My hope is better than your BMW
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.(NIV)
Ecclesiastes would be probably the least likely popular book in the Bible in the area I live in. Northern Mecklenburg county is an area of excess; lake living, big money homes, cars, and toys. People are so focused on themselves and the rewards they feel entitled to, I doubt their hearts would care for the words of wisdom found in this book. I too fell into that trap; I lived with the motto of who dies with the most toys wins. I sought it all, borrowed to pay for it all, and am still trying to pay for my mistakes. I thought happiness was found in material possessions like many of you. There are sadly men in God’s pulpits these days preaching that God wants you to have them. Joy is not found in anything made by mans hands or gains.
Ecclesiastes is the book by the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon. It is the book at the point in his life that he “gets it”. He was given his wisdom and his wealth by God. He took those gifts and ran from God grabbing all that he could to make him happy. He built a great temple, great homes, fortified cities, male and female servants, endless treasures……all kinds of stuff made by mans hands and gains. Through his wisdom in this book he came to realize all his hard work would be left to somebody who had done nothing to earn it; he could take nothing with him into eternity. 21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. He had worked so hard to obtain; yet it is all gone in a breath of life; Vanity here is described as that fleeting moment.
There is only one way that you can find happiness, one secure investment that will reap guaranteed rewards. Place your hope in eternal treasures, and invest your life in the rewards of investing your hope in Jesus Christ in others. You will leave behind a legacy of eternal rewards for endless generations to come. You will gain a joy that no monetary possession can provide. You will gain a peace that the world cannot reclaim. You will gain a freedom in your soul that carries no price, but pays in endless eternal riches. You will come to see the simple things in life as gifts from God. Solomon grasps the idea of the gains found in the simple pleasures, the simple gifts from God. 26 For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. The closer you draw to God, the more you realize what matters on a worldly scale, does not matter on the eternal one. The seemingly lowly here, are in truth great gifts from God.
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