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00:04 Holy Spirit, we ask that you do a special work among
00:10 us today. Do your work of illuminating our hearts to see the beauty of Jesus.
00:18 Holy Spirit, I also ask for the work of salvation to come. That you
00:24 make salvation spring out from the ground. that those here who are unregenerated will come to know you and
00:31 from death they will be transferred into the kingdom of life in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
00:38 Thank you. Before I start offending anyone, let me tell you about the structure of the the
00:44 text. This one uh is not like a usual sermon in that the ending is the climax.
00:51 rather the the text is structured in a way that the middle is the climax. It's
00:56 like uh it looks like this and very interesting you see the top and the
01:02 bottom are parallel. They talk about the similar things as well as you climb up
01:08 also. You see similar things. Father of a son, a father of a hund children comes
01:13 and goes, darkness. You see the teams are similar. Good and evil. God has
01:19 given, one is a gift, one is a grievous, evil, and then the peak. It's kind of
01:24 like climbing a mountain. This is a picture of Broga Hill. Anyone been?
01:31 Yeah. Um, if you climb a mountain, normally you only take picture at the
01:37 peak, right? You don't take picture when you're climbing halfway, right? Because
01:42 you don't look very good, right? You look very tired and very exhausted. It's really tough. But as you reach the peak,
01:49 suddenly you're refreshed because you you caught the sun. You caught the sunrise. You see the clouds, you're
01:55 like, I'm in heaven. Then you there's a there's a breath of fresh air. It's the
02:01 air con. It's the air con. Yeah. And you feel so energized again, right? But then
02:06 after you hang out on the top for a while, you realize that you have to go back down. And going down again is oh,
02:12 really, really tough. When you when you go back home, what do you do? You check out the photos again, right? And those
02:18 are photos of the peak again. You appreciate the whole journey because you managed to catch a moment in the peak.
02:26 And that's what we will do with our sermon today. Um, if you hear the text just now, a lot of tough things are
02:33 mentioned. Oppression of the poor, uh, fathering a child with no money, a
02:40 stillborn child, all these are tough things. But the climax,
02:46 the climax will make us appreciate the whole journey. Araso. Okay, let's go.
02:55 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice
03:01 and righteousness. You see this text is about the love of money.
03:07 So why does it talk about corruption in the beginning? Well, very simply because
03:15 corruption is an outworking of greed, of love, of money, isn't it?
03:23 When you love money too much, you tend to care much less about other human
03:31 beings and you do not care about oppressing them.
03:38 And the teacher continues, "Do not be amazed at the matter, for the high officials is watched by a higher and yet
03:44 there are higher ones over them." So what the teacher is trying to say is that corruption is common and is almost
03:53 impossible to eradicate. Almost impossible to eradicate. You try
03:60 to knock the guy who oppress you. Guess what? There's still another guy. And guess what? Immediately the one guy is
04:06 replaced by another, right? It's hard to knock down corruption. This is from
04:12 Transparency International. This is their results from last year. And he says nobody score 100 points. Nobody.
04:23 And over twothirds of those countries that are surveyed, they fall below the midpoint.
04:29 The global average score is 43. And Malaysia is just above that average.
04:40 Here's what the chairman of Transparency International says. In too many countries, people are derived of their
04:47 most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while
04:52 the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity. Do I need to
04:59 elaborate more? I'm sure other preachers will do that,
05:04 but suffice to say, corruption is common and is nearly impossible to eradicate.
05:12 As if you don't feel helpless or angry enough, the teacher goes on in verse 9,
05:18 he said, "But this is gain for a land in every way. A king committed to
05:24 cultivated fields." Again, corruption is again
05:30 is the Bible teaching us that corruption is good uh necessary evil.
05:37 This one I turn to commentary from uh Dr. Leong. He came and teaches ecclesiastes recently and here's what he
05:44 said. The Cohelv reminds his audience that despite a corrupt government on the
05:51 whole, it is profitable to have a king over cultivated fields. That is for the
05:57 sake of agriculture or economy. In other words, it is still better to have a
06:02 corrupt government than have no government. Otherwise, there will be anarchy from
06:07 within and without. And agriculture or economy production will not be possible.
06:14 Better a corrupt king than no king at all. That's what the teacher says. And
06:21 by seemingly expressing acceptance of the status quo, the
06:26 teacher yet again he draws out that feeling of hopelessness, their sense of
06:34 meaninglessness. What's the point of working hard? What's the point of playing by the rules? The system is
06:40 rigged anyway. And so when we finish this section,
06:45 there are two possible reactions. One is a cry for justice. We say justice
06:52 must be served. The corrupt must be punished. That's reaction one. Reaction two is
06:59 that you know what? I'm going to be rich. I'm not going to be bullied. I'm not
07:05 going to be oppressed. I'm going to be at the top. I'm not going to let anyone bully me.
07:13 And to those two reactions, the teacher goes on and he gives a statement of fact
07:20 that he will explain. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he
07:26 who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity.
07:33 So for those who cry out for justice, the teacher says justice will be served
07:39 because those who love money, they will never be satisfied with money. It's like
07:46 you seeing something, you wanting something, you getting something, and then you realize, oh, it doesn't satisfy
07:54 me. It doesn't work. Have you ever had that experience before of having something but not really enjoying it?
08:02 one time, right? There's this guy that came to my house. I really don't like him because uh yeah, he what he did was
08:10 he he brought a jacket over and then he said, "Hey, Joish, can you try on this jacket?" And so when I saw it, I was
08:18 like, "Wa, it looks really nice." You know, it's Nike is silver color and it's
08:23 like, "Well, I'm going to look really cool in this jacket, you know." So I try it on. It was in our house. There was a
08:29 big mirror or look when I look in front. I gave the brightest smile of my life. I
08:34 was so happy someone gave me a jacket, you know. So I try. Nice, right? Nice, right? And then that friend who brought
08:40 the jacket, he said, "It fits you. It fits you." Okay. Then it will fit Eugene. So actually he planned to give
08:48 it to somebody else. Yeah. Well, another time when I sent my
08:56 brother away, he was uh migrating to Finland. He's back now. long story but
09:01 when he was going away uh his friends and family we all
09:07 gathered at the airport and wanted to send him off. So I went to toilet when I
09:12 came back out someone hand me a iPad you know uh it was iPad 2 at that time and
09:18 then that person say can you hold this I'm like why
09:24 again a bright smile then he say uh your brother buy for you one as a farewell
09:30 gift I'm like really no
09:35 someone else gave my brother that gift as farewell so in that moment I experienced that I have it, it's mine.
09:43 No, that's frustration.
09:48 And the teacher says justice will be served in that way. The corrupt, they
09:54 will never be satisfied. Those who love money will never be satisfied. And to
09:60 those who want to change their destiny and say, "I'm not going to be oppressed. I'm not going to be bullied." The
10:06 teacher used this as a warning. The love of money will never satisfy.
10:13 And he's going to give three illustrations. Going to look at the first two.
10:20 Number one, when goods increase, they increase who
10:25 eat them. And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
10:32 It's like this, huh? When you when you get a promotion or your boss tell you
10:38 get get a raise, right? You you you're really excited. You you pretend to not
10:43 be excited. You leave your boss's office, okay? You go to the toilet or somewhere and you ah so it's like that.
10:49 First thing you call you call your wife and you say, "I got good news. I got good news and I I'll come home now and
10:57 I'll tell you." You know what's happening when you're driving on the way back? Your wife is already thinking
11:03 about this, right? What's the point of having more
11:09 money if I can't spend it, right? Then you go back home, you hug your wife, and
11:15 then you say, "Let's have another baby." Right? Oh, let's upgrade our car. Right?
11:22 You know what? We can move somewhere else. We don't have to stay here anymore. Yay.
11:27 Right? And so you live, you spend, right? As a result, what
11:33 happens? Other people take notice, right? And now more and more people want
11:38 a piece of you, right? Credit card company call you. Insurance, your friends start to call you, right? You
11:45 need to insure this, you need to insure that, right? And uh even your friends, right? Oh, I'm
11:53 getting married. Can I use your sports car? Right. my my brother he recently
11:60 became quite wealthy. Uh he's he's stay in a when I found that he's going to stay in a condominium in TDDI. Okay. And
12:09 his and his rental is super high. You know what my attitude to him
12:16 immediately changed. Okay. When we go out for dinner, where are we going?
12:22 Go mama. Go mama. You better pay. But I didn't say out loud by my face. You better pay.
12:30 He paid you know that day he paid. After that he asked me for my my part my
12:35 share. You get that you people got the
12:41 expectation towards you. When you get more money people were like hey you should
12:48 right. So the teacher says, "What advantage
12:54 does the owner have except to see him see it with his eyes?" That means you watch your money come and go. You watch
13:03 your money move from one point A to point B.
13:08 You watch your money go to others or be used by others, which is fine actually if you love people,
13:15 right? If you love people. But the teacher is talking about those who love money.
13:22 And so the owner of this wealth experience heartache
13:28 and very tired eyes. The next thing that the rich may suffer
13:35 is lack of sleep. Sleep sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats
13:41 little or much. But the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
13:48 Another thing that befalls the rich is worry. We get anxious. We worry.
13:57 Uh a few reasons. Number one, the more money you have, the more opportunity you have to do harm to other people.
14:05 The more evil things that now you are capable of. Previously, you cannot, but
14:10 now because you have wealth, you have the status, you're more capable, and therefore you offend more people, you do
14:17 more wrong things, and you build up a guilty conscience. And guess what? You worry.
14:25 You can't sleep. Or the more money you have, the more other people want to do you
14:32 harm because they want a piece of your pie. They want a piece of you, right?
14:39 So let me ask you a question. First of all, let me just say that I'm not asking for these houses. I didn't take picture.
14:47 These are pictures from the internet. I was not surveying. I'm not asking for suggestions. I'm not
14:54 a robber. Okay? I'm a I'm a pastor. All right? But which house would you rob? The one
15:01 on the left with the proton car or the one on the right?
15:07 Don't say out loud. People think that you're a robber, but we all know, right? The wealthier
15:13 you are, the more you need to protect your property. So, you put CCTV. Is CCTV
15:20 enough? No. The robber got mass, right? What you need to do? Oh, we need to
15:25 guard the community. Put We need to have guards, gated fences, right? Enough or
15:32 not? Not enough. What do you do? Oh, we put alarms. alarm system. Enough or not?
15:40 Not enough. Right? Recently, you see all the CCTV footage, right? They rob really, really fast, right? And what do
15:48 you have but panic? What do you have but sleepless
15:53 nights? And so, as a result, the rich will fall into sleep depravity. And these are the
16:00 effects. Trouble with thinking and concentration. You're prone to accident.
16:05 Exaggerated emotions of mood weaken immunity etc etc. Weight gain. So when
16:12 you see someone who gain weight you don't ask hey eating a lot are you worrying a lot? You ask them. Okay.
16:22 So that's the first illustration of a rich man. He watch his money come in and
16:28 go out. He worries more and he sleeps less. Second illustration
16:34 it first illustration is a spender. Second illustration is a hoarder. There's a grievous evil that I seen
16:41 under the sun. The riches were kept by their owner to his hurt. Kept to his
16:48 hurt means that uh he he did all he can to accumulate as much money as possible.
16:55 Probably he physically hurt himself. He broke his back working hard to
16:60 accumulate. But it could also mean that because he wanted to keep all the money
17:05 for himself as a result he burned a lot of bridges or he hurt a lot of people.
17:11 Why? Because his goal was more and more and more money. And because his goal was
17:18 more and more money, he invests more and more. As as a result, what happened? And
17:24 those riches were lost in a bad venture.
17:31 Everything was lost. At first he kept all his riches but now he lost everything and he now he can't
17:38 even leave anything to his son. Right? There are some of us here Asian parents,
17:45 right? We we are stingy. We we don't want to spend. We are thrifty. Sorry,
17:51 wrong word. Not stingy. Thrifty. Want to save money. But we are always thinking about the next generation. I work really
17:57 hard so that my next generation can enjoy, right? But this guy,
18:04 he lost everything in just one bad venture. Is it possible to lose all your
18:09 money in one bad venture? Yeah, it's possible. It's real. It's not fiction.
18:17 Most devastatingly, he has nothing to show for all his years of hard work. He
18:23 has nothing in his hands. And the teacher says, "As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again naked
18:29 as he came and shall take nothing for his to."
18:35 So just now the first illustration, right? He say, "Money come and money go." But this one is even worse. He
18:44 comes and he goes just as he comes,
18:49 he goes. And the teacher says the end all of his days he eats in darkness with
18:55 much vexation and sickness and anger.
18:60 I remember watching I don't don't know exactly a Singapore drama or or Hong
19:05 Kong drama but this family very rich got neighbor and he always boast about their
19:12 wealth and one one time they finally they got bankrupt. Chinese New Year,
19:19 they pretend to go overseas because they are want to boast about their wealth
19:25 while they have no money. So they pretend to go overseas. So they pretend to go out at night. All their bags are
19:31 packed or go out. But actually once their their neighbors go to sleep, they
19:37 sneak back into their own house and they don't own anything to show that
19:44 nobody's at home, right? eating in darkness.
19:50 That's what it means. You're in shame. You're in isolation. You're no more community. You're angry. You're
19:57 frustrated. So, what the teacher has done so far is
20:04 create a certain angst, a certain frustration, a hopelessness.
20:09 Uh what's the point of hard work, a meaninglessness to accumulating wealth?
20:16 What's the point of pursuing happiness? What's the point of pursuing contentment and satisfaction when everything can be
20:22 gone in an instance?
20:29 What's the point? Like if you're if you're poor, you you try to work hard,
20:35 cannot got corruption. Uh if you're if you manage to break that
20:40 ceiling, you you get what you want, but you have no satisfaction. your money come and your money go. At the end of
20:46 your your your check and balance, you got more worry and less sleep.
20:54 Or if you try to accumulate as much wealth, you don't spend, you accumulate as much wealth as possible, it all could
20:59 go in just one bad venture and you have nothing but sickness, grief, loneliness,
21:06 and frustration. Money won't buy you contentment and
21:12 satisfaction. So what is the solution? Now we reach
21:19 the peak. By the way, you know what that word means, right?
21:28 So now behold, okay, let me read from here. Behold, what I've seen to be good
21:33 and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one
21:40 toils under the sun. the few days of his life that God has given him. For this is
21:46 his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power
21:51 to enjoy them and to accept his Lord and rejoice in his toil. This is the gift of
21:57 God. For he will not remember much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his
22:06 heart. It's important that we read this portion in its entirety because if you
22:14 just take bits of it home and apply it to your life, you won't get the
22:20 Christian message. You will you'll misrepresent what the teacher is trying to say. Okay? So if if what you read is
22:29 oh eat and drink yolo, right? Just do whatever you want with your life. YOLO
22:35 means you only live once. Okay? So spend or do whatever you want. Party, go
22:41 crazy. But if you say no, no, no. The teacher says, right, you need to accept your
22:47 lot, right? You will sound like a pessimist, you're like
22:54 just accept your fate, accept your destiny. This is what life is. Okay? And
22:60 you'll be passive also. You won't work hard. What's the point of working hard? just accept your lot and be very sad.
23:10 Or if you say, "Oh, life is about eating and drinking and enjoying your work."
23:15 You'll be like these people who say, "To travel is to live." Choose a job you
23:21 love and you'll never have to work a day in your life. These are semantics of the
23:27 romantic. People who are idealists, people who are romantic, they dream like, "Oh, I'm going to travel the
23:34 world. To travel is to live. If I haven't traveled, I haven't lived."
23:40 Well, I think it's nice sentiment except uh you have to realize that there are
23:46 poor people who never get to travel or there are poor people who will never
23:51 ever get to choose the job they love. They will always have to work at a job
23:57 that they don't like. So if you say this to them,
24:03 you don't understand them. You don't know what's going on in their life. You are living in a upper middle class
24:11 double. So that's not what the teacher says.
24:18 What the teacher says is eat and drink, enjoy your work, accept your toil, do
24:26 all this remembering God. Don't forget there's this person that
24:33 exists and that person is God. Observe the God- centeredness of this
24:41 passage, right? You see the ones in blue. It says the number of days in our lives are
24:48 given by God. Wealth, possession, power to enjoy them are given by God. The
24:54 ability to accept our Lord, the ability to be contented and enjoy our work is
24:60 given by God. Blissful joy, not remembering the days of your life, not remembering that your
25:07 life is short. Blissful joy is also given by God.
25:12 So it is an understatement to say that we humans are heavily dependent on God.
25:22 And so the point that the teacher is trying to make is that do all these things but remember
25:30 that without God no one can be truly happy.
25:38 Without God, you cannot be happy. And so we eat and drink, enjoy
25:46 our except our toil in the fear of God. We acknowledge that he is God. I am not
25:53 God. So we live under his rule.
25:58 We obey his commandments as we eat, drink, enjoy work except our Lord.
26:04 Commandments like this. command those who are rich. Uh the bottom say to do
26:10 good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. Pastor
26:15 Josh, I'm really willing to share. What? How much you need? Right. Someone is going to say that to me after service.
26:22 How much you need? How much should I share? How much should I be willing to share? Well, can you be like the ex
26:29 church? There was not a needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought
26:36 the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet, it was distributed to each
26:42 that any has need. Are you willing to share your house?
26:48 Are you willing to share your possession for very very radical the early church
26:55 very radical? No, they're just obeying what Jesus tell them to do. sell your possessions and give to the needy.
27:06 Um, I'm not just talking to the rich, just in case you are worrying. I'm talking to the poor also, people who
27:12 feel like they do not have enough. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that's been given among the
27:17 churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have
27:25 overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. The poor
27:31 can be generous. The poor can be generous, too.
27:38 And so, we live our lives knowing that even though there's a provision from God
27:44 for us to enjoy life, spend what we can spend, we also have a responsibility to
27:50 fill, fulfill, we have to please God in all that we do. We have to acknowledge
27:59 God. The next section will emphasize this point. You cannot be happy without
28:08 pleasing God.
28:13 And so this third illustration, it talks about a man who lacks nothing. Everything his eyes see, he can get. Yet
28:22 God does not give him the power to enjoy them. But a stranger enjoys them. If we
28:30 compare refer to chapter two, let's read that. For the to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and
28:37 knowledge and joy. But to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to one who
28:44 pleases God. So you see the one in chapter six, he gathers, but he has to
28:50 give to a stranger to enjoy. So if we refer to chapter two, the stranger is
28:56 the one who pleases God and he the wealthy man is known as the sinner
29:04 who is been given the business of gathering and collecting. He is the sinner. He is the one that does not
29:12 please God.
29:19 Naturally, one might might say um this man's life is meaningless because
29:27 a stranger enjoys his wealth, not his children. If he has children, then
29:33 perhaps his life, even though he didn't get to enjoy it, he didn't have the power, at least he can pass on to his
29:39 children, at least his life would have meant something, right? And a lot of us,
29:45 we feel that way, right? I work as hard as I can. It doesn't matter whether I enjoy my life or not as long as the next
29:52 generation get a better life. We all think that way. We all hope the for the
29:57 best for our children. But the teacher says that's not what makes his life
30:03 meaningless. If a man fathers a 100 children and lives many years so that the days of his life are many, but his
30:10 soul is not satisfied with life's good thing and he also has no burial. I say that a stillborn child is better off
30:18 than he. Having many descendants and long life is
30:24 considered the blessed life, right? In the Jewish culture and even among the
30:30 Chinese, even the Asian community, many children long life, blessed, not what
30:36 the teacher says because he doesn't have the God-given power to be satisfied.
30:44 So in life, he cannot enjoy his wealth and in death he doesn't even have a
30:50 proper burial. Now uh we don't know why he did not have a
30:55 proper burial but there are two possibilities. One is because he's a sinner. Okay. And in the Bible a sinner
31:01 does not get a burial. Okay. Um number two is that he has so many
31:08 children but because he's so unhappy he he his children don't like him
31:14 anymore and didn't even bother to remember him in his death.
31:19 In any case, what the teacher is trying to say is that this man in life he does
31:25 not enjoy and even in his death he cannot have some comfort.
31:33 Why? Because he does not please God. He's not a God pleaser.
31:42 And he says a stillborn child is better off than he.
31:51 Why? Verse 5. Moreover, he has not seen the
31:57 son or known anything. Yet he finds rest rather than he.
32:03 It means because of that brief moment of his life, the stillborn child, he he did
32:09 not see what life has to offer. He did not have the lack. He did not suffer the
32:16 desire, the wanting it and not being able to be satisfied by it. He did not
32:21 suffer all these things. He came and he went and he found rest.
32:28 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, I give you more life and I give you more children, it doesn't
32:36 matter because God did not give him the power to enjoy life. And in the end,
32:44 it's all vanity.
32:49 And so after three illustrations, the teacher settles. He's going to land now
32:55 to on conclusion. He reiterates his point. All the toil of man is for his mouth.
33:02 Yet his appetite is not satisfied. This one I'm sure we all can relate. We
33:08 humans are never satisfied. Rarely do we arrive at a point of
33:14 okay I'm contented. Okay, I'm satisfied. Rarely do we arrive
33:20 at that. And even if we do, it is often very short-lived.
33:29 Like, have you ever eaten a food like, "Oh, I'm craving for sashimi today.
33:36 Oh, sashimi. I need to get some sashimi." So, you go and you go to the shop, you
33:41 get the cuts you want, you got it, you eat it, and how do you feel? You feel satisfied. And do you ever say, "Wow, I
33:49 never have to eat sashimi ever in my life because I'm so satisfied with this sashimi." No. Right. Normally, we say,
33:58 "I can't wait to eat that sashimi again." Why? Because that sashimi did
34:04 not satisfy you. It created more desire. Oh, when you travel, you go travel to um
34:11 let's say you go travel to New Zealand, you go see the greens and the cows and the wow, so nice. You should wow after
34:19 you come back, you say, "Wow, I never need to travel again in my life." Wow, one travel is enough. I'm so satisfied.
34:27 No. What? Very often after you travel, when you come back, what's the first thing you you feel? Oh, not long enough.
34:35 H I have to go back to work. Right? Once you go back to work, immediately what you're thinking, oh, I want to travel
34:42 again. Right? I want to You just came back from a holiday. Shouldn't it
34:47 satisfy you, reinvigorate you, make you find full rest, re-energize you? But no,
34:54 we are more desperate, more eager, more desiring. We humans, we are never
35:03 satisfied. That's why buffet lines we got two rules. Number one, you don't waste. And number two, you have a time
35:10 limit, right? Why? Because if we don't have these two rules, we'll just take and take and we'll have our bed there.
35:20 So the teacher ends with a question. What advantage has the wise man over the
35:27 fool? And what does the poor have who knows how to comfort himself before the living, conduct himself?
35:34 He asked the question and then he answers. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. This
35:41 also is vanity and a striving after win. So,
35:48 what does it mean? If we refer back to chapter two again,
35:54 then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than folly and there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise
36:00 person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And so when we
36:06 go back, better is the sight of the eyes. We
36:11 understand he's talking about better to have wisdom, right? Verse eight, he say,
36:17 "What advantage does the wine have over the fool?" And he answers, "There is
36:23 wisdom is better than chasing after the wind.
36:28 To be wise is better to be chasing after the wind, to be
36:34 hustling, stressing, to be disappointed, to be frustrated, to be unsatisfied, to
36:40 be discontented. It is better to be wise. It is better to
36:46 be poor and wise than to be rich and foolish.
36:56 So how then should we live? Conclusion
37:03 number one, knowing that God is in control of everything. He's the one that gives
37:10 us the number of our days. He's the one that gives us power to accumulate wealth. Gives us the power to enjoy that
37:16 wealth. And he gives us joy.
37:23 Knowing that the power to eat and drink enjoyable and be contented is a gift from him. And knowing that in order to
37:30 receive that gift, we have to please him. We have to be a godleaser instead
37:38 of sinner. We have to please him and be in his good graces. When you want a gift
37:44 from someone, do you offend them or do you please them? You please them.
37:52 Basically, we have to admit, we have to come to an acknowledgment that God is
37:59 God and I am not. God is God. He rules.
38:06 His plans is all him. He is in control. I am not.
38:12 He is God and I am not.
38:18 Which is a problem, isn't it, for humans. For those of us who know our sin well
38:23 enough, we know that to say, "God, you are God, and I'm just a human." And we
38:30 not only say that, but we live that out in complete contentment and satisfaction.
38:37 It's hard. Since Adam and Eve, we humans have
38:42 rebelled against the godness of God. We want to be like God. We want to be our
38:49 own God. We don't want someone else telling us what to do or where to go and
38:54 how we should spend our money, how we should spend our time. We want to do things our own way at our
39:02 own time, however we like, with whoever
39:08 we like. We want to be our own gods and we
39:13 constantly rebel against the true God. As a result, selfishness abounds.
39:22 Right? When we have power, we oppress the poor. When we have wealth, we don't want to share with other people. We want
39:27 to keep it all to ourselves. And in our conscience, we know that
39:32 there is a God and there is a God that we must please because he is the creator. We are the creation. We must
39:39 yield to his plans. We must yield to his ways. We must honor him and give him the
39:45 due respect. Yet we choose to suppress that truth.
39:51 Right? Atheist will say there is no God. The Christian will say or will you say
39:58 is a Christian? The person who claims to be a Christian will say Jesus is
40:05 my body. Jesus is not my God. He is my God in that sense that he can do
40:11 powerful things for me which is partly true,
40:17 right? But if we treat God mainly as that powerful being that gives us what
40:22 we want, are we not merely treating God as a butler?
40:30 We suppress the truth. We ignore him. When we come to church, we listen to sermons. We know that there are commands
40:37 that we're supposed to obey and choose to not obey them.
40:43 Why? Because we don't want to give up our throne. I'm God. I'm God over my own
40:49 life. I don't need someone else to tell me what to do. And recently,
40:56 oh, I'm going to offend some people. Recently, we we did the we went through the book of Luke. And in Luke, it talks
41:04 about how we should spend our money. And imagine if all of us, all of us, we we
41:12 took that and we literally obeyed it. Sell our possessions and give to the
41:17 poor. Can you imagine what would it do to society?
41:26 But no, we is my life. It's my wealth. I earn it. It's for me. I do it my way.
41:35 Human history is a long history of humans
41:41 rebelling against God, wanting to be their own God. Even even for Israel, the
41:48 people of God that God rescued out of Egypt and he makes a covenant with them and says, "If I brought you out of
41:55 Egypt, I bear you on wings of eagles and now if you obey me, you'll be a prized
42:01 possession. You'll be a holy nation to me. you'll be my treasured people. And
42:06 the people of Israel say, "Yes, we will obey you. Yes, we will obey you." And constantly
42:12 they fail, right? The the people of Israel fail time and time and time
42:18 again. And God punished them be for it until
42:24 God spoke again through the prophet
42:32 to prophet Jeremiah. He says of a new covenant. This is the covenant that I will make
42:38 with the house of Israel after those days. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be
42:44 their God and they shall be my people. Through prophet Ezekiel, he said, "I
42:50 will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you
42:57 a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will keep my judgments
43:04 and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your
43:12 God." And so in this new covenant, God promises a new heart. A heart that wants
43:20 to please him. A heart that wants to say, "You are God. I am not. You are my
43:27 God. I am your people." So God promises through the new
43:34 covenant, a new heart. How do we get access to the new covenant?
43:42 through Jesus, right? On the night he was betrayed, he took bread. He broke it. This is my body
43:47 broken for you. Right? And then he took the cup and said, "This cup is the new
43:53 covenant established in my blood which is being poured out for you." And he was
43:59 talking about his sacrifice on the cross says, "My death for you will be an
44:05 establishment of the new covenant." A new covenant means access to a new
44:13 heart, a heart that wants to please God. So as Jesus gave his life on the cross
44:20 as the sacrificial lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,
44:27 not only did he wash away our sins through forgiveness, but he set us free from the power of sin by giving us new
44:35 hearts. Hearts that want to please him. hearts that want to honor him as God,
44:42 hearts that yield to him as king. And with this new heart, we may turn
44:48 from lovers of money to lovers of God.
44:53 Summary, how do we find contentment and
44:59 satisfaction from God? Because he is the giver.
45:06 To whom does he give this gift to? To those who please him.
45:13 How can I please him? Get a new heart.
45:18 How do I get a new heart? Through the cross of Jesus.
45:24 Through the cross of Jesus, we have access to a brand new heart. A heart
45:30 that wants to follow heart after God.
45:36 Let's bow our heads. Musicians come.
45:43 We want to sing a song crowning God with many crowns.
45:52 We want to declare Majesty Lord of all.
45:57 But as the musicians prepare, I want to ask a question.
46:04 Have you fallen at the foot of the cross?
46:09 Have you acknowledged that before God you are a sinner? You have rebelled
46:15 against him. You have committed atrocities against his name.
46:20 Have you acknowledged that you are a sinner? Have you believed that God sent his son to live a life that you ought to
46:28 live to die the death you ought to die? And have you confessed that his death on
46:34 your behalf is the only way you are made right with God and that you can be in
46:41 his good graces again? Have you dedicated your life to love and
46:46 serve Jesus your Lord and Savior? If you have,
46:53 then we can together we can say crown him with many crowns.
46:60 the lamb upon the throne.
47:08 Let me pray for you. [Music]
47:13 Dear God, forgive us for being lovers of money.
47:18 Forgive us for seeking contentment and satisfaction elsewhere other than in you.
47:26 Thank you for not leaving us in our sinfulness.
47:31 Thank you that the blood of Christ establishes the new covenant that we may
47:37 receive forgiveness of sins and new hearts that want to please you.
47:43 And because of our new status as your children, we can experience the gift of
47:49 contentment and satisfaction in part during this life and in full in your
47:56 presence. In your presence is fullness of joy at your right hands are treasures
48:02 forever more. And we will be there because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And we will be there and we will
48:09 sing crown him with many crowns. The lamb upon the throne. Amen.
