What Does Success Look Like?

Sermon Text

Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

8 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 official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.

9 Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.

10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.

11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?

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.

13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:
Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14 But those riches perish through misfortune;
When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 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.

16 And this also is a severe evil—
Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.
And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
17 All his days he also eats in darkness,
And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

18 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. 19 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. 20 For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.

New King James Version (NKJV) Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.

• A successful life is not defined by a perfect house, car, wardrobe, political order, or financial security; all of these are unstable and unable to satisfy the heart.
• Oppression and distorted justice are real features of sinful government. Christians should oppose them without being so surprised that they lose confidence in God’s final judgment.
• The love of money is never satisfied. More possessions attract more demands, create anxiety, and can leave a person unable to rest.
• Hoarded wealth may hurt its owner and can disappear through events no one can control. We enter and leave this world with nothing material in our hands.
• God gives work, food, family, and other ordinary blessings as a portion to receive with gratitude, generosity, and real enjoyment rather than bitterness or indulgence.
• Christian contentment rests in the Lord in both plenty and need. Success is enjoying what God gives while holding every created gift below the Giver.
• Christ became poor for his people so that they might become truly rich in grace, holiness, peace, joy, and an eternal inheritance that cannot be lost.

• When you picture a successful life, which possessions, experiences, achievements, or political outcomes appear first?
• How can you oppose injustice faithfully without allowing political disorder to steal your peace in God?
• What amount of money do you imagine would finally make you content, and why would the next increase satisfy a heart that the present amount has not satisfied?
• Does your use of news, markets, advertising, or shopping cultivate gratitude or continual dissatisfaction?
• Are your possessions serving faithful purposes, or are anxiety and maintenance making you serve them?
• Has money or inheritance harmed a relationship that is worth more than the disputed object or amount?
• What are you hoarding from fear that God will not provide?
• Which ordinary gift from God have you rushed past instead of receiving with thanks?
• How can your enjoyment become more generous rather than self-indulgent?
• What riches has Christ already given you that financial loss cannot take away?
• Could you truthfully say in your present circumstances, “In Christ, I have everything I need”?

Oppression

The unjust use of power to burden, exploit, or deny justice to people, especially those with little social protection.

Civil magistrate

A government official entrusted by God with public authority to promote good and restrain wrongdoing, and accountable to God for that trust.

Love of money

Treating wealth as the source of satisfaction, identity, security, or success rather than as a limited tool and gift under God.

Vanity

What is fleeting, elusive, and unable to bear the lasting weight we place on it, like trying to grasp wind.

Hoarding

Clinging to wealth for oneself in a way that is driven by fear or greed and refuses grateful use or generosity.

Contentment

Resting in God’s sufficiency and receiving one’s circumstances with faith in both abundance and need.

God-given portion

The work, relationships, food, resources, and daily opportunities God presently assigns a person to receive and steward.

Christian enjoyment

Receiving created gifts with thankful attention and generosity without making pleasure or possessions into idols.

Heavenly inheritance

The secure life, glory, and fellowship with God promised to believers in Christ beyond every earthly loss.