Message for the LORD'S DAY MORNING, August 30, 2015 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister MESSAGE 8 in Ecclesiastes Sermon Series ( Finding Meaning In A Meaningless World ) For The Love of Money Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 (NKJV) As we continue with our series of messages from the Book of Ecclesiastes, please turn with me in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter five, and for now let's read verses 10,11. Ecclesiastes 5:10,11 (NKJV) 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? P R A Y E R **************************************************** Introduction ILLUSTRATION : Several years ago, a sixty-two year old Frenchman was rushed to the emergency room at his local hospital. The poor man was suffering severe stomach pain. There was an enormous dense mass in the patient's stomach that weighed twelve pounds. It was so heavy that it had forced his stomach down between his hips. Five days after his arrival, doctors cut him open and removed his badly damaged stomach and its contents, but the man died a few days later from complications.
What was so astonishing about this man's story is what the doctors found inside of his stomach. The dense twelve-pound mass was not a cancerous tumor. Rather, the patient had swallowed around 350 coins: the equivalent of $650 U.S. dollars. The doctor said the man was suffering from a rare mental illness called pica that makes people want to eat bizarre things such as forks...glass...safety pins...and yes, even coins. ********* Hopefully we don't have any coin eaters here this morning. But the truth is, many people have an insatiable appetite for money and material things. Contemporary author Jessie O'Neill has diagnosed this spiritual problem. She calls it affluenza, which is an unhealthy relationship with money. Most Americans have at least a mild case of affluenza. Even those who are basically content with what they have, still have the desire for more. The Bible sternly warns us about having a love affair with money. 1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. When one falls in love with money usually the very first thing to go is GOD. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve GOD and mammon. (mammon = money) In our scripture text this morning, Solomon exposes FOUR COMMON MYTHS ABOUT MONEY. The first myth is this...
MYTH #1: Having More Money Will Bring You Happiness (v.10) 10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. 1. How would you complete this sentence? I think I could finally be happy if I ( you fill in the blank ) If we are completely honest, many if not all of us would probably fill in the blank with something material. I think I could finally be happy if... -I had more money. -I had a bigger house. -I had a new car or new truck. -I could afford to travel anywhere I want to go. 2. Solomon, the richest man in the world in his day, is telling us THAT IS A MYTH! Money is NOT the SECRET to happiness! Money cannot BUY us happiness. Money cannot SATISFY our deepest needs. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. 3. Solomon is NOT saying money itself is the problem. He is saying, the LOVE of money is the problem. Money makes a lousy lover. The more you love it, the less it satisfies. The more you obsess over it, the more miserable you become.
4. Listen to what some of the world's wealthiest people have said about money. John W. Rockefeller, the richest man in his day once said, I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. W. H. Vanderbilt said, The care of $200 million is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it. Andrew Carnegie once said, Millionaires seldom smile. Henry Ford said, I was much happier when I was a mechanic. 5. According to 2010 study conducted by Princeton University, the happiest people are those with a combined household income of $50,000 per year. The tipping point is a combined household income of $75,000 per year. In other words, when the combined household income passes $75,000 per year the level of happiness steadily declines. 6. That just underscores what Solomon tells us in this 10TH VERSE. v.10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. Now here is...
MYTH #2: Having More Money Will Solve My Problems (v.11) 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes? 1. Probably most of us, to one degree or another, believe that if we had more money, our problems would be fewer, or that they might even go away. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to live paycheck to paycheck? Wouldn't it be great to have more than enough money to pay our bills? Or would it? Notice what Solomon says: When goods increase, they increase who eat them. What does he mean by that? He means as our money increases, so does the number of people who out to consume our wealth. 2. It might be the government who tries to take away your money through higher taxes. Or it might be adult children who free- load off of us instead of holding down a steady job. Or it might be so-called friends who are always sponging money off of us. No matter who they are, the more money we have, the more other people will try to get it from us. 3. One commentator writes: When a man's possessions increase it seems that there is a corresponding increase in the number of parasites who live off his wealth, whether management consultants, tax advisers, accountants, lawyers, household employees, or dead-beat relatives who refuse to work.
4. One of my favorite shows on TV is the ESPN Sports Documentary Series called 30 For 30. In a recent episode called Broke the film revealed that 78% of all former NFL players and 60% of all former NBA players filed for bankruptcy within two years after their playing careers ended. How did these men who made hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars wind up completely broke? They discovered the truth that Solomon has revealed in this eleventh verse. They discovered that when they started making all that money their problems got a whole lot worse, not better. Former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar said that during the prime of his career he was supporting almost 50 families. Athlete after athlete talked about how people they knew and people they had never even met started coming out of the woodwork like a bunch of cockroaches trying to cash in on their wealth: Agents...lawyers...financial advisers...family members... close friends...old High School and College classmates...buddies from the neighborhoods they grew up in... gambling bookies...strange women offering marriage proposals...hookers...and shady businessmen luring them into bad business investments. And the list goes on and on. 5. You see, the notion that HAVING MORE MONEY WILL SOLVE ALL OUR PROBLEMS is just a MYTH! When goods increase, they increase who eat them.
Now here's... MYTH #3: Having More Money Will Bring You Peace (v.12) v. 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. 1. Solomon paints two very different portraits here. PORTRAIT ONE is of a hard-working man sleeping like a baby in his bed at night. Solomon describes his sleep as sweet. Here is a man who makes an honest day's wage for an honest day's work. He doesn't have a lot of wealth or luxury, but he is content with what he has. And he is enjoying a peaceful night of sleep. PORTRAIT TWO is of a rich man. Perhaps he lives just right across the street. All night long he is tossing and turning worrying about his wealth. He's worried about what is going to happen to his investments in the stock market. He's wondering if any of his employees are embezzling money from him. His mind is racing with ideas on business deals he can make to earn more money or accumulate more real estate. His heart skips a beat every time he hears a noise in the house wondering if a burglar has broken in to steal from him. This guy is absolutely miserable. He's up and down all night long popping pain relievers to ease his headache and antacids to soothe his churning stomach. 2. Every time you go to a convenient store or a gas station, take a close look at those people who are playing the lottery. They have bought into the lie that if they could just win the mega lottery they would find the peace and happiness that has eluded them their whole lives. The truth is NO AMOUNT of MONEY can bring PEACE and HAPPINESS.
EVELYN ADAMS won the New Jersey lottery twice, in 1985 and 1986, raking in $5.4 million. Today all of Evelyn's money is gone and she is living in a run-down single-wide trailer. WILLIAM BUD POST III won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery only to have his own brother hire a hit man to try to kill him and his sixth wife. ABRAHAM SHAKESPEARE won the $31 million jackpot in Florida in 2006. He disappeared three years later after having spent most of his fortune. His body was found in early 2010 under a concrete slab. He had been murdered by a woman who had befriended him and bilked $1.8 million from him. VICTORIA ZELL won $11 million in the Powerball Jackpot with her husband in 2001, only to end up in the Minnesota State prison after being convicted a drug and alcohol-induced collision that killed one and paralyzed another. BILLIE BOB HARRELL JR. won $31 million in the Texas Jackpot lottery. At first, everything was great. Harrell purchased a ranch. He bought a half-dozen homes for himself and other family members. He, his wife, and all his kids got new automobiles. He made a very large contribution to his Church; and if any Church members were in need, Billie Bob would help them out financially. But just twenty months after winning the jackpot, Harrell's life came unraveled. The endless phone calls of people begging for money drove him to the brink of insanity. His marriage fell apart. And Billie Bob Harrell committed suicide. 3. Oh brothers and sisters if you believe that MONEY CAN BRING YOU PEACE think again! The abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. That brings us to...
MYTH #4: Having More Money Will Bring Me Security (vs. 13-17) 13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, 14 or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit. 15 Everyone comes naked from their mother s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. 16 This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind? 17 All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger. 1. Solomon pictures a man here who hoarded his money his whole life thinking it would give him security in the twilight years of his life, only to have his whole life savings wiped out when calamity strikes. -Perhaps it was a sudden, catastrophic illness resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. -Perhaps it was the collapse of the stock-market. -Perhaps it was a weather-related catastrophe that destroyed everything the man owned.
2. Solomon isn't condemning the man for saving his money, but rather he is pointing out the tragedy of depending upon one's money for security. 3. Like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, so is the man who puts his faith and trust in money for security. ************************************************************ C O N C L U S I O N Let's bring this message down to where the rubber meets the road. What is your attitude towards money? Do you love money? Are you chasing after money? Is making as much money as possible the most important thing in your life? This morning we have learned having more money won't bring you happiness...it won't solve all your problems...it won't bring you peace...and it won't give you security. So, wouldn't you agree that it would be absolutely foolish to waste one's whole life chasing after something as meaningless as money? That is precisely the point Solomon is making! Notice what Solomon says in verse 19... v.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.
What Solomon is saying is GOD blesses us with money for two primary purposes: (1) Money is the REWARD for our WORK in life. (2) Money is a tool to purchase the basic necessities of life. And when money becomes something more to you than it's GOD-intended purpose, it will poison your life. *The love of money changes a person. *The love of money turns some into greedy misers who hoard every dime they can get their hands on. *The love of money corrupts some people, turning them into criminals who will do anything to attain more money, regardless of how immoral, unethical, or even violent. *And worst of all, the love of money causes a man to forfeit his own soul. Jesus tells us in Mark 10:25 (NKJV) It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And in Mark 8:36,37 (NKJV) For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? As we close, I want to draw your attention one final time to that 15 th verse, because it summarizes everything the Bible teaches us about money. Look at it with me... 15 Everyone comes naked from their mother s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.