Surprise, Surprise

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

If you would, please take out your copy of God’s Word and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, where this morning our goal is to cover verses 8 through 12. And I have to admit that I was a little bit discouraged this past week as I was driving to church. I was kind of hoping to not see or hear about this for much longer. But as I was on my way to church, probably must have been maybe Wednesday, I saw a bumper sticker that said Hillary 2008. And regardless of what you think of that candidate and that possible choice for president, blah blah blah. My biggest discouragement and irritation was that I know that bumper sticker is bringing with it just an avalanche of conversation about the election, the presidential election in 2008.

And it actually makes me just want to hibernate until it’s over. The last couple of presidential elections have just been ridiculous, I think. I can hardly stand it. I don’t listen to the news talk radio because of it. I would pull my hair out of my head if I had to listen to it for very long. I try to watch some cable news occasionally at least and have some idea what’s going on but it really doesn’t take me very long before I get sick of it. All the fuss and furor over earthly kind of stuff just makes me tired. You know what’s more amazing to me about the whole process, though? More than the commotion and the uproar about who is going to get elected is all of the outcry about how bad our government and politicians really are.

Like that’s a surprise to anybody. They dig up all these news stories, they find out that people are bad people. I’m not sure that cable news networks or talk news radio would have anything to do unless they were uncovering and reporting the newest shocking scandal, whatever that might be. Why do those things surprise us? Why are we flabbergasted? And why do we pontificate about how awful politics and politicians are? Well, I think it’s because we don’t have the proper perspective on politics. And that’s the first thing we’re going to talk about this morning from Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verses 8 and 9. Read what Solomon says, again chapter 5 verse 8. If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter. For the high official is watched by higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.

But this is gained for a land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields. Now, the message of verses 8 and 9, this paragraph is pretty simple. I think you’ll probably be able to pick it up as we go along. I’ll make sure to make it clear at the very end before we move on into the next paragraph. But I think you’re gonna see that verses 8 and 9 give us a very simple message. And there are four parts to this message. First is the situation described for us at the beginning of verse eight. If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, I think this is the ugly underbelly of politics.

But that’s just the way it is. And some things will never change. For those of you who listen to 80s music, Now at first glance, we might wonder what connection there is between this paragraph on the oppression, political oppression of the poor taking away what is right and just. We might wonder how in the world Solomon starts talking about this after all the instruction he just gave us in verses 1-7 about what to do when it relates to our worship, the making of vows. One of the threads that stitches these two paragraphs together comes from Proverbs 24-21 which says, fear the Lord and the King. In fact, a regular connection in Old Testament wisdom is between our attitude towards God and then our attitude towards the King or to government, to authority. God is the ultimate authority, but the next level of authority that He has established for most of us then is the government. And in Israel, They had a king, many of the countries at that point had kings.

And so there is definitely a connection in wisdom literature between our attitude towards God and then our attitudes toward the king or towards government. And so that’s one connection between the two paragraphs, but I think there’s even more.

More than that, I think there’s a relationship between these paragraphs because in verses 4 through 7, Solomon admonishes us to do what we say. Particularly, he admonishes us to keep our vows, to not delay and to not make excuses when we say we’re going to do something specifically to God. We are to be quick about fulfilling that promise, fulfilling that vow. Of course, part of the reason we need that admonition is because most of us don’t. Or perhaps many of us don’t, we make promises and as quickly as we make those promises, that’s how quickly we break those promises. We break our promises and so do other people. And I think in verses 8 and 9, though these high officials are not necessarily breaking vows to God, they are breaking the laws of God. And it is ironic that we get so irritated and upset when other people don’t do what’s right when we ourselves aren’t doing what’s right. Namely, in the fulfilling of our own vows to God, or our own promises or commitments that we make, let alone as that applies then down to our word to other people when we say

we’re going to do something for them and we don’t do that. It’s so amazing that we’re surprised and astounded that other people don’t do what they’re supposed to do either. When we ourselves regularly or too many times don’t do what we said, we don’t follow through ourselves. Now, whatever form the oppression is taking in verses 8 and 9, almost everybody agrees that this relates primarily to the political arena, to government. Though, I’m going to suggest that I think that there is some application for us here. There are some principles that apply as we see mistreatment on any level. Wherever there is power, Wherever somebody has authority, there is always the temptation to abuse that authority.

So even though this passage is specifically talking about politics, government, it has application much broader than that. Solomon himself divided his kingdom into 12 areas. You can read that in 1 Kings 4 and 5 and verses 7 through 27 to describe that. And so, that’s why we see in verse 8, if you see in a province, that’s just a district or a division. It fits into a larger country, but there are smaller sections. Solomon divided that for the purpose of giving overseers and officials. 12 officials, specifically Solomon had, were directly responsible. They were given an assigned area. And those officials likely worked then with people even on a more local level who then collected the taxes.

What was missing in these layers of authority was justice. If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness. Justice is what is right, what conform to the law. Not only that, they weren’t doing righteousness. What is right, what is just? And so, instead of establishing freedoms and fairness, there was oppression. Oppression is a word that Solomon has already used a couple times through Ecclesiastes. It’s often translated as extortion, sometimes even as crushing, unfairly mistreating, or even abusing somebody else. The other word here that is used for the first time and Ecclesiastes, and the ESV translated, violation, is literally the idea of robbery, and it had a figurative usage of deprivation, of taking something from somebody that was not right to take.

So in a literal usage of the word, you would literally take their money, you would rob them. In this figurative usage, it’s robbing them of what is right. It’s robbing them of fair and just treatment. And however it happened, this situation, this oppression and violation of justice, whether it was through ripping them off, or it was through cheating, or it was through overtaxing them, or too much red tape and bureaucracy, whether it was just endless delays or giving them the runaround or the pass-off, you know how that goes. Oh well, I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer to that. You need to go talk to this person.

And you get to talk to that person, and they send you back to the first person. Then they send you on to the third and fourth and 80th person, and nobody knows, and nobody’s helping you. Whether it was through those delays or passing it off, whatever it was, justice was missing. And so, that leads us to the second element of the proper perspective, which is Solomon’s admonition, where he simply says, do not be amazed at the matter. Don’t be surprised when you see this kind of thing happening. The word amazed means to be startled, to be astonished, to be dumbfounded, to be in wonderment. Solomon counsels us to not be shocked, to not be amazed or surprised at what we see. Some people just can’t handle the underbelly. They can’t handle the ugliness of the shock and the scandal that somebody who has power is misusing their power. They’re outraged by it. They’re amazed at it every time and Solomon says, do not be surprised, do not be amazed.

Somebody is pressing down or pushing down somebody else all of the time. Solomon is not also saying that it occurs every time in every place, but that it occurs enough in enough places with enough people that it should not be surprised. Now, my question is why. Why should we not be surprised when we see oppression and mistreatment even from people who are, in our case, elected officials? Why are we not to be surprised? He gives, at least I think, an earthly explanation in the very next phrase, but I think there’s more than just that earthly explanation. Based on what we know from Ecclesiastes, isn’t the reason that this should not be surprising to us is because God is in control. If we demonstrate this utter shock at it, doesn’t it kind of act like, well, God must not be in control, or maybe God can’t do anything about it? And that is the exact opposite message that Solomon has given us so far in Ecclesiastes.

everything is under his control. Every season changes based on God’s direction. And there is no one who is escaping his control and his sovereignty. And if you don’t have that sovereign God world view, you are going to be discouraged, depressed. You are going to be unable to handle seeing the difficulties that are around us. God is in control and more than that, you realize that even in the corruption, God is working that, eventually, somehow for His greatest glory. I’ve been thinking about how under the sun kind of perspective Solomon is giving us in Ecclesiastes and trying to reconcile that with some of the other things that I’ve studied and read over the last year.

Trying to reconcile Edwards and the religious affections, for example, with Ecclesiastes, is not an immediate or quick thing to do. Edwards is talking about great, philosophizing theories on God’s greatness, and how our affections for him are supposed to abound more and more, and then talk about political oppression. how do those things relate to one another? It is because somehow, even when we see that and are not to be amazed, somehow that is even to increase our affections for God.

And God is seeking to display His greatness through controlling everything that happens under the sun, including the wrongs that are done. God is in control of it, not causing them, but in control of them, somehow to show off His greatness. And if we’re shocked and amazed by all the problems that we see, I think we demonstrate we have a really shallow perspective on God’s control of what is taking place. And more than that, it shows a thin kind of faith that we have that we can be trusting him regardless of what we see. So we ought not to be amazed or surprised. And you know what, more than that, not only when we see it should it not surprise us, but when it happens to us, it should not surprise us. Observing it and experiencing it are two different things. Because some of us are great counselors to other people about how they should respond when it happens to them, God is in control. All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose. And we’re great counselors of other people who are experiencing

some kind of difficulty, let alone abuse or oppression. But how about when it impacts us. Are we giving that same counsel to ourselves? Or are we looking for the lawyer? We’re looking for the petition that we can pass around and sign to change whatever it is rather than saying God is in control of even the difficulties that are impacting us. That somebody else in authority, that somebody who has position over us is bringing to bear on us. Other Other times, if we’re not trying to get a lawyer or a defender, getting media exposure, just telling everybody else about it, so that the public will be outraged, and somebody will have to do something about it.

Rather than that, maybe sometimes we just keep it to ourselves and we grumble and complain in our hearts, and we’re bitter but it’s private. Neither one of those are good. To respond publicly, like it’s unbelievable, to respond internally like it’s unbelievable. Those with wisdom and faith are not surprised when life is not fair. We shouldn’t be surprised by it because God is in control, and more than that as Christians, I’m kind of backing up to put on some New Testament glasses to read this passage as well. We shouldn’t be surprised when it happens to us because if you’re a Christian, God is making you like Christ. And can we consider just for a moment the ultimate act of oppression and violation to what was right and just that has ever been done.

Where did that happen? That happened on the cross. And the political people who had the power that Jesus said, you would have no power except my father gave it to you. Jesus wasn’t missing how they got the power, and yet those people persecuted and killed the only truly innocent person who has ever lived. And he functions as an example for us, 1 Peter chapter 2, 18 through 25, of submitting while suffering even when it’s unjust suffering without sinning. And We should not then be surprised when we are mistreated or when somebody in some position of power or authority over us, again wherever that’s at, certainly including our government, that should be no surprise.

We should not be amazed that that happens. And more than that, we can even rejoice in it as we are trusting in Christ and recognizing that God is in control of it and He is making us more and more like Christ, which includes having us suffer. Though none of us will ever suffer like Christ, because none of us will ever be innocent, we’ve already blown that, and we more than likely won’t ever be put to death for it either. Still, the suffering that we get when we complain or we try to stop it, all those kinds of things betray a very shallow perspective and a very thin faith. We should not be amazed. Well that leads us to then this more earthly explanation that Solomon gives the last part of verse 8. His own explanation for why we should not be surprised is for the high official is watched by a higher and there are yet higher ones over them. His explanation by the way is telling us why we should not be surprised so not why we should be excited.

Because what he’s telling us here is that the injustice happens on every level. Because the person who is directly above you is oppressing you does not mean, oh, we’ll just go to the next level and everything will get worked out. Maybe that will happen. Likely, as Solomon explains, it won’t. Oh, well, okay, then I’ll just take it to the next level after that. Bam! And that, as well, is not gonna be the solution. The position described as the high official is really just the adjective, high, and it’s turned into a noun. So the person in a high place or a high position, and then we get the highs and the hires and the higher-ups.

And the problem goes all the way to the top. Now, there’s some question as to what exactly this means. to say that the high official is watched by a higher. Does that mean there’s really two possibilities? Does that mean that the higher official is trying to figure out how to cheat the lower official who is trying to figure out how to cheat the peoples? And so, they’re all just trying to cheat one another at every level. Or does it mean to say that the higher official is watching the high official, that they’re watching out for each other? like they’ve got each other’s back. So that you know you can’t go to the next level because the higher up is in on the deal, and so you’re not gonna get any help there, any solution there.

I don’t know exactly what it means. I can tell you that in all of this watching, nobody is watching out for what’s right. However it is that they’re watching one another, whether to cheat one another or to get each other’s back in the corruption of the system, No matter what, they’re not paying attention to doing what is right. And the explanation, then, for why we should not be amazed is because this happens at every level, and it goes all the way to the top. Doing wrong is what is in style for people in positions of power, political leaders. There was this corruption at every level, and that is not to surprise us.

Now, there is kind of a positive note here in verse 9. At least, I think it’s more a positive note. Verse 9 gives us at least what is a potential or possible solution. But this is gain for a land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields. In my ESV, and I don’t have one with all of the fancy footnotes and everything, it limits some of those, but this is what mine says for verse 9. Some of you who have an ESV will find a similar note down there. The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain. Oh, that’s good. The translators figured this one out so well that they had no idea. And if you read the different translations that are out there, the NIV and the New King James make it sound like the king is the worst offender.

And he definitely could be. There’s nothing stopping the king from being the worst offender and just now getting to the highest part, the highest bad thing in the system. So we’ve got verse 9 is really bad. The New American Standard kind of makes it sound, I think, like the king is a necessary evil. Like, all of this is bad, but the king, at least, could maybe provide some amount of consistency or administration. So you’ve got really bad to… he’s a necessary evil part of the government. A bad king even is better than no king, an anarchy, where everybody’s just doing whatever they want. So that’s kind of the middle ground.

And then the ESV makes it sound like there is some positive hope. And I’m gonna go with the way that the ESV translates it. So listen again, but this is gain for a land in every way. And here’s the gain, a king committed to cultivated fields. You know, there was actually a higher standard for kings in Israel. Look over at Proverbs chapter 31. This is not for the girl kings. Some of you think in Proverbs 31, that’s about girls. And a lot of it is, but the beginning part of chapter 31 talks about the king’s responsibilities.

Look at verse 4, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink. Why? Lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of the afflicted. Look down at verse 8. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute, open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. And perhaps one of the most important ways that a king would defend the rights of the poor and the needy related to agriculture. Specifically, related to some of the laws where landowners were to not harvest the corners of their fields and were to not go back through their fields a second time to make sure that they got everything. They were to leave that for the poor and the needy, for the orphans and the widows. And so the king enforcing that particular agricultural command was very important.

It was a right then for those poor people. That was one of the ways then that they got enough food to live. And so perhaps, verse 9 is this kind of glimmer of positive hope that a king who was committed to fulfilling his responsibility to the poor and to cultivated fields that is to providing for his people, this would be a positive thing for any nation, for any country. Verse 9 could very well be negative, and if the king is bad, the whole thing is going to be bad. And I as well agree that even a bad king is better than no king, so I’m happy with any one of the three possibilities, but in light of specifically the kings and Israel responsibility to take care of the poor, I’m going to go with this as the last positive hope, there is profit or gain for people when the king does what he’s supposed to. And when the king starts then having his officials act appropriately, but even if they don’t, that should be no surprise. And here is the point of the paragraph in verses 8 and 9. Life is not fair. Really, get over it and get used to it. And more

More than that, trust God in the midst of it. That’s what God wants. It’s not for your life to be happy and free from suffering and difficulty. God wants your love and trust for you to live by faith. And when things go great, we don’t always live by faith.

We live by what is going great. And when we can depend on the government, we can depend on them doing what is right, well then we may tend to trust them and value them more than we trust and value God. And that is not what God wants from us. God wants from us all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength so far as our love goes and our total wholehearted trust of Him. And He has arranged it so that it doesn’t always go right for us, and that is to direct us beyond the Son to Himself, away from this world to Him. So, the proper perspective on political oppression is to not be surprised by it and instead to turn to God in it. Well that leads to the second paragraph we’re going to cover this morning which is the proper perspective on personal wealth. A new topic, okay, there’s nothing new under the sun, but it’s at least a new topic or a new presentation of it in Ecclesiastes begins right here in chapter 5 verse 10 that extends all the way through chapter 6 verse 9. So for the next few Sunday mornings we’re going to continue the theme of money and

wealth. Verses 10 through 12 explicitly describe for us the proper perspective on personal wealth and the point of this paragraph is ridiculously simple as well. I’ll try to give it to you at the end, but let’s read it first. Chapter 5 verse 10, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money nor he who loves wealth with his income. This This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

Three elements, three parts of this proper perspective, given to us first in what is called a synonymous proverb. A proverb, obviously that short, pithy kind of statement of wisdom, and a synonymous proverb is one that has two parts, where the first part and the second part basically state the same thing. There are a few different kinds of proverbs. In fact, the third sub-point here will be a different kind of proverb, but this one is a synonymous one. The points are parallel. They’re making the same point. Verse 10, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, part one. Part two, nor he who loves wealth with his income.

This also is vanity. Maybe you want to call this the cold, hard truth about cold, hard cash. Maybe you want to call this the ugly underbelly of economics. We talked about the ugly underbelly of politics. How about economics? whatever this is about wealth and how dissatisfying it is.

I think there is a connection between the previous paragraph and this paragraph specifically in that people who are abusing their authority and their power are typically doing that for the sake of what? Money. Maybe not always. Maybe they’re just in it for the ego and for the pride, But most of the time, even that ego and that pride is happy to get some more money along with it. The oppression that we see in verses 8 and 9 is even more silly in light of verses 10 through 12, because even when they get the money from the poor and they oppress them and they violate what is right and just, it’s not actually gonna make them any happier.

There’s our connection between the two paragraphs. There’s a further connection between the two paragraphs in that the word income is almost always a word used for what comes into your barn, what is produced by your field, what is agriculturally yielded. That is typically the description of income. And so we see income in verses 10 through 12.2, you’re not satisfied by income. That connects back to verse 9. So at least two connections there. And the point of verse 9 in this synonymous proverb is that you can’t get no satisfaction, at least from money. No matter how much money a person has, there is always the possibility that they could get more.

Even Solomon did not have all of the money that there was, otherwise he couldn’t have continued to collect taxes every year, or other people couldn’t have given him gifts from other countries. Nobody has or ever will have all the money that there is, so you could always get more. The implication is that those who set money as the highest goal of their life have a never-ending task. The more you have, in fact, the more you want. Look back at chapter 1, verse 8, in Ecclesiastes. He says in this introductory poem, All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

Whatever we see, we want to see more. Whatever we hear, we want to hear different. Whatever we accumulate, we haven’t got enough. And here, we see the guy who loves. He has an appetite. He has an affection for money. And so here, the person loves money, or silver is actually the word as a synonym for money. They won’t be satisfied. Never have their fill. Never be completely happy with the amount of money that they have. It’s the law of diminishing returns. It really is like a drug. And so, you get a certain amount of the drug, and maybe it gives you a temporary period of satisfaction, but then the next time to get the same feeling, you gotta have more.

And at some point, you actually outdo your system so that you can’t actually get enough in and still be living to enjoy the sensation of the experience, and the same is true with money. The more you get, the more you have to have next time to keep satisfying you, And then, at some point, you are doing way more work than you could possibly enjoy out of what you’ve been getting. It cannot satisfy. It’s not wrong to have a proper concern for making money or earning a wage or even investing for the future. But what is the problem here? It is the love of money. It’s not the money. It’s not the silver. It is the love of money that we find in 1 Timothy 6, verse 10, that is the roots of all kind of evil.

Jesus, in fact, said that faith is endangered by love of money, specifically when it’s choked out by the cares of the world. And when we see that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God, Matthew 19, 23, We understand it’s because they start loving and worshiping and depending on and trusting in their money and their stuff. And that is what they’re seeking for satisfaction. That is a broken, dry, dirty, empty cistern. So many of us talk a good game about knowing that as relates to money, and yet I still hear you talking about getting good grades so you can get into a good college so you can get a good job that makes you lots of money.

Like, that is the goal. That is what makes life happy, is having lots of money. And it’s just not the case. You will never have enough money to make you happy. You just never will. That is not possible. It continues this perspective on personal wealth in verse 11 with a rhetorical question. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? What advantage has an owner but to see them with his eyes? What is this talking about? Well, as a person’s possessions grow, so does their posse. I’ve been waiting for many days to say that word, because that posse is not a word I typically get to talk about.

We used to have the posse, the 128 posse, and we got to say it a lot. In fact, I even got Chris Martin made me a nice little hat. that I was like the sheriff of the posse, and I forget what his political level was. Anyway, when your cash pile grows, so does your crew. That is the people who come along to enjoy your increased cash along with you. I’m not really into the rap scene, But even I see enough to see the entourage. You got the huge rap star, and then the bigger that they get and the more albums that they sell, the more bodyguards they have. And the more ladies that they have. And the more friends and distant relatives that they have that come out that want some kind of position.

And the fact is that the more money you get, the more people want to be your friend. Is that biblical? I don’t know. How about Proverbs chapter 14 verse 20? The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends. How about chapter 19 verse 4? Wealth brings many new friends. But a poor man is deserted by his friend. his one friend, leaves him because he doesn’t have any cash. The wealthy man is always getting more proverbs 19 verse 6, “…many seek the favor of a generous man, and every one is a friend to a man who gives gifts. As your means increase, so do your bills.” Your dependents increase?

How many people are wanting to enjoy what you have? Some people call that being human leeches. Not only does your crew increase, your bills increase. You have more accountants, more lawyers, more staff, more consultants. And so, at some point, as much money as you’re getting in is as much money as you’re giving back out to pay for your stuff, to pay for your people, just to keep food in the mouths of all the new crew, the big party that you’re always throwing. And so, the best you can do with your money is watch it. That’s the question. The end of verse 11. What advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

To see his riches come in and go back out. To finish giving you the perspective on personal wealth is verse 12, an antithetical proverb. This is where the first part says something different than the second part, or vice versa. Sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. Kinda seen it already. For all of the increase of stuff that Solomon got, it didn’t actually make him happy, and it actually caused him more stress. You buy a bigger house, you got more to clean. You have more money, the more stuff you have to take care of. let alone the people and the bills increasing.

The more projects you’re involved in, the more work you have to do, and the less sleep you’re likely to get. The sleep of the rich is disturbed by his abundance. His projects and his financial situation follows him everywhere, even when he’s trying to sleep at night. The irony is that the laborer, or the working man, how the NAS translates it, the blue collar guy maybe will say, the laborer sleeps soundly, sweetly, lays his head on his pillow, and drifts off into a pleasant REM cycle, sleeps so peacefully, refreshingly, pleasantly, whether he eats little or much. Whether he has a whole bunch from his laborer, or whether he has very little and eats very little.

He is free from care. And the implication from verse 12 here is that it’s not just because the guy was working and physically exerting himself that he was just so tired that he had to sleep and his mind wasn’t even thinking about whether he was hungry or not. It’s not just that he was laboring for many hours shoveling gravel from one pile to another, and so he was just ready for sleep physically. The implication seems to be that it is a gift from God to be able to sleep and enjoy it when you work enjoying the process. We’ll definitely see that in one of the paragraphs coming up. A full stomach doesn’t help the rich sleep.

His eyes were wide open, considering and gazing at his riches, coming in and going out, and now his eyes are wide open as well when they’re not supposed to be concerned with all of his responsibility and stress. The point of this paragraph is, life is more than money. Life isn’t fair, and life is more than money. how desperately I want for some of you younger students in particular to get this from Solomon’s wisdom so that you don’t spend your life in empty pursuits wasting your life for that which will just keep you up at night rather than let you sleep soundly. For that which which has no ability to satisfy you.

Don’t aim for that. Next Sunday morning, as we move on into the next paragraph, I’m gonna give you three reasons why you can’t get enough money, and I’m gonna talk to you about the money train. In fact, I’ll give you a little teaser on the money train. Some of you see the money train, and you think, man, if I could just catch that train. You spend time trying to figure out how you can, at the right time, jump on that money train, and some of you will try to do that in the future and you’re not gonna make it, and the train is gonna crush you. It’s gonna splatter your life all over the tracks because you tried to catch it and you were unsuccessful.

Some of you will actually catch the train, and you’ll ride it. You, though, will never get into the nice dining cars. You’ll just kind of be stuck there thinking, oh, I’m on the money train, but I thought it was gonna be different than this. The door to the dining car, you’ll be locked out of that for whatever reason, and you’ll be stuck with all the other people who, hey, we’re on the train, but this is not very exciting. Some of you will even catch the train. You’ll make it into the dining car. You’ll enjoy it. You know what you’ve forgotten? is that the train is very clearly headed in a direction. And that is not the direction of satisfaction.

People think, oh, well, once I finally get on the train, then I’ll be able to steer it, and I’m just gonna steer it in the right way. Like, you’re gonna jump the train off its tracks and cause it to go in a whole new direction that nobody else ever has. And you will wake up one day to find out that the train has reached its destination and it’s not where you thought. So I’ve kinda not just given you a teaser. That’s the money train. But next week, we’ll continue to talk about this proper perspective on wealth and money. And then we’ll have some small group time where you can talk about it, okay? Our father do help us to get the proper perspective on politics and on economics.

Help us to realize that life isn’t fair. You never promised that it would be. And really, that’s not what we want. People treating us fairly even in government and politics is not the best thing. Loving you, knowing you, trusting you, that is the best. And certainly that impacts then our understanding of life and money. How can something under the sun possibly satisfy the longing that you have put into our hearts for something bigger than that? You’ve said eternity in our hearts. Don’t let us be deceived by riches and by wealth. Those who have, may we use it wisely, but may we always be remembering that our life is way more than our bank accounts and what we have for these students.

Give them this perspective now. We know this is possible by the work of your word, by the work of your spirit. We pray this in the name of your Son. Amen.