Life Is Good

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been in a series called You'll Be Dead Soon, one of my favorite titles ever. It's from the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon wrote this book, and he tells us that if we wanna live wisely, then we have to remember our days are numbered. That you and I, when we remember that life is short, that we're all born, that we're all gonna die, and right now we're in that little dash between those two dates, when we remember that, it helps us make better choices in life. I wanna share with you our verse for the series. I always share this verse of Scripture when I perform a funeral. This is Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse two. I hope you'll memorize this verse. I want you to know that I haven't memorized, but I'm reading it to you out of the Bible so you know it's really in there, all right? But memorize this verse of Scripture. It'll be good for you. Here's what Solomon writes. He says, it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting. It's better to go to a funeral than to a party. For death is the destiny of everyone, and the living should take this to heart. It is good to remember that you will be dead soon. It is good to live life backwards.

Begin with the end in mind so that you can live wisely. The first week, we asked this question, what will your story be? What will people say about you at your funeral? You wanna live in such a way, nobody's gotta lie at your funeral service. And then last week, we talked about how life is full of tensions, that there are difficult things going on and there are good things going on, and every day we wake up and we live in the tension between the two. And what a lot of us do is we wrestle with that all of our lives, but Solomon says, listen, and it's my words, not his, I'm paraphrasing, but he says that life is not a problem to be solved. It's a mystery to be lived. And each day, what we need to do is lower our expectations and increase our gratitude and that fuels us for the days ahead. Today, I wanna talk to you about the good life. And in preparation for that, I wanna ask you this question. How many of you would like to have more energy? I'm asking you, all locations, more energy, great. How many of you would like to have less expenses? Less anxiety, less relational conflict, and more overall satisfaction in life? Does that sound good to anybody?

Great, you've come to the right place. That's what we're selling today. If you and I wanna have these things in life, then we have to learn this word that I'm about to teach you and that we're about to talk about over the next few minutes we have together. Solomon says in the book of Ecclesiastes that this word is really, really important. Here's the problem with this word, is we don't talk about it in our culture. This is not a word we use. And so I'm gonna give you the word. In fact, I'm gonna ask you some questions today. I'm gonna teach you a prayer today. And in all of it, I'm gonna keep it real with you, you're gonna feel a little uncomfortable. Because when I give you this word and when we start talking about this concept, it is counter cultural. In fact, it's counterintuitive. It doesn't make sense at first, but it makes sense when you think about it. How many of you would like to know what the word is? Okay, because the word is the secret to less anxiety, less expense, more overall satisfaction in life. This word will improve your relationships. This word will give you more peace. This word will help you sleep better at night. How many of you wanna know?

That's my preacher voice, I don't know what I'm doing. How many of you wanna know what the word is? Yeah, three of you, awesome. Should we just pray and go home? All the dads do wanna go play golf, wrap it up, Chad. All right, how many of you wanna know what the word is? All right, here it is, you ready? Here's the word, here's the word, it's the word. Are you ready? It's the word enough. Told you you wouldn't like it. All right, here's the word, it's the word enough. I told you I'd shake you up a little bit. All right, here's the word, it's the word enough. It's the word enough. Most of us don't wanna hear that we have enough. What we want, and our culture runs on this, is we want more. We want more. Here's the big question I wanna talk about over the next few minutes. It's gonna come here on the screen. Do you have enough? Our culture runs on more. Made a list of more. We want more money. By the way, if you want more money, I'm gonna tell you what you are. You're normal. Yeah, me too.

We want more money, more square footage, more acreage, more options, more perks, more choices, more fun, more stuff, more horsepower. Happy Father's Day. More tools, more toys, more makeup, more closet space, more muscles, more hair. Except on your back. That's just gross, guys. Do something about that. More hair, more nights out. We want more channels. How many of you knew we could have so many channels? It's intimidating. More channels, more likes, more shares, more, more, more, more, more. We want more. And yet the Bible teaches that the secret to more energy, that's a good thing, that's what matters, to less expenses, to less anxiety, less relational conflict, the secret to more overall satisfaction in life is not more, it's actually less. It's learning the power of this word, it's the word enough. Do you have enough? In fact, just to get comfortable with this word because we're so uncomfortable with it, can we just say the word enough out loud together? I'm gonna count to three,

we're all gonna say the word enough together. Are you ready? One, two, three. Enough. Enough. What would it mean to have enough? Enough. And what would it mean to be at peace with the enough that you have? Talking about the good life. This is Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 10, written by the wealthiest man that's ever lived. You put Solomon's net worth in modern dollars, he would have been a trillionaire. He's had more power than any man that's ever lived. The Bible says he's the wisest man that's ever lived. He built big, beautiful gardens. He experienced all kinds of pleasure. He experienced everything in life that you and I dream of. And he says the secret to it all is enough. Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 10. Here's what he says. Whoever loves money never has, what's the next word? Enough. All right. Let's stop right there because I need to make a couple of things clear. Okay, he says whoever loves money. A lot of people think that the Bible says

that money is the root of all evil. How many of you have heard that before? Yeah, that's not what the Bible says. Here's what the Bible says. It's in Timothy. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Okay, let's just pause right here for a second. Let me teach here for a little bit. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. There's nothing wrong with money. Money is just neutral. Money is a tool. All of us need money. Anybody who says they don't care about money, they're gonna lie about other things too. Don't trust them. Or they have so much of it, they don't need to care about it. But money is really, really important. Can we all agree on this? It is. So the Bible's not anti-money. The Bible is anti-love of money. Because here's where we get it wrong. The Bible teaches us to love God and to love people and to use money. If you love money, you will try to use God and use people to get more of what you love. For example, when you pray, what are most of your prayers about?

If most of your prayers are about money and material possessions, then you might wanna rethink what you're praying. Because it could be instead of loving God, you're trying to use God to get more of what you really love. Does this make sense? I'm gonna hit this real quick because I'm the pastor of the church. Prosperity gospel is a lie. It doesn't work. doesn't come from God. Do you know what the prosperity gospel is? Prosperity gospel is you give to get. It's when you're watching some late night TV preacher and they say, send in $100 and God will give you 1,000. Send in $1,000 and God will give you 10,000. How many of you have seen this before? They pick some random verse, pull it out of context. By the way, if it's out of context, it's a con. You always wanna know the context of any verse of scripture. What are the verses around it? What did it mean to the people that heard it? Those kinds of things, because you can twist and turn and make the Bible say all kinds of things that it doesn't really say. By the way, the devil did that with Jesus. The devil quoted scripture to Jesus. He just took it out of context. And if it's out of context, it's a what?

It's a con. The prosperity gospel is a con. If it's not true everywhere, it's not true. Here's the problem with the prosperity gospel. It's true for Americans, but it's not true for an orphan in Africa. Does that make sense? That kid doesn't have a chance unless somebody comes along and helps him. We have to think about these kinds of things. The prosperity gospel is not about loving God. It's about using God to get what you love and what you really love is money. If you love money, you'll never have enough. If you love wealth, you'll never have enough. You could have $100 million, and then lo and behold, somebody's got a nicer helicopter than you. So you gotta have what? What? Our whole culture runs on this word. You gotta have more because you don't have enough. Back to the scriptures. Whoever loves money never has enough. By the way, for those of you who are my age or close to it, remember when you used to dream about the amount of money you make now? How's that working for you?

And you thought to yourself, man, if I ever made whatever number you make right now, whoo, I would never need another dime. All right, I love you. I get it. Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is, last word there, say it with me, meaningless. The word meaningless there in Hebrew, it means smoke, vapor. It's trying to grab something you will never get a hold of. And yet, more is the American dream. I love the American way. I love America. I love our freedom. I love our opportunity. I just don't want our church to love money. I want us to love God and I want us to love people and I want us to use our money to the glory of God and the good of people. This is God's will for us and it's really good for our souls because greed's bad for you. It'll keep you from happiness and contentment. It'll cause a lot of relational conflict. It'll keep you from experiencing joy in your life. And so we all have to learn this very important word. The word is enough. Few things, I wrote this down and I try to share what I'm about to share every year

and so some of you have heard me say some of these things before. I don't care if you've heard it. What I wanna know is are you practicing it and are you living it? I wrote this down. We will always be frustrated if our yearnings exceed our earnings. Yes, that rhymes, I worked hard on it. If our yearnings exceed our earnings. A few things about always wanting more. Always wanting more brings fatigue. Think with me. The more you have, the more energy it takes to maintain it. There's a lot of people I know, they have a lot of stuff but they don't get to enjoy the stuff because they're constantly having to take care of the stuff. I wrote this down. The American way, we spend the first half of our lives losing our health to get money. And the second half of our life spending our money trying to get our health back. Enough is trying to grab smoke if you never have enough. It's like, it's a moving target. If it's always in front of you, I'll have enough when, I'll have enough when, I'll have enough when. It just keeps you chasing it. Enough is now. Always wanting more, always wanting more brings more expenses. If the grass is greener, so is the water bill.

I was talking about this a second ago, I heard a guy once say, I used to dream of the salary that I'm now starving on. Because he's spending it all. In Texas, we talk about people who spend more than they make and they like to look good, but they really don't have anything. We call it big hat, no cattle. You ever heard that before? Big hat, no cattle. I wrote this down, the problem is not that we make too little, it's that we want too much. God promises to provide for our needs and not our greeds. Always wanting more, always wanting more brings more anxiety. The more that you have, the more that you have to worry about. This is a joke I always tell when I teach this principle, I never worry about getting barnacles on my yacht. Because I don't have one. People on staff are going to make fun of me this week for saying that. Write this down if you're taking notes, insomnia actually increases with income. I'm going to give you a verse of scripture for that. Because the more you have, the more you have to manage. This is Ecclesiastes 5.12, The sleep of a laborer is sweet. That means like a blue collar worker that has shelter and food and clothing. The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much. But as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I read that verse and wrote this down. Who thinks about food more? The man who is starving or the glutton? Both scenarios, food's in control.

We rent storage units to stow away what we never use. You ever seen the show Hoarders? That just creeps me out. And then I'm cleaning out my garage this week going, really? I wrote this down. The fewer things you own, the fewer worries you have. Always wanting more brings more relational conflict. The number one cause of divorce in America is arguments over guess what? Dirty, sexy, money. It's moved from till death do us part to until debt do us part. Fatigue, more expenses, anxiety and worry about money does not make for joyful interaction. Always wanting more brings more dissatisfaction in your life. The truth is you can buy happiness, but it's only short term. People change, but things don't. How many of you have noticed this? Like you really, really wanted something and then you finally got it. And then once you got it, like a month or two, eh. Because we change, but our things don't. Most of us can't remember what we got for our birthday last year. Always wanting more keeps us from enjoying what we already have. Okay, quick question. What are you grateful for? What are you grateful for? What did you think about it today? I woke up this morning and my house had air conditioning. Thank God. All right, think about this. 150 years ago, nobody had air conditioning. Come on.

You and I live better than most kings and queens throughout history. I had a hot shower today. I had to turn down the heat because it was too hot. I've traveled all over the world. You know what I'm really thankful for? Ice. Love it. I got more than I know what to do with. You know what I'm really thankful for? Because I've traveled all over the world. Toilet paper. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. Okay, just think with me. All these little things that you and I experience all the time, that most people throughout the centuries never got to experience. It could be our problem is we're too comfortable. And in our comfort, we're clueless and selfish. and ungrateful. How much is enough? Just think about it here for a second. How much is enough? I looked it up, I asked ChatGPT, because I needed help, and in all of its technical wisdom, here's the answer that came back. Enough is when you have what you need. That's a pretty good answer. So I looked through Ecclesiastes, and guess what? Enough is when you have what you need. Food, clothing, shelter.

So let me just ask this question, okay, if we use that definition, how many of us have enough? All right, what if right now, we just all out loud said, I have enough? You ready, you wanna try it? You ready, you wanna try it? It's gonna make you feel really uncomfortable. I know, because I did it earlier this week, and it creeped me out, just for a second. Okay, repeat after me, I have enough. I have enough. Let's say it one more time, I have enough. I have enough. All right, just let that sink in. What if, what if, what if, in the morning, you woke up, you go to your coffee maker, because God bless us for that, too, and you make your coffee, and you sit in your comfortable chair, in your air-conditioned home. My garage is nicer than most homes around the world. You ever thought about that? Your car has a nicer house than most people. That's crazy. I've been to Africa. I've been to Albania. I've been to Guatemala, and El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and my cars have a nicer house than most people. So do yours.

Did you know if you own an automobile, you're in the top 2% of the wealthiest people in the world? I mean, we don't think about these things. What if, in the morning, we got up, we're drinking our coffee in our air-conditioned homes, and we just told the Lord, thank you. And we took a big breath, and we looked around, knowing that we're gonna eat today, that we have clothes today. I mean, we got a closet full of clothes, and we can't decide what to wear. We got a closet full of clothes, and we say, I have nothing to wear, right? Those kinds of things. But what if we just said thank you? And what if we just got grateful? And what if we started thinking differently, and we just said, I have enough? Ecclesiastes chapter four, verses four and six. Here's what the Bible says. We're talking about the good life, less anxiety, more margin, less relational conflict, less worry, talking about being at peace today. Ecclesiastes chapter four, verses four and six. Solomon writes, and I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person's envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Verse six, this would be a great verse to memorize. I'm gonna make my boys memorize this verse.

Happy Father's Day. Better one handful with tranquility, peace, better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and a chasing after the wind. All right, let's break this down. Better one handful and tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Okay, everybody in America knows that if you can have one, it's gotta be better to have what? Two, because we all want more. But today we're talking about what? Enough. Now watch my hands for a second. Okay, I'm gonna do a little. I'm not using any props today. Just gonna use my hands. If I have one handful, I have one hand open. With this hand that is open, I can give and I can receive. receive. When this hand is open, I'm in the flow. When this hand is closed, the flow is gone. Okay, think about this for a second. Our lives were not meant to be reservoirs. Our lives are meant to be like rivers. What do rivers do? Rivers flow. What do reservoirs do? They collect and the water stops. Okay, prosperity gospel, not true. That's about loving money. What the Bible teaches is that you and I are stewards. The two big themes of your Bible are salvation and stewardship. Salvation is God's overall redemptive plan of how he's rescuing mankind and saving us from our sin. The Bible ends with Jesus coming back and redeeming everything. That's salvation. He will redeem all of those completely who have trusted in him. He'll also redeem the planet. Everything will be made right. The weather will no longer be broken. The systems of government will no longer be broken. Everything will be made perfect. He will redeem it all. Theme of scripture, salvation. If it's not

about salvation, then it's about stewardship. What is stewardship? Stewardship means that God owns everything. You and I are going to be dead soon. Whatever it is we think we have, we really don't own it. We're just managing it in the span of our life. We came into the world with guess what? Nothing. We're going to exit this world with guess what? Nothing. What you think you own is really just on loan. Even your very breath is borrowed. Here's how life works. Life is about receiving and giving. Everything in life works like that. If all you do is receive, life stops. It's the way breath works. It's the way God works. It's the way breath works. It's the way nutrition works. You're going to eat something later. You receive. Sooner or later, you're going to give. You're going to drink something. You're going to receive. Sooner or later, you're going to give. All of life works like that. It's the dance of life. Everything gives and serves. There's a flow. There's a rhythm. Think about your heartbeat. It's got rhythm to it. You take away the rhythm. There's no more giving and serving. Your heart is moving. It's receiving and giving. This is the way life works. Does this make sense? Two handfuls. Guess what you can't do? You can no longer receive and you can no longer give. One handful, tranquility. You make your life about two handfuls, you are shutting down life. You are causing destruction in your soul in a way that you do not realize. But you got to have a handful. You got to eat. It's Father's Day. Guys, we got to provide. We got to think about those things. Think about the future. Be a grown man. Get out of the basement. Stop playing video games. Work. Build something. God made you for that. But it's one handful. With the other open hand, we receive. Thank you, God. And we give back to him and we give to others. But the American way is if you can have one, you might as well have two. Here's what the Bible is teaching. Here it is. You ready? It's going to shake us all up. Here it is. Less is better. You receive it? Less is better. What would it mean to live a little more simply? I'm going to give you three ways to enjoy less, to enjoy having less, three ways to enjoy your life. Three things you got to do. Number one, it's not on the screen. You can jot them down. Stop comparing myself to others. Did you notice he talked about envy? And that a lot of what's driving us is envy. Did you catch that?

He said, I saw all the toil and achievement spring from one person's envy of another. This is meaningless, that's what he said. Stop comparing myself to others. The moment that comparison begins, joy will end. One of the 10 commandments, it's in the top 10, is not to covet. That means you don't want what your neighbor has. The word covet in Hebrew means to pant after. Think of a dog that's thirsty. That's what it means. Think about this, what material things are you panting after right now? Gotta have it, gotta have it. That's what that means, I know that's really creepy, sorry. But you'll remember it. To covet means to pant after. I wrote a few things down I must learn to admire without having to acquire. I don't have to own it to enjoy it. I say this at least once every year. Before you buy it, rent it. And make sure you're actually gonna use it. I made a list, cabins, jet skis, boats, motorcycles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because if you own it, you gotta take care of it, you gotta pay insurance for it, you gotta do upkeep on it. If you rent it, you use it, you're done, you give it back. Does this make sense? That's what he's talking about.

Less is more. But what happens is we covet, we covet, we covet, we pant after things. We go to somebody's house, ooh, their furniture, ooh, their TV, ooh, their whatever. Comparing always leads to coveting. So stop comparing yourself to others and you'll learn to enjoy having less. Second thing, if you're gonna learn to enjoy having less, learn to enjoy what you already have. What do you already have that you enjoy? Think about what really makes you happy, I mean really. I was thinking about it. One of the things that I really enjoy, I like to be in the woods. I'm very much an outdoors person. And so one of the things I like to do is I have a beat up old lawn chair and I keep it in the back of my truck. And I have this place when the weather's nice that I go to in Gilbert that most people don't know about. And I go there and sometimes I'll just sit there under a tree in the shade and I'll work on sermons or I'll read or I'll pray and sometimes I just sit. And I love it. Like there is so much contentment that shows up in me. Now here's the thing. That lawn chair that I'm sitting in is a piece of junk. I should probably get another one. Like there's strings hanging from the bottom of it,

you know, like the fringe, like it's coming apart. But if I was sitting in a very expensive chair under that tree in beautiful weather, it would not increase my enjoyment whatsoever because it's not about the chair. You understand the point I'm making? It's about the experience. Learn to enjoy what you already have. When's the last time you really felt at peace? When's the last time you really belly laughed? When's the last time you felt joy? It probably did not have anything to do with possessions. It probably had to do with relational experience. There are two ways to have enough. You either work more and more or you learn to want less. It's something to think about. So stop comparing yourself to others. Learn to enjoy what you already have. Third thing, remember that life is not about possessions. In America, we are experience rich and relationship poor. This is why everybody's fighting in the line at Disneyland. Have you ever noticed that? Think about it. Have you ever noticed it? I'm asking you. It is so uncomfortable. I remember standing there with my six-year-old kid and this couple just, I mean, they were just raging. And I'm like, y'all are running my time. This is supposed to be the happiest place on earth.

But what happens is we're experience rich and relationship poor. And so when we're in those moments, we haven't talked to each other in so long that now we're talking. And because we're talking, we're fighting. And we think everything's about the experience. No, it's about the relationships. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. And it's better to live in a trailer park with healthy relationships than in a mansion with unhealthy ones. Remember that life is not about possessions. It's about God and people. You'll be dead soon. No one on their deathbed says, gather my diamonds around me. Take me to my Mercedes. No, we want people around us. And we wanna be at peace with God because that's what life is about. Don't wait till that moment to discover what really matters. Realize it now and adjust. Last verse I'm gonna share with you and then I wanna teach you a prayer. Ecclesiastes 5.19 says, moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, by the way, it all comes from God, what you think you own is just on loan.

If you're smart and that's how you did it, God gave you your smarts. If you're talented and that's how you did it, God gave you your talents. It could be you're at the right place at the right time and you're not all that smart. God just puts you in the right position and here you are. Some of you know I'm talking to you right now. You know that's the truth. And I love you and God bless you. But all of these things from God are a gift. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work, this is a gift of God. Gratitude, life is a gift. More, more, more, more, more. No, God, thank you. I have enough. And frankly, most of us have way more than enough. We need to get rid of some stuff. This is different. It's a different way of thinking, but it's wise and you'll be dead soon. Here's the prayer. Let's learn this prayer together. Here's the prayer. God, give me less of what doesn't matter and more of what does. Would you be courageous enough to pray that prayer?

God, give me less of what doesn't matter and more of what does. What matters? People, your relationship with God. In the end, that's all that matters, is God and people. Is God and people. And when you and I learn that, and when you and I live accordingly, that's when we're living the good life. Would you guys pray with me? Let's pray together. Maybe we could just pray this out loud together. You can repeat after me. Out loud, would you say God? Give me less of what doesn't matter and more of what does. Holy Spirit, teach us, we pray. Beginning with me, it's very convicting for me. None of us ever think we're greedy. None of us ever think about being counter-cultural. But the truth is, joy comes when we have one handful and with the other hand, we learn to receive and give. It's better than two handfuls of toil and stress and fighting. It all leads to dissatisfaction. And so, Holy Spirit, we thank you for the wisdom of your word. We thank you for the wisdom of Solomon. And we're all gonna be dead soon.

So I pray we would be good stewards, good managers for what you've given to us for a time because we will give an account to you. with what we did with it. And so teach us, we pray. And may we learn the value of the word enough. And may our hearts be grateful. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.