and 9 are three proverbs, just boom, boom, boom, that remind us of what we find in the book of Proverbs. But we have three proverbs in a row about contentment, and how important it is, and how good it is. Verse 7, all of a person's labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied. So this first one is just reinforcing the teaching that we've been given so far in verses one to six. That if you live without God in your life, it doesn't matter how much else you have, materially or whatever. You're just working to try to fill some kind of void. all of the labors for the sum, but your appetite's never gonna be satisfied. No matter how many children you have, no matter how successful you are on your job, no matter how much money you have, what your portfolio looks like, no matter how long you live, you won't be satisfied apart from God. Verse eight, here's the second proverb, what advantage, it's a rhetorical question here, what advantage then does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?" So, rhetorical question begs the same answer. The answer that is begged is, there is no advantage. There is no advantage in terms of realizing ultimate satisfaction, whether Your wives are foolish. And again, remember, this is an under the sun perspective. If you have, I'm not gonna put it back on the screen, but counting for God, it's not accounting for eternity necessarily, it's the way it is right now. And if that's the perspective you have, what advantage is it gonna bring either way? Then there's a third proverb in verse nine. Better what the eyes see, than wandering desire. This too is futile in the pursuit of the wind. So it's better to be content with what you have than it is to covet what you don't. And this is true of all kind of things. It could be money, it could be your job, it could be relationships. There's this wandering desire in all of us to look for more or different or better. And contentment is like saying, no, it's better to focus on what I have right here rather than what I don't have. And most, I would say, or much at least of our dissatisfaction in life is because we're focusing on what we don't have rather than what we do have, right? Anybody else admit that? Shake your head one way or the other. Okay, at least some of you are honest. That's good. Sinning against God is wrong, but how crazy is it for us to reject the God who created us and made us and gave us everything? And even who sent his own son to die on the cross for us. But sin is not only wrong, here's a big theological statement, it's also dumb. We hurt ourselves when we sin. We hurt others when we sin. And the scripture kind of, these themes, especially around money, they run all the way through the scripture. So for instance, in the Old Testament, when God's people, Israel, were being rescued out of Egypt, out of slavery, and they were being brought into a new land. In Deuteronomy chapter eight, God used Moses to give them a warning. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. This is when they go into the new land. failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees that I'm giving you today. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied, then your hearts will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God. who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You might say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power or the ability to produce wealth. And so confirms this covenant which He swore to your ancestors as it is today. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul joined in the chorus, 1 Timothy 6, but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. I think there are people A lot of people now, as opposed to two weeks ago, that would really be able to say that. If we have food and clothing, we'll be content, right? Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. It's not people who are rich, it's those who want to get rich, the text says, whether they, regardless of what their bank account looks like. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And I want to tell you, and another is society around us, right? And here's, speaking of society around us, Advertisements, commercials don't help us with this, right? It seems like more and more and more or they stress not the actual product itself and the value of the product, but it's about what that will do for you and how it will bring you some kind of status or some kind of better life. In an interesting twist, one commentator, Ian Proven, likens advertisers to evangelists and prophets, saying, the words that drowned out the word of God on these kind of issues are those of the advertisers, those great prophets and evangelists of mammon, which is money in the Bible. who present to us a world in which mundane products take on magical powers and promise to shape new character, reinforcing the primal subtext of capitalism, one is what one owns or consumes, right? Contentment is a great game. There's one more observation about contentment. You might think, well, what does this have to do with contentment? Well, we're gonna, I'll pull it all together at the end. It does have to do with contentment for sure. It's only a sovereign God controls our destiny in the last three verses. Whatever exists was given its name long ago and it is known what mankind is, but he is not able to contend with the one stronger than he. Now, this expression, it was given its name. Okay, some of you English majors or teachers or even medium astute people will realize that's passive, right? Its name was given to it. And this is what we call in the Bible a divine passive. In other words, God's name is not mentioned, but God is the one who does it. So who named everything? God. He let Adam name, you know, the animals and so forth. But God named the waters and the lands, the sea and man, the day and night. So in other words, this is pointing to God. God named everything. And there's a couple of implications about that. Naming indicates authority. The person who named. God established his authority over creation by naming it, right? And also in the Old Testament, in the ancient Near East, when a person gave a name to someone or something, it was an indication of their character. I wanna show you how that plays out with Adam, for instance. Adam, the first created being, It's unusual, of course the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. And most of the time you'll read a Hebrew word and it won't sound anything like the English, but this is what is called a transliteration where it actually sounds that way, Hadam. And it means man. Well, the word for earth, you just add an A-H to it. It sounds that they're very related to each other. Adam is an appropriate name because Adam came from the earth. In other words, he is made from the earth and he is tied to the earth. That is who we are. We are earthly and God is eternal. We're not God. We're not like God. We're earthly. Remember Ecclesiastes 5 too, a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about how to approach worship, corporate worship, how to approach the presence of God. We had the warning, God is in heaven and you're on earth, so let your words be few. So chapter six continues, verse 11, for where there are many words, increase futility. What is the advantage for mankind? For who knows what is good for anyone in life? In the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow, who can tell anyone what will happen after him? We think we can control our financial security by working hard or saving or whatever. But there are so many things financially in the world ecosystems that are out of our control. And the truth of the matter is, the only being in the universe who is in control is God. God is sovereign. God is in control. And that leads us. If you put all of these points together, we would say this. This would be God's word for us today. This would be the main idea of this sermon. The key to contentment is humbly receiving but not idolizing the gifts of a sovereign God. That's the difference between chapter five and chapter six. The key is receiving them from God, but there's a lot to unpack in that statement, because it's humbly receiving. That means I'm before a sovereign God. I'm realizing this isn't it. These are gifts, they're great, I'll use them, but God is more important. Eternity is more important. Serving other people is more important. and I'm gonna place myself humbly before this God. And when we do that, we can become content. So, how should we respond today? Let me give you a couple ways. First of all, enjoy every good gift from God, but do not put your hope in them. Recognize that the ability to enjoy any good gift whether it's walking, standing, hearing, seeing, eating, working, worshiping, being in relationship. All of those come from God, but those are gifts. Those aren't life itself. First Timothy six says, command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God. who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment, command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that it may take hold of the life that is truly life. Second, look above the sun to eternity. and take your rightful place before a sovereign God. Don't have the horizontal view of life. I'm looking under the sun always. I need to look above it. If you do that, if you look at life always under the sun from, let's say, earth-colored glasses, everything's gonna look earth-colored. if you put on eternal glasses you'll be able to see beyond and order your life here on earth differently. Matthew 6, Jesus said do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. So, to start wrapping it up, If this is true, the whole entire Old Testament is true of the whole book of Ecclesiastes, but we're in Ecclesiastes chapter six. Let's pretend, not pretend, let's recognize that Ecclesiastes six is a train track and it's going somewhere, right? The train is in motion. It's not stopping here. This isn't the final word. The train has a destination. And where's it going? Well, it's going to go to the train station, and I'm going to say the name of the train station is Jesus. How is Ecclesiastes 6 going to get us to Jesus? It's going to. Let me point out a little interesting note that I didn't mention, and I didn't mention it intentionally. in verse two of chapter six. I'm gonna put that back on the screen. There's a word translated enjoy. God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all desires for himself, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. That original Hebrew word means to eat or consume. it appears multiple times over and over again in chapter 5 and chapter 6. It's about consumption which is like metaphorically it's consuming having possessions and so forth but physically consuming would be eating So it's verse 11 of five. It's consumed 12. It's eat 17. It's eat 18. It's eat and 19. It's enjoy. And here, but I want you to think about Jesus for a minute. Jesus is an amazing example. The prime example. of a person who had everything, he existed equal with God in eternity before coming down to this earth. And he gave it all up so he could come and do the Father's will on earth. And he was content. He modeled this and lived this out perfectly for us. In fact, he was so content that he didn't own anything, right? And he only owned the will of God, which for him was going to the cross and paying for our sins. What an amazing person he is. But listen to his words as we think about eating or consuming things to satisfy us. John chapter 6. Verse 35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. That's consumption and enjoyment of an eternal nature. Coming to Jesus. He said, verse 38, I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day. And isn't that a full circle from this morning? We're talking about an eternal everlasting God. Jesus offers eternal life to us. Do you have that? Do you have Him? I didn't ask you if you're religious, if you're good, if you want to turn over a new leaf. I'm asking you, have you realized that your sin, your wrong, has separated you from God? And you know that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, paid for that, your price? and you will receive him and you realize he's the bread of life. He's the one that's gonna bring satisfaction. So I'm not gonna look to all these other things. I'm gonna get on my knees and say, Lord, please save me. I wanna give my life to you. And once you do that, it begins a life of following him. And we do this every day. We look to him. I think about, There's an old spiritual, it's so simple, but it's profound. Give me Jesus, right? Give me Jesus. In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, give me Jesus. Give me Jesus, give me Jesus. You can have all the world. Give me Jesus. When I am alone, when I am alone. When I am alone, give me Jesus. And it goes on. When I come to die, when I come to die, when I come to die, give me Jesus. In his autobiography, Billy Graham described a time that he and Ruth, his wife, were in the Caribbean, and they were invited to lunch with an extremely wealthy man, one of the wealthiest men in the world, apparently. Listen to how he described it. Graham is talking about this man. He was 75 years old, and throughout the entire meal, he seemed close to tears. I'm the most miserable man in the world, he said. Out there is my yacht. I can go anywhere I want to. I have my private plane, my helicopters. I have everything I want to make my life happy, yet I am as miserable as heck. Well, he said something else, but I'm saying heck this morning. We talked to him and prayed with him, trying to point him to Christ, who alone gives lasting meaning to life. And then we went down the hill to a small cottage where we were staying. That afternoon the pastor of the local Baptist church came to call. He was an Englishman and he too was a widower who spent most of his time taking care of his two invalid sisters. He was full of enthusiasm and of love for Christ and others. He said, I don't have two pounds to my name with a smile, but I'm the happiest man on this island. And Billy Graham at that moment turned to Ruth and said, who do you think is the richer man? And she didn't have to answer because they both knew. The key to contentment. He's humbly receiving, but not idolizing the gifts of a sovereign God. Let's bow our heads, please, for prayer.