Lesson 4
Seeking Meaning & Happiness from Wealth & Power
I. Man’s Search for Permanence
A. In Lesson 3, we saw that the chief cause of man’s
unhappiness is that nothing under the sun is permanent.
Death comes to all, and even the earth itself will one day
be consumed by fire.
B. Honest atheists have long recognized the logical
consequences of atheism – that is, the logical consequence
if all that is under the sun is all that there is.
1. The Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in his
autobiography gave a chilling picture of man’s life if
there is no God:
a) “You were born without purpose. You live without
meaning. When you die, you are extinguished. From being you
will be transformed to non-being.”
2. Woody Allen wrote:
a) “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a
crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter
hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray
we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
3. Apart from God, all pursuits of man under the sun are
ultimately vain – that is, they are ultimately empty and
meaningless.
C. Mankind is engaged in a tremendous effort to deny and
ignore this fundamental reality – and yet man cannot ignore
it forever.
1. (A.H. McNeill in Discipleship) “There are multitudes of
people who seldom or never think. Their life is like the
thinnest of rafts, floating upon an ocean of infinite
mystery; and they hate to be asked to look over the edge.
They are very busy decking out their raft with everything
that can make it feel like a permanent home. … They never
realize that they are on a raft and not a rock, until one
day an illness or an accident or a war flicks them off into
the ocean, where they have never learned to swim.”
2. Man’s preoccupation with wealth and power is based in
large part on man’s denial of that fundamental reality.
II. Solomon’s experiment with wealth & power
A. As we have seen, Solomon is looking for something under
the sun that can bring him meaning and lasting happiness –
and so far he has failed to find it in worldly wisdom and
earthly pleasure.
B. He next looks for meaning and happiness in wealth and
power – and as with wisdom and pleasure he was the perfect
person to carry out this experiment.
C. Ecclesiastes describes his efforts and conclusions as
follows:
1. Ecclesiastes 2:4-5
a) I made my works great, I built myself houses, and
planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and
orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
b) Compare Solomon’s plans here with those of the rich fool
in Luke 12:16-21.
2. Ecclesiastes 2:7-8
a) I acquired male and female servants, and had servants
born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds
and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8 I
also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special
treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male
and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and
musical instruments of all kinds.
3. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
a) Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did
not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart
rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all
my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands
had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed
all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no
profit under the sun.
4. Ecclesiastes 5:10-13
a) 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? 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. 13 There is a severe
evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their
owner to his hurt.
5. Ecclesiastes 6:2
a) There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it
is common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches
and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself
of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat
of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it
is an evil affliction.
D. We should listen to Solomon when he tells us about
riches and power, because he had both. Elsewhere we read
about the incredible wealth and power of King Solomon:
1. Queen of Sheba in First Kings 10:7
a) “However I did not believe the words until I came and
saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me.
Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I
heard.”
2. First Kings 10:14-23
a) 14 The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was
six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 15 besides that
from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders,
from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the
country. 16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields
of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into
each shield. 17 He also made three hundred shields of
hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield.
The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 18
Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and
overlaid it with pure gold. 19 The throne had six steps,
and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were
armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two
lions stood beside the armrests. 20 Twelve lions stood
there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this
had been made for any other kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s
drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the
House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was
silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of
Solomon. 22 For the king had merchant ships at sea with the
fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships
came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys. 23 So
King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches
and wisdom.
E. This description brings to mind the saying: “Whoever
said money can’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop” –
and yet Solomon didn’t find happiness through his great
wealth.
F. If anyone in the history of the world could have found
lasting happiness and meaning in wealth and power, it would
have been King Solomon – and yet he concluded that it was
all empty and vain. And he was not alone:
1. John D. Rockefeller: “I have made many millions, but
they have brought me no happiness.”
2. John Jacob Astor near the end of his life said: “I am
the most miserable man on earth.”
G. Wealth and power are connected in that wealth is the
most obvious form of power – but it is not the only form.
1. For example, political power can exist apart from wealth
(although it rarely does).
a) Solomon had great political power as well as great power
from his wealth. Solomon was a true monarch who had
absolute authority over his subjects. Yet even that great
power did not bring him happiness or meaning.
b) Even today we see the ultimate vanity of political
power. It does not last because it (like everything else
under the sun) cannot last.
(1) Kennedy came to Texas the leader of the free world, and
went home that evening in a box.
2. Why do men seek power? Why do they think that power can
make them happy? Men desire power because they want to be
in control.
a) Man is unhappy, and he traces that unhappiness to his
lack of control. Surely, if he were in control then he
would be happy.
(1) Men want to be the masters of their fate and the
captains of their souls.
(2) They want to be above the natural order and above time.
They want to be God!
b) Nietzsche said the will to power was the basic human
drive. His ideal superman was one who ruthlessly pursued
success without any moral scruples. Not surprisingly,
Nietzsche was the prophet of Hitler’s new world order.
c) Jesus said the path to happiness was through giving up
control, not in getting it.
(1) Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4)
d) Man’s love of money is based on his love of power.
H. Man’s desire to have more and more money is connected to
man’s drive for power. We desire money because of the power
that money gives us.
1. We buy things so that we can have power over them – so
that we can have dominion over them.
2. When we possession something we show to the world that
we are greater than that thing. It is ours; it is under our
power and control.
III. What then should our attitude be toward money?
A. A common attitude today in the church is that we treat
money too seriously – that money is part of the “business
world” rather than the “religious world.” I submit that in
reality we do not treat money seriously enough!
1. The Bible takes money and material possessions very
seriously.
a) There are more than 2000 passages in the Bible regarding
money and material possessions.
b) Jesus spent a great deal of time talking about our
attitudes toward money and possessions. Indeed, one in ten
verses in the gospels deals with that subject.
c) In 17 of his 37 parables, Jesus dealt with property and
man’s responsibility for using it wisely.
d) The only two of the 10 commandments that deal with inner
attitudes rather than outer actions are the last two – and
they both forbid covetousness.
e) The only incident in scripture where Jesus was moved to
violence involved money.
(1) Interestingly, Jesus’ actions with the moneychangers
were not impulsive as they are sometimes portrayed. John
tells us in John 2:15 that Jesus himself made the whip of
cords that he used to drive out the money changers.
2. The Bible treats money very seriously, and we should
treat it seriously as well.
B. The first step toward treating money seriously is to
recognize its power.
1. Money has always been a powerful motivator – perhaps the
most powerful motivator. And when money is our motivator,
we can become oblivious to everything else that is around
us.
a) Wasn’t this the sin of the rich man in Luke 16? He
didn’t actively seek to harm Lazarus – he just ignored him.
He was oblivious to everything but his money. His money
blinded him.
b) The first skeleton that archeologists uncovered from the
volcanic ruins of ancient Pompeii was grasping silver coins
in its outstretched skeletal hands.
c) “Most Americans today are frantically engaged in
fighting for first-class cabin space on the Titanic.”
(Hazel Henderson)
2. Solomon’s experiment had to do with this issue of
motivation. He sought happiness and meaning from using
money as a motivator – that is, by using money as the basis
for his decisions.
a) The issue is not whether we should have or should use
money – clearly we must.
(1) Jesus no doubt did not do carpentry for free. If he
had, his fame would have spread throughout Galilee much
earlier!
(2) The Bible is very clear that affluence is not a sin –
and it is equally clear that poverty is not a virtue.
(a) Solomon knew that both were dangerous.
(b) (Proverbs 30:8-9) Remove falsehood and lies far from
me; Give me neither poverty nor riches—Feed me with the
food allotted to me; 9 Lest I be full and deny You, And
say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And
profane the name of my God.
(3) What the Bible condemns (frequently and forcefully) are
wrong attitudes toward our money.
b) The real issue is whether money is our motivator – that
is, whether money is our master.
(1) Do we possess our possessions or do our possession
possess us? Do we use money, or does money use us?
(2) “Material wealth is either a window through which we
see God or a mirror in which we see ourselves.” (Warren
Wiersbe)
(3) Is our money an end in itself or a means for achieving
an end?
c) Acts 19 gives two examples in which money sought to
motivate people – one in which it succeeded and one in
which it failed.
(1) It succeeded with Demetrius the silversmith in Acts
19:23-29. Religion was merely a pretense – money was the
real motivator.
(a) 23And about that time there arose a great commotion
about the Way. 24For a certain man named Demetrius, a
silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no
small profit to the craftsmen. 25He called them together
with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you
know that we have our prosperity by this trade. 26“Moreover
you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout
almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away
many people, saying that they are not gods which are made
with hands. 27“So not only is this trade of ours in danger
of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great
goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.” 28Now when
they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out,
saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” 29So the whole
city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater
with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus,
Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions.
(2) It failed in Act 19:17-20. In these verses we see that
money was not the motivator for the early church.
(a) 17This became known both to all Jews and Greeks
dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the
name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18And many who had
believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19Also,
many of those who had practiced magic brought their books
together and burned them in the sight of all. And they
counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand
pieces of silver. 20So the word of the Lord grew mightily
and prevailed.
C. The second step in treating money seriously is to
recognize its spiritual significance.
1. Money is personified in the Bible and treated as a
spiritual force.
a) This treatment of money in the Bible is similar to how
death is treated – it too is personified and treated as a
spiritual force.
(1) Romans 5:14 (“death reigned”)
(2) II Corinthians 4:12 (“death is working in us”)
(3) I Corinthians 15:55 (“O death, where is thy sting?”)
b) Matthew 6:24 is the key verse regarding our relationship
with money: “No one can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be
loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and mammon.”
(1) Mammon is an Aramaic word for money and wealth. Jesus
personifies it here and treats it as a false god that seeks
to be our master.
c) The message of verse 24 is that Mammon can be a master
over us the same way that God can be.
(1) According to the Bible, the battle is not between us
and an object, but between us and an active agent that is
trying to gain mastery over us.
(2) Mammon is a power that tries to be like God, that tries
to become our master, and that has specific goals for our
lives. Its rewards are concrete and immediate, and its
power is real.
(3) Money is not just an object – it is a power that is
active and capable of acting on its own. Like any power, it
is capable of orienting people in the direction that it
desires.
(4) A man’s god is that to which he gives himself, his
time, his energy, his thought, his life, that which
dominates and pervades his life – and money wants to be
that in our lives.
(5) Money wants to make us live apart from God and it wants
to ultimately win our love.
(6) Money wants us to trust it and seek fulfillment from
it. It wants to be the foundation upon which we construct
our lives.
d) Jesus gives us a clear choice in Matthew 6:24 between
serving God and serving money – we can’t serve both.
(1) Jesus says we will love one and hate the other – not
that we will love one and be indifferent to the other.
(2) If we love God, then we must actively hate and oppose
the mastery that money wants and is actively working to
have in our lives.
(3) Would Jesus have used the word “hate” if money were
really just an object with no spiritual significance?
(4) Paul tells use in 1 Timothy 6:10 that the love of money
is the root of all evil – and Jesus tells us here that the
love of money is hatred of God!
(5) Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:5 that a covetous man is
an idolater and the such a man has no inheritance in the
kingdom of Christ.
(6) Jesus is not saying we shouldn’t serve God and Mammon –
he is saying we can’t serve God and Mammon. It is
impossible. We must choose.
(a) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.” (Matthew 6:21)
2. The message of this god called “Money” is that
everything has a price and hence everything can be bought
and sold.
a) Indeed, even the son of God was sold as merchandise for
thirty pieces of silver.
(1) I have read commentaries that try to base Judas’
motivation on some nationalistic desire to overthrow the
Romans, but I think the Bible is very clear on this point –
Jesus was betrayed by Judas because of greed.
(2) It is not an accident that John tells us that it was
Judas who was in charge of the money. (John 13:29)
(3) Judas handed Jesus over to the mob for money, and he
needed no other motivation.
(4) Did you know that the same thing happens today at some
congregations of the Lord’s church?
(a) Elders (thankfully never at Katy!) have been known to
tolerate false teachers because any confrontation might
hurt the contribution. How is that any different from what
Judas did?
(b) Judas handed the physical body of Jesus over to the mob
for money. Such elders hand the spiritual body of our Lord
over to savage wolves for the exact same reason. I submit
they are no different at all.
b) Yet, God’s message is that those things that are of real
and lasting value cannot be bought by man for any price –
they are free!
(1) “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you
who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1)
(2) Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift
of God.”
(3) A price was paid, but we did not pay it. (“For you were
bought at a price.” I Corinthians 6:20)
IV. The Value of Wealth and Power
A. The message of Solomon is that money has no lasting
value – no matter what interest rate we get.
B. Indeed, the message of Solomon is that – even under the
sun – money brings the opposite of what we hope it will
bring.
1. Most people seek money because they think money will
bring them freedom – yet in reality it brings just the
opposite.
a) People seek money because they hope it will bring
permanence and stability – they hope it will be a security
blanket against change.
(1) Yet the only thing apart from God that man can
ultimately depend on is death. Everything else is optional
– but not death. The only thing that man must do is die –
he has a choice about everything else.
(2) Money can sometimes prolong life, but it cannot prolong
it indefinitely. There is no eternal life under the sun.
(3) In many ways Hebrews 9:27 is the central verse in the
Bible. (“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but
after this the judgment.”)
(a) Hebrews 9:27 is the verse that should be held up at
football games.
(b) Apart from that verse, we could take or leave the rest
of the Bible – including John 3:16.
b) People seek money so that they can be SELF sufficient.
Again, they seek money because they want to be in control –
they want the power that money brings.
(1) Others have noted the wonderful irony that on our money
is printed the slogan “In God We Trust.”
(2) Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17 to tell those who
were rich that they should not trust in uncertain riches.
c) Yet money comes at a price – and the price we generally
pay for it is our liberty and perhaps our soul.
(1) Seneca said that a great fortune is a great slavery.
(2) One cannot enjoy what one constantly fears he is about
to lose.
(3) This is exactly what Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes
5:12.
(a) “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.”
(b) No doubt Solomon often looked out his palace window and
wished that he were one of the laboring men that he saw.
But, equally without doubt is that those very laborers
looked in that very window and wished that they were the
king.
(4) Far from producing lasting happiness, money often does
not even bring temporary happiness. Instead, it often
produces unhappiness in those who work so hard to obtain
it.
d) The price we pay for our money may be our soul.
(1) In Revelation 3:17, we read of those who say “I am
rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”—and do
not know that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind,
and naked.
(a) Money blinds us to our true condition. When we have
money, we are tempted to think we can solve our own
problems. We are tempted to think they we really don’t need
God at all.
(2) The rich fool in Luke 12 thought he had it made, but
God said to him: ‘Fool! This night your soul will be
required of you; then whose will those things be which you
have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself,
and is not rich toward God.”
(3) (Matthew 16:26) “For what profit is it to a man if he
gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will
a man give in exchange for his soul?”
e) Another problem with money is that “enough” is always at
least a little more than we have.
(1) The Greek word translated covetousness is pleonexia,
which simply means the desire to have more.
(2) We are not addicted to money as much as we are addicted
to want.
(3) We want more and more hoping that at last we can fill
that hole in our lives – yet that hole can only be filled
by God. Nothing else is big enough. Everything else will
ultimately let us down.
(4) John Cheever: “The main emotion of the adult American
who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and
culture is disappointment.”
2. The Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 is an example of
someone who was in bondage to money.
a) He couldn’t walk away from it even when he was standing
face to face with the son of God!
b) Even though it brought him sorrow, he still could not
walk away from it.
c) He had everything that money could buy – and nothing
that it couldn’t buy.
d) He turned his back on Jesus when Jesus asked him to give
it all away – and yet he eventually did just that. Everyone
on this earth will eventually give away all of their
possessions. We have no choice.
(1) As someone once said, you never see hearses being
followed by U-Hail trailers.
(2) The only answer to the question “How much did he
leave?” is that he left all of it.
(3) (1 Timothy 6:7) For we brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
(4) And this is part of the reason why Solomon concluded
that money and wealth were vain and empty.
(a) (Ecclesiastes 2:18-21) Then I hated all my labor in
which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it
to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether
he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my
labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself
wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20Therefore I
turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I
had toiled under the sun. 21For 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.
C. Jesus knows that money cannot bring us happiness and
meaning.
1. And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of
covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15)
2. Jesus is very interested in how we use our money. In
Mark 12:41-44, Mark tells us that “Jesus sat opposite the
treasury and saw how the people put money into the
treasury.”
a) Jesus saw the widow give her money because he was
watching everyone as they gave their money, and he still
watches today.
3. Jesus was rich – and yet he became poor for our sake.
Man seeks riches so that he can find meaning and happiness,
and yet Jesus became poor so that could have meaning and
happiness.
a) (2 Corinthians 8:9) “For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might become
rich.”
4. Jesus offers us what we need and he (unlike money)
offers permanence.
a) (Hebrews 13:5) “Let your conduct be without
covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For
He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake
you.”
5. And what about money? He is no fool who gives up what he
cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.