Been There. Done That. Now What?
03/12/2006 - On Wealth & Worship
In 1923 nine of the world's wealthiest and most successful financiers gathered for a meeting at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Together these tycoons controlled more wealth than was contained in the entire United States treasury. For years newspapers and magazines printed their success stories and urged young people to follow their examples. Almost anyone in that day would have gladly exchanged places with one of these high powered executives. They had discovered the secret to making money.
But only twenty-five years later their days at the Edgewater were a dim memory and all but two of them were dead. Charles Schwab, president of the nation's largest independent steel company, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died penniless. Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, served time in Sing Sing prison for grand larceny. Samuel Insul, the president of a giant utility company, died a bankrupt fugitive on the run in a foreign country. Gas company executive Howard Hopson suffered from insanity. Wheat speculator Arthur Cutton died destitute. Albert Fall, a member of President Harding's cabinet, was pardoned from prison so that he could die at home. Jesse Livermore the greatest bear in Wall Street history committed suicide. Leon Fraser the president of the Bank of International Settlement shot himself. And Ivan Krueger the head of the International Match Corporation, the world's greatest monopoly at the time, also took his own life. All these men knew how to make a living, but they didn't know how to make a life.
In that same year, 1923, Gene Sarazen won the PGA golf championship and the US Open. What happened to him? Well he went on to play golf until he was 92 years old and died in 1999 at the ripe old age of 97. Moral of the story … quit work and play golf! You'll live longer and be better off in the end.
Solomon probably would agree with that. Maybe he wouldn't have been so stressed out if he had learned to play golf or done something else to ease his mind. Perhaps if he was at the Edgewater Beach Hotel that day he would have told these nine men, Those who love money never have money enough; those who love wealth are never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.
This morning we continue our series called Been There. Done That. Now What? It's a series that's taking us through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes which is really the journal of King Solomon, the richest, wisest, most powerful man on earth. He's frustrated with life. He can't get no satisfaction for his soul. And in chapter five of his journal he's going to talk to us about worship and wealth. If you have a Bible turn with me to Ecclesiastes 5.
Let's start by looking at wealth and then we'll conclude with worship. Look at Ecclesiastes 5:8-9, If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. 9The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
Solomon starts by saying don't be surprised by oppression. Life is not fair. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. He's not saying oppression is good. He's not saying its right. He's not saying don't address it. He's saying oppression is part of the world we live in. And the ones who get oppressed are the poor. They're the ones who lack clout. They're the ones without a voice. They're the ones for whom rights and justice are often denied.
The poor, Solomon says, are at the bottom of the food chain. And as you climb the corporate ladder everyone is out to take advantage of the person below them all the way up to the king himself.
In the Message translation of this passage Eugene Peterson puts it this way, Don't be too upset when you see the poor kicked around, and justice and rights violated all over the place. Exploitation filters down from one petty official to another. There's no end to it, and nothing can be done about it.
Does that mean we shouldn't be concerned about the poor and the oppressed or try to help them? No. The Bible is full of statements commanding God's people to help the poor and stand up from the oppressed and those in need. Solomon is simply saying what Jesus would later say that the poor will always be with us until the kingdom comes. There will always be injustice in this world, but that doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing.
This week Tim, Matt and I had breakfast with two representatives from a Christian organization called Hope International based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We met to discuss ways that Valley View could possibly partner with them to take the good news of the gospel to those who are oppressed throughout the world.
Hope International provides a permanent solution to poverty in countries like the Ukraine and Afghanistan, the Congo and the Dominican Republic using a concept called microfinance. They provide small loans from as little as $40 to a few hundred dollars to people living in poverty so that they can start or expand a small business. Often their business is just a table of simple goods set up in the marketplace.
They call the loans a “hand up,” not a “hand out,” because instead of making the poor dependent on financial help, their goal is make them independent and to restore their dignity. And at the same time they work together with local churches looking for opportunities to address spiritual poverty as well through the good news of Jesus Christ. In Ukraine alone, Hope operates 300 children's clubs and 100 summer camps that present the message of Christ to over 10,000 kids each year.
It's an awesome concept and it's working. Critics thought people would just take the money and run and never repay the loans. But since 1997, they've made something like 40,000 loans and have a repayment rate over 99%.
The woman pictured in this slide received a loan from Hope to get her business going. Another woman in the Congo named Mama Tshibola has been a seamstress since 1972, making dresses and other clothes for people in her community. Yet before she received a loan from Hope she could only make clothes on demand. She didn't have enough money to build an inventory of fabric to sew and sell. Then she got her first loan for $40 and she used it to buy material and was able to increase her business so that now she can provide nutritious food for her family and pay the school fees for her grandchildren. With her next loan she hopes to buy a new sewing machine.
Hope is what the oppressed need. Hope that they can break the cycle of poverty, not so that they can become wealthy and driven by the dollar. That has its own perils as Solomon points out. In verses ten through twenty Solomon destroys four myths about money.
Look at verse 10, Those who love money never have enough; those who love wealth are never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.
The first myth is that money satisfies. And no one knew that better than Solomon, the richest man on the planet. But others have said that as well. This year we're celebrating the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, one of the wisest Americans who ever lived. A man I'd love to meet someday. This is what Big Ben had to say about money.
“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it double and triples that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man who said, ‘Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.'”
Money itself never satisfies. The second myth is that money solves problems. If I only had more money, I'd have less problems. Ever think that? I have. Look at verse 11, As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?
I can remember talking to my Dad one night after he came home from a late night business meeting. I think I was in college at the time. And when he came into the kitchen he looked wiped out. And in a rare moment of vulnerability he said, “Bruce, you can spend your whole life trying to build a business and earn money. And once you do, you spend the rest of your life worrying about how to protect it and how to invest it and how to keep from losing it.” Money may solve some problems, no doubt, but it brings a whole set of other problems.
Solomon says the more you have the more you have to take care of and the more other people will want from you. Andrew Carnegie, the steel king and the richest man in the world when he was alive, once said, “Millionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smiles away.”
W. H. Vanderbilt who made his fortune in the railroad business once said, “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”
Which leads to another money myth found in verse 12, The sleep of laborers is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits them no sleep.
The third myth about money is that it brings peace of mind. It doesn't. Solomon lost sleep over the stress of his fortune and lay awake at night jealous of the laborer who came home to his wife and kids every evening after a hard day's work, enjoyed a good, hot meal, read the newspaper, took a shower, and then laid his head on his pillow and zonked out. That's better, he says, than the guy who stays up all night with ulcers worrying about his investments and the condition of the stock market.
At the age of 53 John D. Rockefeller was the world's first billionaire. He made his fortune in oil. But at 53 Rockefeller developed insomnia and couldn't sleep at night. And even though he had the money to enjoy steak at every meal, all he could eat was milk and crackers because his stomach was eating itself up from all the stress of all his wealth.
But then something changed in his life. He began to give his money away and became a great philanthropist. And when he started doing that his health improved and he lived to the age of 98.
Don't get me wrong. The Bible does not condemn wealth. But it does warn us about the dangers of money. Money is a great servant, but a very poor master. The Bible doesn't say we shouldn't have it. But it does say that it shouldn't have us.
In verse 13 Solomon destroys a fourth myth about money, I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, 14or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit. 15People come naked from their mother's womb, and as they come, so they depart. They take nothing from their labors that they can carry in their hands. 16This too is a grievous evil: As people come, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind? 17All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.
The fourth myth is that money provides security. But, Solomon says, be careful because you can't take it with you. People come naked from their mother's womb, and as they come, so they depart. They take nothing from their labors that they can carry in their hands.
We can't take it with us, but Jesus says we can send it on ahead. He puts it this way in Matthew 6:19-21, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The best way I know to store up treasures in heaven is by investing a portion of our resources in God's kingdom through regular, generous, cheerful giving. That's sending it on ahead. And the apostle Peter says that the reward for that kind of investment will one day be an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. Giving to the Lord as an act of worship that safeguards us against the myths of money and goes a long way to providing the contentment that we all really want. We may not take up an offering at Valley View, but we believe strongly that giving is a powerful act of our worship that not only pleases God but protects us from being mastered by our money.
How's your giving? Are you experiencing the joy of partnering with God with your finances? It's one of the ways we walk with Jesus and open our lives up to God's blessing. Don't miss it!
Look at verse 18, Then I realized that it is good and proper for people to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. 19Moreover, when God gives people wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their work—this is a gift of God. 20They seldom reflect on the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
We will never enjoy our wealth and possessions, whatever they are, until we've learned to be content with what God has given us. That is Solomon on wealth and now let's read what Solomon has to say on worship.
Look at verse 1, Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.
In these verses Solomon sticks his head above the clouds and brings God into the picture. He does that by taking us into the temple that he built. Solomon's Temple was a magnificent structure. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. God had actually given the blueprints to David, his dad, but Solomon did the construction. It took over seven years with the help of 180,000 laborers. Everything glittered with gold and was studded with jewels. It was breathtaking!
And on the day it was dedicated a dark cloud filled the temple with the Shekinah glory of God that knocked the priests right off their feet. The temple was where the Israelites came to worship. They were not to worship God on the mountains or around idols like the Canaanites did, but in the Temple. Not that God was contained there. In his prayer of dedication Solomon says, The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! But it was the place God's people were to come and worship according to God's requirements that were pregnant with imagery pointing to the coming of Christ.
Solomon built the Temple soon after he became king and now thirty years later, as an old man, he looks out at the Temple from his palace and as he sees worshippers some who seem broken and sincere, but others who just seem to be going through the motions, doing the drill, priests and Levites mechanically performing the rituals. And he warns them and us to guard your steps when you go to the house of God.
The southern steps of the Temple were two hundred feet wide and staggered purposely so you'd have to think as you went up to meet with God. The steps were uneven. Some were eight inches high and some where seven and some were nine. You had to literally watch your step and think about what you were doing and where you were going.
The place we come to worship is the Audubon YMCA. It's not quite Solomon's temple. It just needs a few more layers of gold. And yet God in his grace meets us here every time we gather. But he wants us to come with a prepared heart. He wants our hearts and our minds and our words engaged in worship. That doesn't mean we can't greet each other and smile and laugh. That's an important expression of the love we share as a community. And God loves that.
But when we sing and when we listen to the teaching of God's Word and when we participate in the Lord's Table God wants us fully engaged. This is his time. This is his party, not ours. We don't come to be entertained or to critique the worship team or the teacher. He doesn't want us to take this opportunity lightly or for granted. Instead, we say Lord I come to worship you this morning. I come to serve you. I come to hear what you have to say to me today. We need to prepare our hearts to meet with God.
Look at verse 4, When you make a vow to God, don't delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. 6Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
We don't talk much about vows these days, except wedding vows. Those are perhaps the most important vows we can take in our lifetime. And God will hold us accountable to how we honored or dishonored those vows, which is why divorce and the breaking of the marriage vow is such a painful thing. So to those who aren't married be careful before you say “I do.” And to those of us who are married be careful to stay true to your marriage vows for a lifetime. And to those who have broken their vows for whatever reason, confess it, ask God's forgiveness, and seek his guidance for the next step he would have you to take.
But I think we also need to be careful with the words we say in worship. In one of our songs today, O Sacred King, we said, “How can I honor you rightly with honor that's fit for your name? I don't take what you did lightly, friendship instead of disgrace.”
That song is saying, “God show me what needs to change in my life so that I can honor you the way you deserve to be honored.” Better not to sing something or say something or vow something to God then to sing something or say something or vow something and not mean it. Be fully present when you come to the house of God.
“You are God in heaven and here am I on earth. So I'll let my words be few. Jesus, I am so in love with you.”