How to Experience Biblical Contentment (Ecclesiastes 5:12-6:2)

We experience biblical contentment primarily through our relationships with Christ. Secondarily, it comes from simple things like eating, drinking, and finding joy in our labor. But biblical contentment does not come from riches and possessions. Read this material from Being Content God’s Way, or watch the accompanying sermon, to learn how to develop biblical contentment. https://youtu.be/qh8iveH2m1o Table of contentsHoarding Is a Threat to ContentmentThe Importance of Remembering We Take Nothing With UsLearning from Malcolm Forbes and No FearGodliness with ContentmentHow Can We Experience Biblical Contentment?Biblical Contentment Does not Come from Wealth and PossessionsBiblical Contentment Does Come from Simple ThingsFootnotes I covered Ecclesiastes 5:11-12 in Being Content from a Missionary Trip to Malawi, Africa. I'm picking up at verse 13. Hoarding Is a Threat to Contentment Ecclesiastes 5:13 I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners. If I had to write down a list of grievous evils, I’d probably say murder, adultery, hurting children, stealing from the less fortunate. But hoarding probably wouldn’t even make the list. But that’s the grievous evil Solomon had in mind. Hoarding is so devastating that a reality show fittingly called Hoarders depicts people suffering from a “compulsive hoarding disorder.” The show is a record of people whose lives are ruined by their possessions. Even if we aren’t hoarders, our possessions can still cause problems because of the time they consume and the choices they create. We have to figure out what to buy, where to get it, how to make the trip to get it, where to store it, where to put the old stuff that the new stuff replaces, and how to use it when we buy it. We bought it; we will make sure we use it to feel like we got our money’s worth. These choices can consume us, so our possessions start possessing us. We become consumers consumed by our consumption. They don’t have these problems in Malawi. Most people’s homes don’t have furniture. The floors are dirt. There’s no electricity; say nothing about televisions or the Internet. In Third World countries, the problem is not having enough. But in First World countries like ours, the problem is having too much. Mark Twain once defined civilization as “a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.” 43 Self-storage is one of our biggest industries. An article titled “The Hottest Industry Right Now Is Storing All Your Stuff” reads: “A day hardly passes without the U.S. retail industry sustaining fresh wounds as malls and outlets shut their doors. Americans are still shopping, though online, in their pajamas and physics dictates that their new stuff, and old stuff, go somewhere. Welcome to the renaissance of self-storage.” Another article, “Self-storage: How Warehouses for Personal Junk Became a $38 Billion Industry,” reads: “Despite recessions and demographic shifts, few building types have boomed like self-storage lockers. The self-storage industry made $32.7 billion in 2016, nearly three times Hollywood’s box office gross. Self-storage has seen 7.7 percent annual growth since 2012, and now employs 144,000 nationwide. One in eleven Americans pays an average of $91.14 monthly to use self-storage. The United States has over fifty thousand facilities and roughly 2.31 billion square feet of rentable space. To give that perspective, the volume of self-storage units in the country could “fill the Hoover Dam twenty-six times with old clothing, skis, and keepsakes.” Our lives are filled to overflowing with possessions. When I drive down the road and pass storage facilities, I wonder, “What’s in the units people don’t need and can’t easily access but still pay money to keep? How many owners are still paying off the credit cards that bought the stuff in the first place?” The Importance of Remembering We Take Nothing With Us Ecclesiastes 5:14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. Wealth can disappear! Even though he’s a hardworking father, he has nothing to give to his son because he lost everything. People lose wealth through bad business decisions or other misfortunes, such as accidents, fires, or medical bills. Even if we don’t lose riches in this life, we lose them when we die, which is Solomon’s next point: Ecclesiastes 5:15 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. 16 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? My dad, John LaPierre, passed away in 2021. He choked on some food. My associate pastor and I took turns administering CPR until the paramedics arrived, and then they worked on him for over an hour. So, it was hard to know when he passed. The paramedics might say it was when he stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating, or his brain stopped functioning. But the Bible tells us it was when his spirit left his body: Matthew 27:50 Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and YIELDED UP HIS SPIRIT.Acts 7:59 They stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, RECEIVE MY SPIRIT.”James 2:26 The body WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD. The spirit is immaterial or nonphysical, and the body is material or physical. When the spirit leaves the body, it takes nothing material or physical with it. The moment that communicated the finality of Dad’s passing wasn’t when the police officer told me he passed. Instead, it was when the paramedics handed me his possessions, including his watch and hearing aids. It was like they were saying he wouldn’t need them any longer where he was going, and they were right. We come into the world with nothing and leave the same way. Job 1:21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and NAKED SHALL I RETURN.Psalm 49:10 Wise men die; likewise, the fool and the senseless person perish, and LEAVE THEIR WEALTH TO OTHERS…17 When he dies, HE SHALL CARRY NOTHING AWAY; his glory shall not descend after him. In Luke 12:20, God asked the rich fool, “The things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The answer is not his! Whatever we accumulate is left to others: friends, family, neighbors, the church, or – worst of all – the government. We don’t know where our wealth will go, but we know it will not go with us. Earlier Solomon wrote: Ecclesiastes 2:18 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. Solomon knew he wasn’t taking anything with him. When a wealthy man dies, people ask, “How much did he leave behind?” The answer is “All of it!” You never see U-Hauls behind hearses because we aren’t taking anything with us. Proverbs 23:5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven. Riches tend to fly away when we least expect it, and the one time they really fly away is when we die. John Piper said, “At the greatest crisis of your life [when you die], when you need contentment, and hope, and security more than any other time, your money and all your possessions take wings and fly away. They let you down. They are fair-weather friends at best. And you enter eternity with nothing but the measure of contentment that you had in God. Learning from Malcolm Forbes and No Fear Malcolm Forbes was an American entrepreneur best known as the publisher of Forbes magazine. He’s also remembered for several sayings, one of which is, “He who has the most toys wins.” As you would expect from someone who said this, he lived an extravagant, flamboyant lifestyle. He spent millions (or perhaps billions) on parties, traveling, and his collection of yachts, aircraft, art, motorcycles, castles, hot-air balloons, and Fabergé eggs, some of which cost over one million dollars each. Growing up, there was a popular clothing line called No Fear. One shirt corrected Malcolm’s quote: “He who dies with the most toys still dies.” The people working for the secular clothing company were considerably more biblical than Mr. Forbes. The clothing company recognized that we couldn’t take any of our toys or possessions with us because if we could, the one who died with the most toys would be the winner. Remembering we’re not taking any physical stuff with us is one of the best ways to be content! Godliness with Contentment This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible about contentment: 1 Timothy 6:6 godliness with contentment is great gain. These are the ideal combination. It is wonderful to have them together. Imagine God saying, “If you want a full life, pursue these. When you have them together, you will be blessed.” Godliness means being like God or having God’s character. What are the distinguishing traits of godly people? In other words, what makes people godly? Is it humility, service, prayerfulness, faithfulness, or joyfulness? These are wonderful qualities, but contentment also belongs on the list because it reveals a spiritually peaceful life. Contentment is evidence of a heart that finds Christ sufficient and rests in Him. The truly godly person is not interested in becoming rich. He possesses inner resources which furnish riches far beyond that which earth can offer. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, Baker Book House, 1957, page 198. It almost looks like Paul is saying we can have godliness without contentment, as though godliness WITHOUT contentment is LITTLE gain, but godliness WITH contentment is GREAT gain. But it’s impossible to have godliness without contentment because a godly person whose discontent looks ungodly. Picture people who are discontent. They are miserable, always be complaining, murmuring,