It is always fun to go out to a restaurant to eat. You don’t have to cook. You don’t have to set the table. There are no dishes to do when you’re done. No leaving the table, everything is brought right to you. It is relaxing and comfortable. I think we all take pleasure in going out to eat, especially for the person who would have had to do all the cooking and the aforementioned chores. By nature we like to be served and pampered. For some of us it is not the restaurant experience that brings this about for us, but maybe going to the salon. For others it might be a catering to our entertainment, like going to a hockey game or a movie, or having 200 channels sent directly to our living rooms to watch on our televisions. These experiences or comforts bring us pleasure, they make us happy. We place in them some sort of value.
These pleasures are what make generosity difficult. For real generosity to occur we sacrifice and lose out on such pleasure and pampering in which we place value. Generosity is not about how much is given but rather it is about how much is given up. We like to be brought to a state of pleasure and it cannot be denied that the very thing we have chosen to sacrifice actually has brought us some degree of pleasure. We go to work, earn a paycheck, and bring sweat and pain into our lives for the purpose of attaining these things. We talked about last week that these things don’t actually belong to us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy them anyway. We all have something, or rather some things, in our lives in which we place a certain amount of value in, they bring us pleasure. Every single one of us, none are excluded. For us to trim off the excess as we talked about last week, for us to learn contentment these things just might be lost. Frankly I think that scares us. The idea of being content sounds a lot more like being in lack. It sounds like we are being told to learn to live with nothing. We are afraid of having nothing, afraid of having no pleasure, no comfort. We think something along the lines of, “If I learn contentment I will never be able to fill in the blank again.”
I think the question of contentment isn’t so much about learning to live without but rather deciding what kind of value something has. Last week when we read 1 Timothy 6, Paul wasn’t telling Timothy to remove himself from all the materials of the world, but rather he was telling him to realize that the material of this world has no value to it whatsoever. He was telling him to realize the value that is within our relationship with God. He is saying do not diversify your investments. Place all your eggs in one basket. Seek the one thing. Not a little bit of God and a little bit of world. Learn that God gives such a high return on your investment that it is actually a loss to invest even the smallest portion of yourself in anything else. Don’t put any value, hope, or pleasure in anything but God. But then comes the crux of the matter, every single one of us has this seed deep, or maybe not so deep, within us that actually believes that the things of this world have value. But we are not the only ones that struggle with this. There are definitely those in scripture we can look to for help and examples. Think of Solomon. He had absolutely everything he could ever want. But Solomon had a few weaknesses, such as women, which ultimately brought him down. But Solomon wrote about these things in the book of Ecclesiastes and realized how pointless they really were. Unfortunately for Solomon, he seemed capable of addressing the problem, but incapable of doing anything about it. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 and we will read it.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine--my heart still guiding me with wisdom--and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man. 9 ¶ So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes can be a very depressing book if it is not read with the realization that there is one thing that is not a chasing after the wind. There is one thing of value in which to partake in that is not vanity. I think if we are honest with ourselves as we are reading Ecclesiastes and all this talk of vanity we find ourselves quietly mumbling to ourselves, “Of course it is all vanity when you have it all.” Sure Solomon is telling you it is all vanity, but that is because Solomon has tried it all. He is a spoiled king who got bored. If I got to experience some of that it wouldn’t be so vain. I could use a little more vanity in my life. But Solomon wasn’t talking about having it all or being bored, he was talking about being fulfilled. Absolutely every experience he had indulged in was fleeting. None of it lasted. The pleasure passes, nothing is eternal. It might make him feel like he was fulfilled for a moment, but then the moment was gone and he was left empty. He was desperate, reaching and grabbing a hold of everything he could find. Something had to fulfill him. Something had to give him meaning. But no matter how many wives he found, how much money he gained, how much he drank, how leisurely his life was, he was still left with no purpose, no value, no significance. What in all of this world could possibly fulfill? Solomon says, I found it all and tried out everything you could possibly imagine and none of it held on. All of it, gone.
Some of us have had experiences like this and would echo his sentiments. I think that most all of us would agree in theory that Solomon is right. Yet somehow we all still seem to struggle with the same exact issue of placing value in something that is lacking in it. We all become materialistic to some degree or another. And being materialistic is not simply restricted to physical materials, but also pleasures of this world. I don’t think our primary problem though is one of perception of material value, but rather it is our perception of the value of God compared to the value of the things of this world. We have a fear deep within us that we are in fact losing to lose. We are all going to heaven, we are all gaining the same thing no matter how much we lose or hold onto here so why bother losing here something that will not create any gain there. We struggle with the idea that we are giving up what is vanity for the sake of more vanity. So why not just hold onto both. It is not the value of our world, but the value of our God that comes into question.
I read a quote by A.W. Tozer the other day that brought this all into a better perspective for me. It reads, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of the man.” Basically what Tozer is saying is that who we believe God is determines every part of our Christian lives. It determines how we live. Who God is to us determines how attached we are to the things of this earth and how generous we are.
Our God has promised us many things. He has said that he would bless us, care for us, and provide for us. If we believe this then we will be more inclined to let go of what is vanity. But if we believe that all the promises God gave are for another day and that he pretty much leaves us hanging out to dry while we live on this earth, then we will live like it and chase after the vain things of this world.
I think it is interesting how the people in the Old Testament responded to God. I think of Joshua, Moses, Jacob and others and I think of their reactions to the messengers of God and God himself. They were in fear. They never doubted the power or ability of God. They knew that if God said something, he was more than capable of doing it. I think their doubt was not founded in whether God was capable of doing it, but whether they would be collateral damage in the process. Think about it. If I were one of the Israelites at Jericho and I believed that God was not only capable of tearing down the walls, but in fact would tear down the walls, I wouldn’t be concerned about whether they would fall or not, I would be concerned that I would be underneath them when they fell. We have this God who is so great and powerful. He created all the world and the universe. In fact he even created a sun that is larger than the entire orbit of Jupiter. That is enormous. So I know that my God is able to do great things. Our question is not in regards even to his capability, but rather his willingness. With all this big picture stuff, is God willing to step into my little life and put my little loaf of bread on my little table. Or is He too busy waging war in the cosmic battle of good versus evil.
But then we have to stop and realize that God didn’t simply promise to knock down the walls of Jericho, but he promised to give his children good gifts. God has declared Himself willing and able to come through in the big and the small ways. Jesus didn’t simply have the power flowing within him so that he could walk on water, but the willingness and ability to pass it on and enable Peter to walk out there with him.
Who do we believe our God is? Is He a great God alone or is he a great and loving God? When we believe that our God is who scripture describes him as, then we become empowered to stop trying to find value in the vanity of this world. What will our picture of God do for our lives? Do we trust him to provide when he says he will? Do we believe that the treasures of heaven and blessings of God are not simply another form of vanity? When we allow the true form of a capable and willing God to take form in our minds it really does transform us. When we have a God willing to provide there is no reason to be afraid. There is no reason not to be generous. When we have the image of a great fulfilling God, then we are able to stop chasing after the vain things of this world, trying to find something that fulfills. When we see God clearly we see that it is absolute foolishness to invest in anything other than Him. Knowing who God is enables us to be generous and sacrificial, it frees us from the pleasures of the world, and it transforms our lives. We are no longer chasing after the wind, hoping to attain an illusion of something that can never be grasped, but we are holding onto the everlasting God who is willing and able to be active in even the smallest parts of our small lives.
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