Deciding What Really Matters

 

What Drives Many of Us…

 

Wealth

 

Eccles. 5:10-11 (NLT) 

    Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness! [11] The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what is the advantage of wealth—except perhaps to watch it run through your fingers!

 

More Knowledge

 

Eccles. 1:16-18 (NLT) 

    I said to myself, "Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them." [17] So I worked hard to distinguish wisdom from foolishness. But now I realize that even this was like chasing the wind. [18] For the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

 

More pleasure

 

Eccles. 2:9-11 (NLT) 

    So I became greater than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. And with it all, I remained clear-eyed so that I could evaluate all these things. [10] Anything I wanted, I took. I did not restrain myself from any joy. I even found great pleasure in hard work, an additional reward for all my labors. [11] But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

 

More hard work and accomplishments

 

Eccles. 2:18-23 (NLT) 

    I am disgusted that I must leave the fruits of my hard work to others. [19] And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? And yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work. How meaningless!

    [20] So I turned in despair from hard work. It was not the answer to my search for satisfaction in this life. [21] For though I do my work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, I must leave everything I gain to people who haven't worked to earn it. This is not only foolish but highly unfair. [22] So what do people get for all their hard work? [23] Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night they cannot rest. It is all utterly meaningless.

 

Eccles. 5:16-17 (NLT) 

    And this, too, is a very serious problem. As people come into this world, so they depart. All their hard work is for nothing. They have been working for the wind, and everything will be swept away. [17] Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

 

Seeking fairness

 

Eccles. 5:8 (NLT) 

    If you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and justice being miscarried throughout the land, don't be surprised! For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice only get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.

 

Eccles. 8:9-10 (NLT) 

    I have thought deeply about all that goes on here in the world, where people have the power to hurt each other. [10] I have seen wicked people buried with honor. How strange that they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are praised in the very city where they committed their crimes!

 

Ephes. 5:17 (NLT) 

    Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.

 

1. Cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord

 

Eccles. 12:13-14 (NLT) 

    Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person. [14] God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

 

Proverbs 9:10 (NIV) 

    "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

 

Train our eyes for seeing His presence

 

Psalm 119:18 (NIV) 

    Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

 

Hebrews 10:36 (NLT) 

    Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

 

Understand how God’s silence builds the treasure of commitment in our lives

 

Deut. 8:2 (NLT) 

    Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would really obey his commands.

 

2. Invest in relationships by first, praying for relationships to stand alongside us; secondly, for relationships that we can bless others with.

 

Eccles. 4:9-12 (NLT) 

    Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. [10] If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. [11] And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? [12] A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

 

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.  ~Aristotle

 

3.  Enjoy and be contented with what we currently have – don’t wait for perfect conditions before enjoying God’s blessings today.

 

Eccles. 11:4 (NLT) 

    If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.

 

Eccles. 5:18-20 (NLT) 

    Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work—whatever they do under the sun—for however long God lets them live. [19] And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—that is indeed a gift from God. [20] People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy.

 

Focus on enjoying all that we do and all that we have today as our lot in life and as a gift from God

 

Eccles. 2:24-26; 3:12-13; 3:22; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:8