Possessions

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.

This is what sinners do with power.

For the high official is watched by a higher, and there is yet another higher one over them,

Now let's wrestle with what's going on here. There's a province. So we can think of either a mayor, a governor, a king. There's someone who has power over other people and he's oppressing them. Now we looked at oppression a little while back and the preacher declares,

I've seen the tears of the oppressed.

And he grieved that there was no comfort for them. He brings us back to oppression. He brings us back to this particular focus, and now it's on the poor. The poor are not given justice, righteousness. That's a violation. They're treated as subhumans. There's no fair treatment. There could be an abuse of their vulnerability, being paid unfair wages, being treated in harsh conditions. He gives one direct command, do not be amazed, and that's somewhat startling. We know sinners sin, we know power corrupts, but his reasoning for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. And I can be honest, this is one of those passages that could have two different interpretations. One is there's an order to authority, there's gonna be accountability. That's the one that could be somewhat comforting, that if there is an oppressive king, there's a higher authority he must answer to. Eventually, do you get to God? The other one is that all the authorities are all working together and they're all against you. One has some comfort and one has no comfort. And then there's that cryptic ending.

But this is a gain for a land in every way. A king committed to cultivate it as fields.

Well, that verse seems to hold out some hope that a king who produces is gonna provide for the poor. The primary problem is the poor are always the most vulnerable in every society. The poor are the ones who are most likely to be oppressed. The poor are the ones who need help and comfort. I believe nine is the only solution. I tend to think what he's saying there is the whole system is working against the poor. Again, we gotta wrestle with what we're supposed to do with these texts, and I have two New Testament exhortations for you. First, pray for your rulers. Pray for your city council, your mayors, your governors, your kings. Pray for them that they might actually rule with justice, with a fear of God, with a desire for the betterment of other human beings, not purely selfish. God does have every ruler in his hand. Second, we need to make sure we're proactively making sure we can provide for the poor when we have the opportunity. We have benevolence offerings. We have boxes that are supposed to be set up so you could give benevolence today or every Sunday if you want. That's one of the ways we seek to care for one another, especially when there's a need. We want to make sure we can provide for that need and we're very thankful for your generosity to the benevolence and always want to make sure we're able to care. One of the first problems of what we have is an oppression of the poor. The second one is getting a little more specific and pointed for us here, verse 10 through 12.

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity.

Vanity is a word that is really controlling our preacher's declaration for us. From chapter 1-1 through chapter 12, that's how he begins and ends his declaration.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

It's meaningless. It's fleeting. It's just soap bubbles. There's nothing there of substance. It's important to see money isn't sinful. Money is just a normal means by which we purchase things. What's sinful is, or what's difficult at least here, is the love of money. Having an affection upon money. Notice, if you love money, you will not be satisfied with money. If you love wealth, you will not be satisfied with your income. Why? That's worth asking. Why? Everything God gives has a designed purpose and function. And when we try to use something outside of how God designed it, it doesn't work. It's not satisfying. Money is not designed to give you satisfaction. It's not designed to be something you love. It's not something you're supposed to consume. It's the means by which you purchase things that you consume. So to have a love for money, as Paul will say, it's a root of all kinds of evil. Love for money is a root of all kinds of evil. Craving for something more, that's not designed to satisfy. That truly is chasing after the wind, it's vanity. We're supposed to see money as a means by which you consume something. God is the source of all that we have. Then there's the stuff we have, and money is the means by which we buy that stuff. We have to understand that order. You see, to love money means we're seeking to be our own sovereign. A love of money means we're not loving the God who gives everything. We actually think we have the purchasing power to be self-reliant, independent. There's a way in which we even count our worth based upon what kind of money we have or make. That really just points to too little trust in God, but it's setting our affection on not even the stuff money buys, but money itself. He continues, verse 11.

When goods increase, they increase those who eat them. And what advantage has the owner but to see them with his own eyes?

On some level, this seems to be that whenever there's more money and more stuff, more people are gonna come along and try to partake of it. And he sees this, and his ultimate declaration, what advantage is there? Remember verse 12.

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.

We see there a significant contrast. Sweet sleep, raise your hand if you'd love to have that last night. Raise your hand if you're gonna prepare next week when you lose an hour to prepare to try to get sweet sleep. Sweet is asleep of the laborer. I wonder if that first point is still kind of overlaying here and that the laborer is understood to be maybe the poor and oppressed and the rich man who loves money, the clear contrast. That laborer who might just work for whatever his day's wages can purchase to put on the table for his family that day, and whatever he makes, that's what he can eat, and it might be a lot, might be a little. But notice it's, he sleeps well at night. There's a blessing he has in that he doesn't have a love for money. He has an ability to rejoice in whatever he does have, and he sleeps well. There's a contentment. I didn't notice that second half, but I thought the full stomach of the rich would not let him sleep. Well, it could be a medical diagnosis or a spiritual diagnosis. Is it the full stomach? Should he not eat as much so he could sleep better? I don't think that's it. His stomach is full and yet unsatisfied because love of money doesn't satisfy. He cannot rest. He cannot sleep. He cannot have joy. He's restless because of his love for that which cannot satisfy. One more thing concerning what we have with money. That's verses 13 to 17. Notice it's escalating and getting more at the heart of things. There's the oppression of the poor, then there's the one who loves money and is not satisfied, and now it's, well, it's called a grievous evil. And it's what he has lost. Verse 13,

there is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun.

Again, our preacher is telling us what he sees in this side of the world. And there's a, it's God's word, but there's a way in which he's giving us what he sees here.

Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt. And those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he's a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. For this also is a grievous evil. Just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, and much vexation and sickness and anger.

" Anger. Another man, He doesn't seem to have the problem of love of money. He's kept his wealth, right? He held on to his wealth, and then, verse 14, he lost it. Now, bad adventure. It's not clear that he made a foolish investment, or if it's just he made an investment and doesn't have any control over what the market does. The simple point is, he held back his money, he invested it, and lost everything. That's the tragedy. And the tragedy is, he's a father, and he has nothing in his hand. The father who had something, he lost it, now he has nothing to give his son. Go back a few chapters, there was The man who labored and had wealth and possessions, but had no one to share it with, and that was vanity. Here we see another kind of problem. Someone who had wealth, lost it, and again, it isn't clear the way he lost it was sinful, just the way the world can work. But it's a grievous evil now, the circumstances. A father who had money, lost it, now has nothing to give to his son. Verse 15 takes us back to something we've seen over and over again. He was born with nothing, he would die with nothing. He wasn't able to give anything over to his son, his family, to continue his line. The last verse, all his days he eats in darkness and much vexation and sickness and anger. A man who's felt the full grievous evil of all that he's lost. As we wrestle with these things, there's three problems. There's the poor oppressed, the lover of money, and the person who loses it all. I want to say that what we're supposed to feel is a sense of how out of control we are in this world with all this stuff. Poor oppressed. The lover of money, one can't just simply change the desires of the heart. And the person who loses everything, how could he possibly gain it back? We normally want to go to a New Testament passage or to see what Jesus, the perfect prophet would say, but in order to really feel the passage, I think we gotta keep going and see what our own author says next, because there's a significant transition in the middle of this passage. We've seen only the first third. The middle third really stands out as the only thing we could call a solution. And then the last part is a third point. But here in 5.18 to 20, we see a grand declaration about God in the midst of this problem. Let's see what kind of solution our preacher gives us. Who gives what we have? Who's the source? Verse 18, behold, Instead of grievous evil, notice we have something good.

What I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot,

or this is his portion. We've seen this before. This was one of the nothing betters, right? This is a conclusion he keeps coming to that we call stewardship. It is good, it is right, there's a goodness here. It's good and fitting to eat, drink, and enjoy what you get from the toil. God has given us these days, let us enjoy them, and this is the best advice we've got so far. He continues,

everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is a gift of God, for he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.

Just 18 and 19, let's just see how clear it is that given and gift are the key word that controls this section. So what has God given us? Your days. The fact that you exist. Your life. God has given you your days. God has given you your wealth and possessions. That's how verse 19 begins. And then that third one. He's given us three things that are all connected, right? Power to enjoy them. Power to accept your lot. Power to rejoice in his toil. He gives you the stuff, and then he gives you the ability to actually enjoy it, accept it, and rejoice in it. This is a gift of God, in case we missed the point. Make sense? So five things total, but those three are kind of a set. Well, let's walk through this. God is the one who gives you your life. You are dependent. Anybody remember the memorization passage from last week was? You're on earth, God is in... That was weak. That's something we really should be more bold about. You're on earth, God is in... What a difference. He's the creator, we're the creature. The Ecclesiastes declaration,

you are on earth and God is in heaven.

Paul says something similar in Acts 17.

In him we live and move and have our being.

If we could just get this right, how much better would we understand this world? We're dependent. We only exist because God declared so and gives us what we need for life. The second thing here is he gives us all the stuff. Now, we even see he gives us the ability to rejoice in our toil and to enjoy it. And one of the ways I think we have to think about Ecclesiastes is that the preacher is, he's realizing how bad we've messed up this world post-Genesis 3. And if we just go back to Genesis 2, we could see, all right, God made a garden first and it was perfect and it produced perfectly. Then God formed us of the earth of that garden and breathed life into us. He placed us in that garden and said, work. And in that garden, we would have enjoyed everything perfectly. Remember what the trees produced? Abundantly good, satisfying fruit. We would have had good work to do that would have been productive and enjoyable. There's something wonderful about that picture of what Genesis 2 was, but now we live in a post-Genesis 3 world. Work is now frustrating. We don't delight in things or enjoy them the way we were designed to. But in God's design, he still gives us life. He still gives us stuff, and he even still gives us the power to enjoy it. Verse 19, we see he gives us whatever our wealth is, whatever our stuff. God gives us our possessions. We can go to James 1 and consider

every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, from above.

So not only are we dependent upon him for our life, we're dependent upon him for anything that's good. He's a great distributor. But we gotta really wrestle with what 19b says. That three, the three that really go together. Because I think almost anyone could appreciate, yeah, God gives us life. God gives us stuff. Those three things, God's messing around with your heart. God's in your heart. with those three, make sense? The first two is God's just in heaven giving you life and giving you stuff, but now God's internal with these three. God gives some, again, because he says, not to everyone who God gives, he gives the power to enjoy, but God gives the power to enjoy? I am dependent upon God to the point where I don't have the ability to enjoy his stuff without his help. I don't have the ability to rejoice in my toil and work without his help. I don't have the ability to accept my portion without his help. He isn't just the distant creator and giver. He comes down to even work inside of us so that we would actually enjoy what he gives. He's a powerful God. He's a personal God. He's involved in every part of your life to the very point of making sure you could personally enjoy whatever He gives you. We gotta repent of any notion of deism here, right? He's personally involved with how you receive and enjoy what He gives. As a bit of a side, I do want to make something significant here to everyone whom he gives. And this is a theological point. God does not give equally, but he always gives equitably. To confuse those two words means we miss everything. God does not give equally, but God always gives equitably. So God gives the ability to rejoice and toil, to enjoy what he gives, to accept your lot. Notice who doesn't have the ability to do those things apart from God? Us. We might think, why would God need to get so involved in my business? Because of sin. Because we take God's good gifts and we twist them up and we mess with them and we don't know what to do with them. It's like getting a tool but not knowing what it's supposed to do. So you injure yourself. Now God gives us good gifts and because we're sinful, because we are so twisted, he's one who must give us the ability to actually know how to enjoy it. That's really getting into the depravity of man. We can't even receive a good gift from God and enjoy it right. Well, that is grace. We're talking about grace here. And this is a package deal. The power to enjoy, the power to accept your portion or lot, the power to rejoice in your toil. What a gift God gives us because of our inability. Some simple application means our most basic posture in this life should be gratitude. We could go to all over the Bible and see gratitude. That's how we open up our call to worship. God gives us what is good, so praise him. We must have a posture of gratitude. The second thing is a high calling of stewardship. Everything we have is a gift. He gives, we receive. It means the happiest life is the one that has received everything from God, according to God, and wants to use them as a way of worshiping God. Anyways, if we just focus in on that exceptus portion, we realize our author, our preacher, he's wanting to make sure we feel the full weight of how little is in our own control. If you came today wanting a big command, I'm having to hold out for that because the command is don't be amazed, so far. It's putting the whole world under the heading of seeing how God is in absolute control from not just we exist and what we have, but even how we can live this life and enjoy it. Something I like to do is wrestle with, all right, what is this preacher saying? And is this so unique in scripture? Because there's things that you can't find anywhere else but from God's word. I think there's actually some common grace wisdom that we can see something similar in other parts of the world from others. I believe we as Christians should be able to say, all right, we should all be grateful. We should all see God as a giver. And maybe even see God even helps us know how to enjoy those things. There's a prayer that's prayed by two million people that actually exemplifies, I think, a lot of what this passage teaches. The prayer goes like this.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

That's a prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous. Those who have hit what we call rock bottom, they at least start to get, yeah, this world's out of control. And they also feel that, well, they don't call it sin, but whatever it is in our heart, they can't control it. This prayer says so much good. It doesn't say enough, but it says so much good. And we should also recognize the author of Alcoholics Anonymous was a Bible-believing Christian. It's since moved on from that foundation. but at least recognizes today that there's no sobriety without God. There's no contentment without a sense of a higher being being in control. I learned of a category a while back of a dry drunk. A dry drunk is someone who has stopped drinking, but they're not sober yet. They've not learned to be grateful, content. Sobriety is so much more than just not consuming something that's destroying you. Sobriety is learning how to be content, grateful, rejoice. It's a gift of God. Humans could just brace these truths and be a lot happier lives. I wanna be very clear that what keeps us from enjoying God's gifts, it's not God who keeps us from enjoying them. It's our sin. He gives the override of our sinful heart so that we might actually enjoy them. It's our twistedness that keeps us from enjoying God and what he gives, to rejoice and to accept and be content. It's a grace that, He allows us, even after we rebelled against him. Our sin is a problem, God is a solution. Verse 20 is really interesting. It's a rationale. Speaking of the man that God gives the wealth and the power to enjoy and the power to accept and the power to rejoice, that man will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. Remember the first couple chapters? Our preacher, the Debbie Downer, telling us, oh, don't worry, soon you'll die and no one will remember you. Thanks, preacher. This is almost, it sounds envious, verse 20. the preacher who's worked through to say vanity of vanities, the preacher who's worked through to say what is the gain from all the toil? We're gonna die and no one will remember us. Now it's a different kind of remembering. Oh, the man who doesn't remember his days, the man who doesn't count his days, the man who isn't so frustrated in the prison of his own misery. Because God, keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. We're starting to get to some solution here. The man who is not so overwhelmed with the miserable days of frustration and toil and who knows it's gonna end and not be remembered anymore, well, that man's not bothered by it all because of God. Really another gift. He keeps him occupied with the joy in his heart. Well, after the preacher gives us such high, clear, good truths, he's doing so, I think, to keep us going down a slot. Chapter six, verse one. Why don't we enjoy what we have? Why do we not enjoy what we have? Chapter 6, verse 1,

there is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor,

we've seen that, he's added the word honor,

so that he lacks nothing that he desires. Yet God.

Now, we gotta do a full stop here. When we see the contrasting conjunction, but or yet, with God, we typically need to be on our toes, edge of our seats, this is good news. Except right here. There's a man whom God has given everything, the hearts of his desires, yet God did not give him that power to enjoy them. He's applying the principle we just learned in verse 19. God actually gives some, hypothetically at least, here, a man all the wealth and possessions in honor of his heart's desire, but God withheld that ability to enjoy it. But a stranger enjoys him, not his own son, but a stranger.

This is vanity. This is a grievous evil.

He then gives us an example. He wants us to fully feel how difficult this man's predicament is. Verse 3. you're not an ancient Near Eastern person, so let me just make it clear, that's like the best life ever right there. Everyone wanted that on their tombstone. 100 children lived many days. That's life, in life abundantly, if you're an ancient Near Eastern person. That's as good as it gets.

A man fathers 100 children and lives many years, so the days of his years are many. but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things. And he has no burial.

All right, so he has all the wealth, possessions, and honor one could receive from God. 100 children, many days. But his soul is not satisfied with those good things. And we can only interpret, I believe, has to be because God has not given him that ability. He's continuing on what he just said. God gives many possessions and does not give him the power to enjoy them. Even further, he doesn't have a burial. Who do you expect to bury you? Your children. He has 100 children and no one to bury them. There's no honor in this man's life or death. What he says next is supposed to be shocking.

I say that a stillborn child is better off than him.

I say that a child who's miscarried, who's born dead, is better off than the man who had all the markings of life in life abundantly. That is supposed to emotionally strike a nerve. If you've gone through a miscarriage, that's one of the most emotionally devastating things you can go through. To have a stillborn child, to have the hope of life and the child dies, it's supposed to immediately invoke the kind of emotions that are terrifying. This preacher, in the comparison contrast, says it's better for the stillborn child than the man who had everything, yet did not have joy in it or satisfaction. The man who lived many days and many sons without the power of God to enjoy it is better off dead. The child who never took a breath outside of the womb, the child who is covered in darkness, the womb there can also mean darkness. The idea that the child never saw the light of day, the child never saw under the sun all the evils. Better off than that, man. It's shocking. Verses four to five continue to describe the stillborn child.

For the stillborn child comes in vanity and goes in darkness In darkness, his name is covered.

Meaning it's fleeting there. The child never leaves the womb with ability to see the light of day.

Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.

The child never knew the struggle but found rest. The man died completely restless. I do wrestle with what the word rest is doing here. Because rest is the end of creation, what we're all designed to enjoy at the end of life. The stillborn child finds rest, but the man who God gave everything to, he doesn't. He goes back to the man with everything.

Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good, do not all go to the one place.

We all die. We continue in verse 7, "

...all the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.

" We're stepping back into that chapter 1. All the toil. What is the advantage? What are we trying to do all this for? Is a reward worth it?

For what advantage has the wise man over the fool?

We've wrestled with this. Because you all die!

And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?

What is it the poor man can do that justifies himself or enjoys the life before the living? In verse nine,

better is the sight of the eyes and the wandering of the appetite. This also is vanity and striving after the wind.

In verse nine, I believe he's simply saying it's better to enjoy what you have rather than always be looking to satisfy some appetite or desire that you don't. Again, I think common wisdom declares this. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, is what he's getting at there in verse nine. Or Aesop's fables, the dog carrying the bone, walking over the bridge and looks over the bridge to see what he sees, thinks is another dog with a bigger bone, and so he opens his mouth to grab the other bone, and in doing so, drops the bone in the water and loses everything. If we constantly are looking for something God has not given us, we'll constantly be unsatisfied. All is vanity. As we step back from this text, God alone gives us life. God gives us everything that's good. God even gives us the ability to enjoy what is good. We're supposed to see, first and foremost, how dependent we are on God. And that's gonna be difficult for us because we don't even realize how independent we think and live. There's a way in which God is drawing us to the truth of we are fully and completely dependent upon him for everything. There's a wonderful call to responsibility and stewardship in the passage. There's a clear declaration we should be grateful with all of our lives. I've wrestled with what to do next here. I asked you all to pray that I would preach a sermon better than I prepared last week, and I've rewritten this one like 10 times the last 24 hours, so thank you for praying that. I've tried to present this text as much as I can from what I believe the author is preaching, and that the preacher is declaring to us that we have so little control, and yet God is the one who gives and gives and gives. We've done something to say sometimes that we gotta ask, why am I gonna disagree with this preacher? Because he's saying what's right, but not fully true. Sometimes we need to compare what Jesus says to what he says to see how Jesus says something better. Today, I wanna keep going and do a deep dive on what he's getting us into here. I want us to look at a text that I think actually goes further. I'm gonna go to Romans three. I'm sorry, Romans 1. Romans 1. God gives everything we possess. God gives everything. Anyone who can enjoy something, God is the giver. Romans 1, verse 18, beginning in 18, tells us something, that there is an equal gift God gives to everybody. It's knowledge of his existence and his power. God's nature and his power, everyone is supposed to be able to see that. God has made it known. That's an equal gift every human being has. But as Paul continues, he makes it clear, but we suppress that truth. You see the problem in that God gives something so good, knowledge of himself, and we don't have the hearts to receive it, so we suppress it, we deny it. And so what do we do next? Well, we reject God. We refuse to give Him honor or thanks. Everything that can be known about God has been made known to us. But verse 21,

although they did know of God, they did not honor Him or give Him thanks.

So then we became futile, darkened. And the consequence is God gives us over to our sin. God gave us such a good gift that we can know him, we suppress that truth, and be very clear, God now will judge us all based upon the fact that we've rejected what he's made known to us. Romans 3 shows us a whole nother look at how twisted our hearts are. Ecclesiastes tells us how good God is to give us so much, but Romans 3 makes it clear it's us who suppress that truth. It's our wickedness that refuses to honor him or give him thanks. And then we go even further. We exchange his glory and we worship everything but God, and that just continues in a whole nother process to Romans 1. And then we go to Romans 2 and it declares even those who know is good, they don't do it. He talks about the conscience. What a good gift God has given us, our own conscience, and yet we don't even obey our conscience. And then we go to the Israelites. What did they receive? The good, good gift of the law. And yet they still refused. Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 are supposed to lead us to a despair and Romans, whatever that's lacking, Romans 1 through 3, it finishes off the job. What a good God and what a wicked people. What a good God, and what a wicked people. Usually you gotta be on the edge of your seat, ready to hear but God, and now you can be. Chapter three, verse 21. After showing how we've all rejected what He's made known to all, after rejecting our own conscience, after rejecting even His law, all are sinners.

No one is good, no not one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

The righteousness that God gave us Himself. The Father The father sent his son to pay for all the sin and the sin of our own rejection of all his good gifts, and the perversion of all his good gifts, and even think about what did we do with the best gift, Jesus Christ? We crucified him. What a picture of our sin. What a picture of the God who loves us while we're sinners. He gives us the good gifts that He knows we'll abuse and yet still gives them because His Son was the only way we could be saved. If you're not a believer this morning, we need you to hear what we want you to hear. This world is not the way it's meant to be. We were not designed to die. We were not designed to sin. No, man is not sinful by God's design. We chose to reject God. We chose to run against him. And yet still he's promised and has now fulfilled. He saves us. He loves us while we're still sinners. And belief in Jesus is what he invites you to. That's his good gift. Christ has died for your sin. He has washed away the account of sin that stands against you. Your only hope is to believe in Jesus. Christian, believer, as I've wrestled with what to do with this passage, there's so many ways we could go, but desire to exhort you to be grateful. a desire to encourage you to trust the God who is true, a desire to challenge you to recognize what sin does, to see that contrast even here. And we can see in James that your sinful desires lure you away, but God is a good giver. Here's what I'll leave you with. One, feel the full weight of how much of your life is out of your control. We gotta repent of those lies that we have more control than we, We think we have more control than we really do. Second, realize it's God who gives us the good gifts and ability to enjoy them. We too often believe that lie of Satan. Would God really say that? Would God really do that? Well, God must not be good. Don't believe the lie. He's a stingy God. He has not withheld his own son. What good thing would he ever withhold from you? Your life is completely out of control, but the good God who is in control, he's given us such good gifts. Know that God is good. Third, he's blessed us with not just earthly blessings that Ecclesiastes is talking about, he's blessed us with heavenly blessings. And when God blesses you, he blesses you so you can enjoy them. We need to learn the practices and the way to pursue. How do we enjoy every heavenly blessing that has been secured by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit? Those are your conversation points today. How do we help each other enjoy all those blessings because we don't all enjoy them? This passage is meant to explain somewhat the misery of how we live. in a fallen world where we seek to keep control. We must see how good God is in the midst of this. Final words I want you to hear from Jesus. You're looking for a command? The folks who love things to do, here you go.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things we had to do.

In the midst of the despair, the grievous evil, the fear, here's the invitation, here are the words of Jesus.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all else is given to you.

He has the power to do that, and yet we keep seeking rest in everything other than Jesus. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for this word that shows us just simple glimpses of how we live in a world that's out of our control, how we believe lives that make that worse, how we keep ourselves from enjoying your gifts. Lord, I pray you would help us to look up, see you are the good God who gives good gifts. in the right time. Lord, help us to trust you. Help us to glorify you. Help us to seek you, to know how to set aside the sin that keeps us from enjoying you and your gifts, so that we can delight in you as you've designed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.