Invest, Risk, Rejoice: Finding Contentment in God

And so here's the second way he's pushing us toward man. You wanna live a life of contentment? Get up and work. Get up and work. God is calling us to meaningful, purposeful work. If you look at the work you're doing in life and you know that you're able and capable to do it in your own power and strength, then you're probably not doing the work that God has called you to do. Because all over the Bible, we see God calling his followers, his kids to do significant, meaningful, amazing work in this world that they couldn't do apart from his empowering. [00:36:35] (36 seconds)  #GetUpAndWork

And he looked out and he just saw, man, there's so much that they weren't doing because they couldn't predict what was gonna happen. So people just weren't taking action because it would be too risky. People weren't taking any risks, but Solomon is pushing them away from that. He's telling the men, progress involves risk. Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second with your foot on first. Right? Let's go. Let's take that foot off first and let's take the risk and let's go. That's what he's saying a life of contentment actually looks like. It looks like taking risks. [00:39:31] (35 seconds)  #ProgressRequiresRisk

And Solomon says that happens when we invest our money to be a blessing to others. And so what he's saying is that if you wanna live a life of contentment, man, invest. Invest in treasure that lasts. Invest in treasure that lasts. Why does Solomon say to do this? End of verse two, for you don't know what disaster may happen on earth. You could lose it all tomorrow. And then what good would it have done to to hoard your excess when it could have been used to be a blessing to others? [00:25:57] (31 seconds)  #InvestInTreasureThatLasts

If you wanna live a content good life now, yes, invest with your excess, but do it in a way that actually blesses others. That's the same thing Paul was talking about in second Corinthians nine. He was writing to the Christians at Corinth, and he was telling them to give generously to the poor Jewish believers in Judea. And look what he says. He says, the person who sows sparingly He's talking about generosity here, about giving to the poor. The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. The person who sows generously will also reap generously. [00:24:07] (34 seconds)  #SowGenerouslyReapGenerously

What does a righteous person look like in this world? Somebody who's living and following God, what does the righteous person do? And one of the things it says is he distributes freely to the poor. It's actually the same kind of language used in Ecclesiastes eleven two here. It's the idea of giving a portion to seven or eight, distributing freely to the poor. So Solomon isn't just talking about investing our resources in things that will benefit us. He's saying invest in blessing others. [00:23:35] (32 seconds)  #BlessThePoorFreely

There's a little debate on what the Hebrew here means, but a lot of scholars agree that he's using this phrase, and he's talking about commerce here. He's saying that if you have a grain field and it produces more than you could use, then send that excess out on the boat, send it out on the waters to a place that needs grain, and after many days, when the boat comes back, you'll have some money waiting for you. So really what Solomon is just saying here is invest. Man, don't sit on excess. Don't hoard it. Invest it. [00:22:10] (32 seconds)  #DontHoardInvest

But in both of these things and in the the older folks, Solomon telling the older folks to rejoice and the younger folks to rejoice, he's giving us the fourth key to a life of contentment. It's rejoicing all the time. Rejoice wherever God has you. Rejoice in the time of life you're in right now. Right now is the time for rejoicing. No matter what age you are, no matter what stage of life you're in, now is the time to find your joy in God. Don't let your time of life or your stage in life or your circumstances be a crutch to not find your joy in God. [00:49:33] (33 seconds)  #RejoiceInEverySeason

And you know when Elizabeth Elliot came to those people with one or two of her friends, I can't remember now, look it up, man, great story, many of those people saw that love that his widow would come and share Jesus with them and they said this must be true. And many people in that tribe put their faith in Jesus. And now Jim Elliot has brothers and sisters in eternity with him because he took a risk. What are you and I gonna have with us in eternity because we took a risk? Or are we sitting on our hands and hoarding and accumulating stuff for ourselves that's gonna burn and disappear? [00:43:10] (34 seconds)  #LegacyThroughRisk