Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Main Idea: We cling to the things of this life as if they mean something and will last forever. But only God is forever, so cling to Him.

Text:

Today, I’m going to be talking about a topic that’s often a little touchy in church, and that’s the topic of money. Now, I know some of you might be thinking, “Oh great, here comes the guilt trip about tithing.” But don’t worry, we already passed the collection plate earlier in the service, and I promise we won’t be passing it again during this morning. And in fact, we’re not going to be talking so much about giving our money here, but rather about how we think about money, and how we use our money out there.

John Piper retired as a pastor a few years back, but he was and still is one of my favorite preachers because of his emphasis on doing all to the glory of God, and not wasting your life. There was one particular video clip from a sermon he preached that really made him popular among young people around the time that I started going to college. Here’s John Piper talking about retirement.

[Video of John Piper’s Shell Illustration]

How we live matters. How we spend our time matters. And this applies to every single one of us, from the youngest of us to the oldest of us. We only have so much time on this earth, so we ought to not waste it, but to use it wisely, and especially as we seek to do all things to the glory of God.

But I want to focus on a different aspect of what John Piper talked about in that clip, and that’s the shell collection itself. Now, John Piper wasn’t saying it’s wrong to have a collection of some kind. There’s nothing wrong with having hobbies, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying collecting particular things. And I think shells are an awesome thing that display the greatness and wonder of God’s creation.

When I was a teenager, I myself used to collect these wheat pennies, and it was kind of fun searching through buckets of pennies for hours with my brother and my dad, looking for the ones that had the characteristic wheat stalks on their backs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.

But the issue is simply this: is that the emphasis of your life? Hunched over a table, sorting through pennies in search of the ones that are worth a couple pennies more? Is that your life’s goal? And by doing things like that, especially how we do things like that, are we neglecting the more important things in life? Because I think we’ve all at some point treated money and stuff as if it was so important in life, when all of it is so incredibly temporary, and God calls us to find our treasure in Him.

So let’s pray.

Father, help us to honor You in the way that we relate to and use the stuff of this world. Help us not to make idols of these things so that we worship them, but help us to worship You. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Ecclesiastes 5, starting in verse 8.

If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them. The profit from the land is taken by all; the king is served by the field. (Ecclesiastes 5:8-9)

I thought about preaching these two verses separately on their own, in a different sermon from the rest of the verses we’ll be looking at this morning. But it really serves as a kind of introduction to what we’ll read in a moment, because it’s all about attacking this idea that what we gain in this life matters, even if we gain those things at the expense of others. It’s all too common for people with power to take advantage of those without power, whether we’re talking about politics, social issues, or even just the dynamics among friends and family. It’s far too easy to get focused on what we want, rather than helping others with what they need.

But if we were to think that this life is all about gaining as much as we can so that we can die rich, then this is exactly the kind of life we should live: gain power, gain possessions, and only help those who are going to help your career or life.

Of course, I think we would all recognize that that kind of life would be characterized by sin and selfishness.

And yet if we’re honest, that’s exactly how we’ve often operated in much of this life. We all have. We’re all sinners. And if you don’t believe me that we’ve all sinned in this way specifically, think about the last time you passed a person who had a need without giving them anything. It could have been as they begged on the street, or it could have been a conversation you overheard as you walked by. Maybe you heard about someone who had medical bills that were starting to pile up, or school bills, or even just someone who couldn’t afford to go out to eat because they were out of work or in debt.

We often dismiss those kinds of needs in others as a matter of stewardship of our resources, or we reason that they only have those needs because of their own poor stewardship, and we don’t want to be enablers, and certainly there’s wisdom in that, and yet, our hearts ought to rush to help people who have a need, no matter how they got into that situation, rather than blame them for the situation that they’re in.

But rather than having generous hearts, too often, we selfishly cling to our possessions, because we’re sinners.

We read in the book of Acts that when Christianity was just beginning, believers would literally sell all their extra possessions and lay the money at the feet of the apostles, so that it could be used to help anyone who had a need. Could you imagine if we actually did that today? Now, today is a different culture from 2,000 years ago, and maybe it wouldn’t be practical to do that because of our complicated tax system and cost of living, and yet, we ought to eagerly desire to freely give, just as God has freely given Jesus to us.

But instead, we selfishly hoard our stuff as if our stuff is what life is all about.

But there’s an obvious fallacy in this way of living. Verse 10.

The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep. (Ecclesiastes 5:10-12)

It doesn’t matter how high on the ladder you climb, if you think that’s what life is about, you’ll never be satisfied with what you’ve achieved. It doesn’t matter how much money you gain, if you think that’s what life is about, you’ll never be satisfied with how much you’ve gathered.

I mean, who hasn’t had that feeling of wanting more, even when we already have enough to meet our basic needs? It’s like trying to fill a bottomless pit with more and more stuff. You can’t do it!

I don’t recommend it, but there’s a rap song called “Mo Money Mo Problems.” I’ve heard from many people who are successful in the eyes of the world say that they were much happier when they weren’t successful, because now they’re always worried about losing all their money, or their businesses collapsing, and how they can’t get a good night’s sleep because they’ve found that with mo money comes mo problems.

We’ve probably all noticed this to various degrees. As your income increases, even if it’s only for a season, it seems like your expenses also increase at the same time. Isn’t that weird? When you make more, you spend more. And then when you start making less again, you still want to spend as much as you did when you made more, because you got used to that way of living. This is part of why so many actors and athletes end up broke, even though they made millions of dollars during their careers. No matter how much money we make, if you make life about money, it will never be enough!

But on the flip side, if you have just enough, you don’t have to worry about constantly making more, and you can praise God that you have everything that you need.

Verse 13.

There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. That wealth was lost in a bad venture, so when he fathered a son, he was empty-handed. As he came from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands. This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind? What is more, he eats in darkness all his days, with much frustration, sickness, and anger. (Ecclesiastes 5:13-17)

This is where so many people go wrong when it comes to finances: “wealth is kept by its owner to his harm.” Money and possessions kept just for yourself will end up hurting you. The more you make life about material gain, the less you own possessions, and the more your possessions own you.

Wealth isn’t meant to be hoarded for yourself. It’s meant to be used as a blessing for others. And that’s not to say that you can’t have nice things, or save for retirement; you can. But if you do it all just for you, it will never satisfy you, and it could all be gone in an instant. And then where will you be? We were born naked, owning nothing, and we’ll die naked, because we can’t take anything with us. We were made from dust, and to dust we’ll return. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed by the name of the Lord.

So if nothing we gain in this life matters, what does matter?

Verse 18.

Here is what I have seen to be good: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward. Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God, for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart. (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20)

It’s good to enjoy the things of this life. God gives these things to us as a blessing. And we all have various degrees of these blessings, so we shouldn’t be envious of another person’s blessings, but be thankful for what we have. Paul wrote that if we have food and clothing, with these, we should be content. In our materialistic culture, we can get so consumed with what other people have, or with what commercials say that we could have, or should have, and we sometimes forget that we really already have everything we need for the most part.

I mean, the very fact that we’re all here means that we’ve survived to this point, because God has provided for us and sustained us to this point. So that’s why James wrote:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

Every good thing that we receive from anyone, any source whatsoever, is a gift from God. Because God is the source of everything good, because God alone is good.

So even riches and wealth are to be received as a gift from God, if you have them. If you don’t have them, don’t be envious of those who do, but if you do have them, you don’t have to feel guilty about having them. Instead, seek to use them for God’s glory, just as the women of means supported Jesus during His ministry, because God gives people various degrees of financial blessings in order to serve Him in various ways.

Instead of hoarding our wealth, whether we have much or just a little, clinging to it as if it’s the most important thing in the world, use it to bless others. Whether that’s through supporting missions, helping out a neighbor in need, or simply being generous with our resources, using the stuff that God has given us, we can love others as God has loved us.

You see, so often, we cling to the things of this life as if they mean something and will last forever. But only God is forever, so cling to Him.

So as we go about our daily lives, let’s remember that our wealth and possessions, whether we have little or much, are just temporary blessings, and that our true treasure is in heaven. Let’s use what we have to bless others and bring glory to God, and let’s rely on Jesus and his grace to save us. Let’s not waste our lives chasing after things that will ultimately fade away. Instead, let’s focus on the things that truly matter: our relationship with God through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

As I reflect back on my wheat penny collection, the coolest thing about that was spending time with my dad. My dad also collected some coins at the time, so we’d go to coin stores and coin shows and we’d talk about coins. But the coins weren’t really the point.

You might have a collection of some kind, too. That’s ok, but don’t make the collection itself the point. Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all people so that I might save some.” Use whatever you have in order to build a bridge with people in order to share Jesus. That’s the point, because Jesus is the point.

Peter said it like this:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:2-3)

In Jesus, we have everything we need for life! Because life isn’t about stuff, it’s about Jesus Himself. All of history points us to Jesus, and all of our longings in life aren’t satisfied by stuff, but in Jesus.

C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity:

If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So when it comes to your money, ask yourself, am I living as if this world is all that there is? Or am I living for the life to come?

That life starts when you place your faith in Jesus.