What Does Success Look Like?

Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 5. If you're using the New King James Pew Bibles provided for you, you'll find that on page 590. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 8 through 20, 8 through the end of the chapter. Brothers and sisters, hear now God's perfect word.

If you see the oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter. For high officials watch over a high official, and higher officials are over them. Moreover, the profit of the land is for all. Even the king is served from the field. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. Whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun. Riches kept for their owners hurt. But those riches perish through misfortune.

When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came. And he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a severe evil. Just exactly as he came, so he shall go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?

All his days he also eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. Here's what I have seen. It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. That ends this portion of the reading of God's word.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for the enduring nature of your word, written thousands and thousands of years ago and yet highly applicable today. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please work in our hearts, that we would understand your word. But Lord, there's many things here that we can understand intellectually. We need your spirit to soften our hearts so that our lives might be molded by your hands. that we would conform to your image. Help us, God. Change us. Transform us. We need your spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

If I were to ask you, and you can do this experiment if you want, if I were to ask you to close your eyes for a moment, and as you closed your eyes, And I ask you the question, what image pops into your mind when you close your eyes as I ask you, what does success look like in your life? What's the picture that comes to mind? What does a successful life look like in your imagination?

Oh, if you're like most Americans, You're healthy, you're standing up. You got a nice, clean, big house. You got that car you've been dreaming about. Maybe it's the car that you once had and it's not rusted and it's perfect, it's wonderful. There's no financial worries. You got the smart clothes on. Picture perfect. You got all the stuff. You've got all the things. Life looks good.

Solomon says you're chasing the wrong view of success. Because the clothes will wear out, the car will break down, the house will need repaired. And if that's what you're chasing for, for success, it's always going to be like trying to hold on to water. If that's what you're chasing for, for joy. Politics And money is what we're gonna talk about today. Maybe uncomfortable, but Solomon talks about it, so that's what we're gonna do. And politics and money are unstable and unsatisfying.

Have you ever noticed that? If you're a political junkie, right, and I'm not saying I'm not one of these, I'm just saying if you're a political junkie, you never get enough political news. There's a reason why they can pump out 24-hour news, because it's never gonna satisfy.

There's a reason why people who watch the stock markets and are big in financial stuff, they gotta get more information all the time. You gotta get more info, right? You can always have the ticker running. You can always be pulling up the phone and seeing what news is coming and how is it gonna adjust global markets.

Because politics and money are unstable and unsatisfying. And God does this amazing thing. He frees us from being slaves to it. and yet being able to enjoy the fruit that actually comes from work. So here's my point I want you to walk away with. Success isn't about more. Success isn't about more. It's about enjoying what God does give you. Success isn't about more, but it's about enjoying what God does give you.

First Point

And so first let's talk about government in verses 8 through 9. And don't be surprised by oppression, right? That's what Solomon gets at in verses 8 through 9. By the way, Solomon is just, he's not dealing with, like, our feelings and stuff here. He's not dealing with whether we like it or not. He's just saying, this is what it is, guys. This is old man Solomon. He's got I'm not sure if he had gray hair or no hair by this time, right? But he's the old dude in the room. He's like I've been there. I lived through it. Just listen.

This is what life is like He's been inspired by the Holy Spirit and here's the old man's wisdom He says if you see the oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province Don't marvel at the matter For high official watches over high official and higher official over them moreover The profit of the land is for all, even the king is served from the field.

Injustice and oppression is normal, it's not excusable. We should be outraged when we see injustice and oppression, but if you think that you're going to somehow create a perfect system or a perfect government, or your happiness is going to depend on I need everything to work out equitably all the time in our country, You're always going to be wanting. You will never have peace. Because people are sinful. So we shouldn't be surprised. We shouldn't let it throw us off kilter. When we see oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of the justice, God sees that.

And it's Solomon, again, he's not saying, hey, hey, this is the way things should be. He's saying, this is the way things are. And so he's saying, look, don't marvel at the matter, for a high official watches over a higher official, and a higher official is over them. There are a few different ways that people have tried to explain those verses with this higher official and higher official.

Sometimes, if you're looking at this in a positive way, it's like, hey, look, if the mayor of the city is corrupt, hopefully you've got somebody over the mayor who's able to put them in check. A governor is out of check, hopefully you're gonna have judges who will be able to put them, right? There's a whole reason why an American government, it was designed because they didn't actually want to trust inherently anybody. So everybody was supposed to be able to check a whole bunch of other people, right?

And so this is the positive view of this. Hey, don't marvel at it, wait until the bureaucracy works out. However, the negative interpretation of this, and I'm somewhat inclined towards this negative interpretation of it is, Bureaucrats protect bureaucrats. And there's often an injustice that happens to the poor, especially because of the culture of the ancient Near East, where it was about self-preservation. You get a government office, you get the ability to tax, you get control over a land, but guess what? You got somebody over you, guess what they're going to do? The same thing. The same thing goes all the way up to the king. And who carries all that weight? The poor farmer in the field. Moreover, the profit of the land is for them all, even the king is served from the field.

We live in a way different world than Solomon was living in. This was hand-to-mouth type society. And at the end of the day, every single person depended on who's plowing the ground, who's reaping the harvest, who's threshing the grain, who's doing the work. And for the vast majority of human history, the farmers were the poorest people in society and bore a lot of the brunt Most of the world, even in American history. There's a recent phenomenon that we drive through the country to get here to church and there's so few houses along the road. If we just went back to the early 1900s, 70% of the population was agricultural.

Now that number has dwindled and dwindled and dwindled, and so people find themselves away from the land, but not in Solomon's day. Right, no. There's the poor who are oppressed. I can imagine James MacDonald, the first pastor preaching here in the 1800s saying, don't be surprised when they put more taxes on the farm, because that's what government officials do.

So what do we do? We make best with what the Lord gives us. We till the land for the Lord's glory. We feed the people. We care for our families and we enjoy what God's given. Okay, that's what government officials do. They're out for themselves. Now that's what we pray against, right? Often you'll hear, even from this pulpit, as we pray for the civil magistrate, God give us statesmen, not politicians, because it is a rare blessing of God when we actually have government workers who want to bless and care for the people, rather than just fill their own coffers.

But Jesus knew this well. There's a reason why the Sanhedrin needed to get rid of the guy. There's a reason why Pilate didn't like him. There's a reason why Herod wanted him killed. He's a threat to their power. He's a threat to their wealth. He's a threat to their little kingdoms. I know there's some of you, though, who are gonna hear me have read what Solomon says, don't marvel at the matter, and you're like, well, hold on. Isn't God a God of justice? Doesn't he care? Why doesn't he stop this?

I got a little bit of a adjustment that I would put in the translation of verse eight. See, in the bottom of verse eight, for high official watches over higher official, and higher officials watch over them, that higher officials there, in the Hebrew, it's just higher above them. And why I'm saying is, I think it should say, and there's higher above them is because that's God himself. There is no king, no principal, or no principality, no president, no prime minister, no any governor who is above being judged.

And the Lord hears the cry of the poor and of the oppressed. And so Solomon is not saying, oh, just get on with life. That's just the way it is. Deal with the status quo. He's saying God will judge someday. There is one higher even than them. God will judge. God sees it. And so I'm just, this is Pastor Brian speaking to you. I want to encourage you.

You see injustice. You see oppression, violent perversion of justice and righteousness. We can speak out against those things, but don't be so shocked by their existence that it shakes you from having peace in God. Speak out against the oppression. Speak out against the violent twisting of justice. But don't let it shake you in your trust that God will judge someday.

But then notice, he goes on in verses 10 through 12, talking about money. Verses 10 through 12, he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. This is also vanity. You want money, you love money, guess what? You're never gonna have enough money. is how the Greek translated this. It's just coins, right? Silver coins. You want enough silver coins? You're never going to have enough silver coins because as soon as you get more silver coins, if you're in love with silver coins, what are you going to want more of? More silver coins.

There's nobody I've met who collects things who says, my collection is finally complete. No, if you love money, you're just gonna keep going after money, right? You're not gonna love the abundance. It's just vanity. But then he goes on, right? This is, man, Solomon, he just, he just says the truth. Verse 11. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?

Have you ever read these stories about people who win the lottery? Man, all of a sudden, they got second and third cousins they didn't even know they had. All of a sudden, there's all these people who won a slice of the pie. This is such a big problem that people who win the lottery, there's a dude in China that is so funny. He won the lottery, and I was reading this article about it.

It was required that he goes to this press op, right? So they're gonna take a picture of him with the big check. But he didn't want a bunch of people to come and start asking him for money. So he wore a giant costume head, like a mascot head, so nobody could tell who he was when they took his picture with this big old check.

Because that's how it goes. When the goods increase, they increase who eat them. And so if you won that money, if you worked hard for the money, if you've got all the money, guess what you could do? You could look at it. Great. Right, he's saying you're so consumed by your love of money, you're so consumed by your desiring of this silver that you finally get a bunch of it and it's worth something, you finally store up all the big grain bins, you got all this stuff, but guess what? All of a sudden, everybody's knocking at your door, treating you like an ATM. And so what do you have to do? You have to go hide your money or seclude yourself and hide yourself because you just wanna go look at your money. He says that's not what life's about. And actually having a bunch of money is a paradoxical problem. Look at verse 12. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

I remember I was like an E3 or something like that, so real, real low on the ranks on the totem pole on the ship. And there was one day, it was silly, for like a week, I had to move all this stuff five stories up down to our shop because we needed to paint the space that all this stuff was in.

And so one week my job was just to carry it all down. And then we painted. And then two days later, my job was to carry all the stuff back up. You know, giant pack mule, right? That's all I was for those two weeks. I was carrying stuff up and down these ladders, up and down, up and down, five stories.

The best sleep of my life. I don't remember what I ate, but I remember telling my boss, thanks for giving me a good night's sleep. And I meant it, right? I was like, I could be proud of the work I put in those days, because I worked hard, and there was sleep. But Solomon's saying, right, the laborer, they work hard and they get sweet sleep. By the way, Psalm 127. The Lord gives his loved ones sleep. Sleep is a blessing from God.

But the rich, he says, that's a different story, right? Filled with anxiety and concern about their stuff, their security, their wealth, how things are gonna go. So many things on their mind that their sleep is stolen from them because they can't actually rest. The thing that they were wanting, peace and enjoyment and relaxation that would come with financial security, it ends up that their money owns them rather than them owning their money. but with the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

Now Jesus had this scenario that came up to him. There was two brothers, they're fighting. This is in Luke chapter 12. They're arguing with each other and one of the brothers comes to Jesus and he said, tell him to give me my share of the inheritance. And we don't know why they wasn't giving him the inheritance, right? We just don't know that. But Jesus said, who made me your judge?

Hold on here. And then he goes into this parable. So the man has a harvest and he's got a bunch of stuff. And he goes, oh, you know what I'll do? I'll stay up late and I'll plant and I'll make bigger barns. I'll make bigger grain bins. I'll fill it all up so that I can contain all my wealth. And he sets his mind thinking, I have all these great plans for how I'm gonna do this.

And Jesus says, you fool, do you not know that your life is demanded of you this very hour? Your life is not measured by the abundance of your possessions. And Jesus is speaking that parable to those brothers who are fighting about their inheritance, and he's saying, guys, get over it. Life's more than just inheritance. Life's more than just money. If you don't think this is a problem, talk to anybody who's had a parent die and watch their siblings fight Right over sometimes just petty things, like who gets the doll collection? But somebody's assigned some sentimental value to some object and thinks, I won't be happy until I have this object. And forget that they have a brother or a sister or an aunt or uncle or cousin that they love.

So Jesus says, no, that's not what it's about. I think it's in our heart, right? Some people think, well, if I just had a little bit more money, I'll be content. Solomon says, no you won't. You'll just crave more. If your contentment is based off of how much you're gonna get, you're not gonna get. There's this interesting survey, and I don't have the numbers off the top of my head.

It's like asking different generations of people, how much money do you need to make annually to be satisfied or be content? And there's a whole bunch of different answers. Some were like, well, $50,000. Some were like $80,000. And then there was one generation, of course, my generation, the millennials, who are like, I need $400,000 a year. You won't be content with that either. No living below means no contentment. I finally have all the stuff to not have any cares, then I won't have cares. And yes, you will. The cares will still be there.

I think this is a symptom of our materialist and marketing culture. I mean, you're bombarded every single day with ad upon ad upon ad. I mean, I gotta tell you, We live in this really neat world, but weird world as well. Where ads used to be just broadly out for everyone, right? You're just trying to get everyone who drives a car to be interested in driving this car, right? Everybody should buy a Chrysler, everybody should. You put out an ad broadly for everyone. We don't live in that type of world largely today.

In the marketing world, they're gonna collect every single piece of consumer data on you that they can and try to figure out how can I create a form of, as one early developer of marketing said, a healthy discontentment. The father of advertising, that's what he called it. Create in the consumer a healthy discontentment. Tell me when discontentment is healthy for material things.

That's what advertisers are trying to do. I mean, my wife and I studied this. We learned from all sorts of books and videos and experts when we were running our business. And there's all sorts of immoral and psychological type things. that they lean into human nature, they lean into what our desires are to try to get you to think if I just have this thing, if I just have this experience or this much money or this house, a car, my children look this way, I am wearing these clothes, then I'll finally have that picture perfect existence.

Solomon says you might as well try to grab the wind You're never going to be satisfied. And so we work at redefining success in our minds to having peace and rest in Christ, not in the things of this world. Solomon ain't gonna give this up, right? He keeps going, verses 13 through 17, talking about, okay, so what happens if you are rich? What do you do with your money? Well, he says that hoarding of wealth just brings misery. Look with me at 13 through 17. There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun.

Riches kept for their owners to his hurt. But those riches perish through misfortune. When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, Naked he shall return, to go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And it continues on. A wealthy person keeps their wealth, but it's to their own hurt, because what can happen?

Businesses fail. Natural disasters happen. People get sick. Houses burn down. The word here is this idea of misfortune. You can't foresee all the circumstances surrounding your life. There are businesses that were doing really well until a CEO gets into a head-on collision. There were farms that were doing great until the accident happened. But this success is not guaranteed.

And in this ancient Near East agrarian culture, Solomon's saying, this is actually really hard, verse 14. But those riches through misfortune perish, and when he begets a son, there's nothing in his hand. The farm's gone. The grain bins are empty. Everything's lost.

The family inheritance, the generational land, he can't pass down to the next generation. Imagine the whispers at the kitchen in the center of town, around the millstone. Can you believe what happened to Asher's family? We thought their farm was doing so well. And then those Romans came, and they just burnt it all to the ground. It's gone.

It just happened time and time again in Israelite history. Nothing to give down to the kids. So in verse 15 he says, when he was naked, his mom and dad had to put him in swaddling clothes. But as Matthew Henry says, when he died, He goes out naked again and somebody has to put him in burial clothes. That's what Paul is getting at in 1 Timothy.

You can't take anything with you. Why chase after money? Why chase after greed? You can't be like the pharaohs dying in the grave for grave robbers to come and steal all your gold that you thought was going to go with you in the afterlife. No, it's going to end up in some museum that the British steal someday. Life's not about the money.

There's a sad picture he paints in 16 and 17. He says it's a severe evil. Just exactly as he came, so he shall go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind? And this is a sad picture. All his days he also eats in darkness. And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. He's worked up or worked his whole life from sunup to sundown. He eats his breakfast in the dark. Sun goes down at night, gets done and still working, goes inside, eats in the dark, just angry. and bitter, and alone. Sometimes that happens because a person is literally alone. Sometimes, though, I think we know people who, even though they may have their family around them, can't find joy, and are bitter, angry, and alone in darkness.

That's going to bring misery. We can't guarantee. We can't guarantee wealth. And trying to hoard wealth is like trying to hold on to water. And the whole idea of a bad misfortune ain't just ancient Near East. I feel bad for people in places like Venezuela. The last few years, over 500% inflation. You who are retired and living off a fixed income, imagine 500% inflation. You've saved for your whole life. And your money's virtually worthless.

In just a matter of months, So what inheritance are you holding on to? What is your definition of success? What's the picture in your brain? What are you treasuring in your heart that then you're gonna find contentment, then you're gonna find happiness, then you're gonna find success? Well, that's what he says in verses 18 through 20, and I love it, man. Look at me at verses 18 and 20, just the simple blessing of God. Old man Solomon says, here is what I have seen.

It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. It is good.

It is good to enjoy the good things that God gives us. I'm not talking about hedonism. I'm not talking about chasing after pleasure. I'm not telling you to be a bum and not work. But Solomon is saying here, if God gives you good things, there's a gift that comes with it, being able to enjoy those good things.

And here, I'm gonna say, right, this has started to shape me, preaching through Ecclesiastes and studying and praying through this stuff has really been messing with my mind, guys. Because there's even times when, like, we're wrestling with the kids, right? And if you've raised kids, you know that some days are hard. But the Lord's even been softening my heart, like, hold on, I get to rejoice in these kiddos. I can't guarantee how they're gonna turn out. And there's hard days, sometimes it's frustrating.

But I can also enjoy just watching them ride their bike. I can enjoy when the light bulb goes off when they learn something new. When they wanna just get a hug. Yeah, they may have just annoyed the living daylights out of us. Just fight, fight, fight, bicker, bicker, bicker.

And then there's that moment when the kid just smiles at you and uppy, and you're just like, all right, God, you're good. Life is worth it, thank you, Lord. Your heart's not meant to be in this constant turmoil. It is a gift of God to be able to say, with whatever he gives you. He gives you bread. Slow down. Taste the bread. Enjoy it. Enjoy the texture. Enjoy the flavor. It's a gift from God. You go outside and there's a cool day. And there's a breeze. Thank the Lord for it. Cultivate in your heart this view of success that I'm going to enjoy what God gives me in this life.

That was Paul's secret to contentment, whether he was in much or in need. As he sat in a Roman jail cell, underground, cold, and in prison, He could say, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Because his rejoicing was in the Lord. God had been good to him. So we learn contentment. By whatever comes from the Lord's hand, this is a gift of God. I think this is what we find in Jesus.

And I don't think the Pharisees liked it very much. But Jesus had no problem if somebody was throwing a feast or a banquet in his honor to go. And he would eat, and he would drink, he would talk, he would enjoy the company, and he would challenge people in their sins, and he would be in those moments. And man, people didn't like that about him.

You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners. He said, hold on, hold on. John the Baptist came, neither eating or drinking, and you said he was crazy, lunatic, demon-possessed. I come eating and drinking, and you wanna kill me? Jesus knew what it was like to have true contentment, even in hard situations. He knew how to just step away from it all and go be with his Father. He knew how to sleep in a boat when there was a storm, rest in his Father's will.

And this enjoyment isn't indulgence. It's not just us seeking out luxuries, right? I'm not telling you again to be chasing after unbridled pleasure, thinking that's going to give you contentment. That's not it. Because a luxurious food won't ever give you contentment.

It's thankfulness for the one who gave it to you, whatever it is. So enjoy your portion with gratitude and generosity. Because Christ is our true wealth and joy, and that's what I want to finish us off at. I want to take us to Christ. 2 Corinthians 8, 9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who was before anything was, Jesus Christ forsook all the glories of heaven and took on human form and suffered, was poor. His parents were so poor when they went to the tabernacle or to the temple, they had to give the poorest of the poor's sacrifice. Jesus knew poverty, but he died and he rose again from the dead that we may be rich.

Rich in godliness, rich in contentment, rich in holiness, rich in thankfulness, rich in grace, rich in peace, rich in contentment and joy. Christ has freed you from the shackles of thinking that wealth will ever be the measure of success. Because our treasure is secure in heaven. And so we trust Christ. We rejoice in our Father in heaven, who has given us everything. I just want to end with one last little story that comes to mind. Many of you remember Gloria. She was a member here for a long time, or a period of time. And as Gloria was here, she had this refrain, she would say.

You'd ask her how she was doing and stuff, and she'd say, I have everything I need. And I remember, she had her own house, but then as she had a stroke and things became difficult, She had to move into family members' homes, and at one point I remember visiting her in her little basement apartment that her family made for her, and she had downsized and lost a lot of her stuff, and I asked her down there when we were visiting with the kids, how are you doing? She said, I have everything I need. But then health got worse and situations changed, and she ended up in this mobile home down in Tennessee, and we went to go visit her outside Chattanooga, and I remember she's got a TV, she's got a bed, she can't move very much anymore, And I asked her, how are you doing, Gloria? And her steely eyes lit up and she said, I have everything I need.

Her contentment was in Christ. What more could she ask for? Heaven was waiting for her. The new heavens and the new earth with promise to her. What more could you need? He sent his own son. You have all the inheritance in heaven waiting for you. Your crown of glory awaits. Don't be satisfied with this world. Close your eyes and imagine the streets of gold and the sun who shines with more brilliance than the sun in the sky. That's success. Dwelling with the sun in heaven. Living righteously before him forever when there will be no oppression. There will be no poor crying out for justice, but he will make all things right. Look to him, the King of Kings, who is over every official. We have everything we need.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would ignite our hearts, set a light in our souls, that would be a beacon of hope in a world where people are eating in bitterness and anger and loneliness and darkness. And Father, we pray that the hope that your Spirit can give us in our hearts would be like a contagion. Lord, that people would see the hope that we have in your Son, the contentment and joy that could never be taken away, and that they might also want it. So Father, well up in us. Joy, lead us into the green pastures to lie down by the still waters. Thank you for giving us our shepherd. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.