SEP 3 2017

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · September 3, 2017
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The words of Solomon from the book of Ecclesiastes. The words of the teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher, utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? Generations come, generations go, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and then turns to the north. Round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea and yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, look, it's something new? It was here already, long ago. It was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations. And even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

Let us pray together. Lord, very simply, we thank you for your word. And as much as we're grateful for your creation and these days of our lives, ultimate meaning doesn't come from this. It comes from you and your work in our understanding and in our souls. And as the word is opened by Pastor Adam today, may we find a word for us so we might be truly alive day by day.

And we ask this to your glory, Lord. Amen. Amen, Jim. Thank you. Good to have you on this sticky La Jolla morning. And good morning, nonetheless, to be here to look at the word of God. We are living in an age of discontent. It's not the first age of discontent that this world has seen. But it is an age of discontent. One need to only open up the morning newspaper.

Let me date myself. How many of you have never opened up a newspaper? Anyone in the crowd? We're getting close. If my 10-year-old was here, she would raise her. La Jolla Light. I guess she reads the La Jolla Light on occasion because they still mail that for the real estate purposes to my house every week. But we are living in an age of discontent where every headline, it seems, has a strategically placed adjective to create, stir, and trigger an emotion, to trigger a perspective, and to trigger perhaps action, and perhaps to trigger discontent.

I rarely see a news headline anymore that just gives me the facts of a story. It seems like they are laden with adjectives that will trigger us in one direction or another. Jeff, if you have the slide, or the media team has the slide of the discontent, I thought Jeff Edwards, our media director here at the church, created an incredible slide for this because I think it speaks about what's happening in our day.

And if you're online, I will have this image up, and you can look online as you listen. You will see what we all hope for. What is the dream? What we are being told is the place where we want our souls to be, and that is the calm of a lake. Sitting there with, the only thing we're missing in this picture is your feet. That's the only thing we're missing.

From the Facebook, I am in this place of peace. Facebook and other social media platforms seem to be a balance between the idolized peace that we are striving for and the discontent of our day. And then we have this face that is screaming into that, and we see a tug of war today. And if you were to ask most people if they were content today, many people would say no.

That would be the dream. Today, being a person who is content is sometimes scorned. A person that you see with peace. A person that walks around, seeing the things that are happening, engaging where God has called them to engage. But with a center of peace, people will often think, what is wrong with you? As a pastor, I am often, matter of fact, five to seven times in the last two weeks, people have contacted me about different things that are going on in society, and they're asking me, what are you going to say?

And as a congregational church, what we have decided is this is a congregation, this is a place where you can come and be refilled in the first corner. First corner is that the corner of your heart can be nourished by God. That you can find peace, rest, and contentment. And a place where you can come, touch God. To harvest the things of heaven, to go back out into that world, and to make a difference on the third corner, which is the corner you live, or even the fourth corner, the four corners of the world.

We believe in engagement, but we believe that there needs to be some secrecy and some sacred places where you can come and find contentment. Now, we live in this discontented age, and there is a quote by Matthew Arnold, you'll see it in your notes, that says, only one thing has been lent to youth and age in common. It's discontentment. What is discontentment?

Discontentment is an unease with where you are in the moment. It is an unease with what you see the future might be. It is an unease with what the past has been. And it is the inability to be in the moment with peace, with joy, and with, the word we're using, contentment. How often do we find ourselves in that place? Let's say today we value a person of action more than those of contemplation.

I don't know if you've noticed, but our society has shifted in the 1700s and 1800s. People who were thinkers, people who were able to get away. If you look at Thoreau, if you look at Emerson, if you look at Whitman, you read these people, and they were people who were highlighted because they were able to get away, to find a compass, and to use that compass of being in solitude, of finding contentment, in order to process and to filter what's going on in the world.

Well, today we have almost lost that. Today we highlight activity. Today we highlight movement. In churches, we highlight spiritual activity often more than we highlight spiritual consolation or contemplation. We have to be moving. We have to be moving fast. And we have to be going after the next shiny thing. And I would ask you to start this three-week series on contentment.

What's the shiny thing in your life that you don't have that is keeping that tension? There's a tension that stops you from saying, enough is enough in this moment. And if I have no more than I have now, then it is enough. Now that doesn't mean that we aren't pursuing to have more of Christ, to know more of God. But can we be content in the moment?

Can you be content in the house that you live in? Can you be content in the relationship that you're in? Can you find contentment? This is not to say that on occasion, those things need to be changed and moved because of certain reasons or another. So let's not be extremist in all that we say. But in a world of discontent, where can we find contentment?

There are three people that we're going to look at in the Bible. And we're going to use those during these three weeks to be our filter to understand how to find a greater sense of contentment. Now what I'm not asking you to do is to disengage and to become monastic, unless God tells you to become monastic. But I am asking you to be able to find a place of being in your life so that when you are not engaging the thing that God has called you to engage, no matter where that is, on your corner or the four corners of the earth, that you can find a place of peace and rest, where Jesus and nothing else is enough.

The three people we're going to look at, and for this art of contentment, as seen through the lives of Solomon, of Job, and of Paul. Solomon, the most, as we'll see in a moment, the most successful person to ever walk the face of the earth. The wisest person that will ever walk, according to the scriptures, the face of the earth. He had it all. But yet he had not only a measure, I would say he had an extreme amount of discontentment with all that he had.

He was the most successful person in the world's eyes to ever walk the earth. We have Job, perhaps in the Bible, and perhaps in history, if people were going to look at it, whether they believe the scriptures or not, they would see that he is at least a metaphorical example of the most, the man, the person in the world who has suffered more than anyone else.

He has the greatest amount of suffering, or at least as most known for his suffering. But yet in the midst of that, he can make a statement and say, even though my Savior, even though God slay me, I will worship, I will follow him. That even if God takes his sword, and crushes me completely, and kills me, I will worship the Lord. Wow, how do you say that?

How do you not be discontent? And he had moments of things that he was saying, of discontentness, if I may. And, but at the sense of his deepest part of his core, he had a sense of serenity and peace, knowing that God was God, and that God was on the throne of his heart. So how does the most successful man in the world not find contentment, while the man who has the most suffering in the midst of it all, say that even though he slay me, I can find contentment knowing that he is my God.

And then the third person we're going to look at is Paul. Paul says that contentment's a secret. That we have a secret of contentment. And that we, and that he says that he had learned the secret of contentment. We're going to look and see what that is. Three, three people of God, and three people that were searching for the art of contentment. Let's look at Solomon.

The world's most successful man. Now how rich was King Solomon by today's standard? I looked this up, there is a footnote in there, that you can see, and if you want to go where I got this information from, some of it I added, but most of it is by today's net worth standards, where he runs. Solomon was the only trillionaire, is the world's only trillionaire, with an estimated land holdings and net worth of $2.1 trillion.

That's a lot of change. And by net standards, he is followed, secondly, by Rockefeller, who by today's standards would have $663.4 billion. The richest man goes back and forth, but the most consistent richest man in the world is Bill Gates, who is coming at a paltry, $86.4 billion as of this morning when I checked. Okay, that means seven to eight times, Rockefeller had seven to eight times that amount of money.

Almost a trillion, you know, half a trillion dollars. Solomon, $2.1 trillion. He had yearly gold revenue of $963 million. $963 million. Yeah, $963 million in yearly gold revenue. That's not bad. You can make a ring out of that for sure. Solomon's lands holding were a primary part of his net worth, and they were almost all of, you know, Asia Minor in that area through there, and all the way to the border of Egypt, and he had control over all of these areas.

Besides that, besides that, he had relationships, right? He had 700 wives of royal birth. Now, I don't know where you find 700 other kings in the area or whatever. 700. He had a new wife. He had a new wife every two weeks. If you go through his 40-year career and you do the math, he had 24 point whatever wives, I think is what I added up per year. That's two a month.

A little bit more than two wives a month. And then he, besides that, just besides that, besides royal nobility wives, he had 300 concubines. So he's looking at 1,000 women in his life. Now, many people would say that that would measure how, you know, a part of his success. It was a different world, a different time. But you would think that relationally he would have been satisfied with all of that to go on.

In 1 Kings, which I think is interesting, and this is just a little side note. This is free today. The final verse in 1 Kings chapter 2 says this. The kingdom, now this is after he gets rid of his enemies and things like this, the kingdom was now established or firmly established in Solomon's hands. Now, there's one piece of fruit that the, maybe more than one, but there's one conditional piece of fruit that he was not allowed to eat of.

And God had told him, but you may not have foreign wives, for they will draw you away. And in the end, it was this lust for foreign wives, and I think a lust for women that was passed down from his father David, which he never got over that we see, that actually destroyed and took the kingdom from Israel that came down. I'm not blaming women. I'm okay, so don't hear me that.

I'm blaming this lust to have more and to have the shiny thing because we all want what we can't have. And so the one thing that Solomon wanted was what he couldn't have, and he had a lust for foreign women. The very first verse, after the verse that says his kingdom was firmly established, is found in verse 1 of chapter 3. And it says, Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and did what?

Married his daughter. Next verse, God established his kingdom, and he undid it in the very next verse, and that would lead a triggering event because he was not content with what God told him he could have. 2.1 trillion dollars was not enough. As many Jewish wives as he wanted was not enough, and so on. None of it was enough. He wanted something that was out of his reach, and when it comes to the art of contentment, does not much of it come from striving after things that are just out of our reach.

Whether they're things that are actually potential that you could have in your career or in your life, or if they are things that God has said no to. Not many of us do well with a two-letter word, simple two-letter word. No. And not many of us, like Aristotle, are willing to, you know, as he says, that the only way to find contentment is to have a lust of a lust for things.

That is my interpretation of what he said. 1 Kings 10.22. This is one of my favorite things about Solomon. Now, if all the relationships and the 2.1 trillion dollars wasn't enough, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, I'd have to put it in the top hundred, is the fact that he had regular baboons and apes brought to his palace. It always stuck out to me as a kid.

Did anybody, you ever have these little verses in the Bible that are cool? I thought, how cool to like be, how happy are you when you go down to the docks that day and you're, you know, you're the king and they're offloading that baboons and the peacocks and you're thinking, this is awesome, I have baboons. I don't know. Actually, primates terrify me. If you've ever seen what primates can do, I told my wife, if there was just, if there was one chimpanzee running around La Jolla free, and if you know about chimpanzees, I would not live in La Jolla.

They terrify me. It's a, it's just a thing. It says in that verse, the king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years, it returned, carrying gold, silver, and ivory, and apes, and baboons. So he had all this, you know, remember Michael Jackson would always just go get all this like crazy stuff. Like when you don't have enough, you start buying stuff you don't need, right?

Have you ever been in a super wealthy person's house? Like not every super wealthy person, but I went to a school that had some wealthy people and I remember I would go and I would just see the most extravagant things that you would never need and they were used once and put into a corner or into a closet. Maybe you've seen this. This is the position that Solomon is, was in.

First Kings 3, 12 through 13 says, I will do what you have asked and this is what God said and this is a powerful, powerful verse in regarding, in understanding the problem that Solomon finds himself in and that is the inability to be content with everything you ever wanted. Okay? This is it. God gives him this incredible blessing but there's one thing that God does not include in the blessing and that is the ability to enjoy the blessing.

Matter of fact, in Ecclesiastes 6, 1 as you'll see in a moment, he says to, Solomon says, in Ecclesiastes 6, 1, he says, it is a, I have seen a great evil under the sun that a man has given everything by God but not the ability to what? Enjoy it. Enjoy it. I want to say one of the keys, you can write this down to contentment, is training yourself how to enjoy things.

How to infuse joy into the moment. Let's read that verse. It says, I will do what you have asked. That's God speaking to Solomon after he asked for wisdom. I will give you a wise and a discerning heart. And as we know with Solomon, just because you're wise doesn't mean you know what to do with the wisdom. Solomon had a lot of wisdom and yet he did not follow all of his wisdom.

Give me an ounce of wisdom and a pound of self-discipline and we'll see who can go further. Because you can have all the wisdom but I love self-discipline that a no from God means no and a yes means yes. It says, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that you will never have been, there will never have been anyone like you nor will there ever be.

God told him, you are straight up going to be the greatest person to ever walk the face of the earth. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for, both wealth and honor. And if you continue to lean into that, what you're going to see is that he gave him everything except the ability to enjoy it. And maybe that's up to us. Maybe that's up to the way that we decide to use what God, or to infuse with joy what God has given us.

And so here's the question. If Solomon was the world, you'll see it in your notes, was the world's most successful person, then why would he write Ecclesiastes, a book filled with the theme of discontentment? Why wouldn't a man who was the greatest person that had everything that all of us want, right? For the most part. Maybe not all of us. But what the world sees as what everyone would want.

Why would his magnum opus be Ecclesiastes? Have you read Ecclesiastes? I would say Ecclesiastes has shaped my understanding of life as much as any book in the Bible. I listened to it, the entire book again. It's about 12, 13 chapters. And I listened to the entire book again. Just, I did some binge listening. I'd been binge watching some TV and I thought for recreation, I thought I'm gonna binge listen to the Bible and I listened to it again.

And it has a way to get me going true north again. It has a way of letting go of all those things that don't matter, all those things that have become meaningless and to help you determine what has meaning in your life. Why would a person this gifted, this blessed, with just magnanimous blessing, write a book about being discontent? I think what it shows us is that getting the shiny thing will never give you contentment.

Perhaps it's not about the shiny thing or that thing that you have been chasing, that apple that you have been, the metaphorical apple, reaching out for. Just because you have wisdom does not mean you will follow it. Just because you have everything you've ever wanted does not mean that you will have the ability to enjoy it. So I have to ask the question without you answering, are you enjoying your life?

I'm not saying that you're escaping and you're having a vacation on occasion and do some fun things, but the majority of the time are you in your life, in the moment, thinking this is enjoyable? You know what, this isn't something we have to work to do. I was driving home yesterday from Claremont. It's a seven degree difference from Claremont to here. I didn't know that.

And so I was up there and it was hot. It was hot up in Claremont. And I came out and I caught myself thinking, it's hot. I don't have to walk across the parking lot. There's no parking spots at Home Depot. And I'm like, ah, ah, ah, ah. And then I got in the car and started thinking about this. I thought, what can I enjoy in this moment? And the fact that the air conditioner worked in the car, that was one thing.

And began to think, what can I, and I began to look, and you know one thing I never noticed? If you drive up Genesee off the 52, it's full of oak trees. California live oak trees. I don't know if you've ever seen that before. Maybe, you know, you're more in touch with nature than I am. I mean, it is like a grove. There's like a hundred oak, huge oak trees.

I'd never seen it before and I stopped and I thought, that's awesome. And all of a sudden, a little bit of joy was infused into my moment. And then I looked at my daughter's face and she was riding in the front. And we began to talk and she smiled and I thought, wow, how beautiful is the face of a child and their innocence. And I let that joy infuse into my soul again.

And before I knew it, I wasn't complaining anymore about the heat or whatever it was, but I was living in a moment that was infused with joy and the contentment, the flow of God's contentment began to flow in and the ebb of my discontentment and the age of discontent began to go out. And so we see in Ecclesiastes that Solomon writes this book about discontentment and he starts out, if you open up the book of Ecclesiastes, it starts out with a chapter title and that chapter title was this.

Everything is what? Everything is meaningless. This is what he says in verse two. Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher. Utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. That's four meaninglessness right there in one verse. That's a lot of meaninglessness. Anybody know what meaningless means? It means it has no meaning. It means you have stuff but it has meaning.

Why is this Bible have worth? Because it's a book? Because there's pages? No. Because within it we can find what? Meaning. We can find meaning. If you have things, if the pages of this Bible were blank, it was just a page. Now granted, it would have some meaning that you could fill it and some other meanings but it wouldn't hold the same value. It's not the thing, it is not the way that it is transported but what is within it that gives it the meaning.

And so what Solomon had done is he had built this entire kingdom but he had found that it lacked meaning. Meaning is the thing that gives value. Do you want a life that is valued? How much is a life worth? We say a life is worth because it is obviously worth something because God created all human beings regardless of who they are or what they are have value because God created them.

But to live a life that has value in my opinion according to the wisdom of Solomon means that the things that you do with your life have to have a meaning behind them that drives them. And in the end it isn't the thing that you did or the thing that you created that brought a value or a worth to your life because we want to live lives that are worthy of heaven. Worthy of eternity.

1 Corinthians 3.13 says the works of our life will either make it through testing and trial and be remembered in heaven or they will not. We want to have a life and so with everything that you're doing I guess the question is why? Why are you doing what you're doing? And if you just build a home are you going to be satisfied with that home or does that home have a meaning?

One of the things you will see in a city like this is constant construction. Constantly I'm not happy with what I have. You know the amount of beautiful homes in La Jolla that are just torn down to build a nicer one? It happens all the time. All the time. All over the world. Why? And sometimes that has a purpose. You know we're using it and it has a purpose and a meaning but sometimes it's just because I don't like the way it looks anymore.

We're just moving on to the next thing. This is something that Solomon understood and he said meaningless, meaningless. Let me tell you why creation has value. Creation that you see has value why? Because of its meaning. And in everything that God created he has put a meaning in it. That is why we need to understand the meanings of things like human sexuality.

That is why we need to understand the meanings of life and birth. The things, the reasons behind everything that we have and see. And so in Romans 1.20 it says for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities his eternal power his divine nature have been what? Clearly seen. Being understood from that which has been made so that people are without excuse.

What that is saying is that God has made a lot of stuff. And the reason all of it has worth is because in each of it he has put the DNA of who he is and his very imprint the kiss of God's nature upon everything that he has created gives it a reason gives it a why gives it a worth. We are living in a society that is trying to take away meaning from things. Today we live in a society that I just heard the newest count is there's 26 genders now.

I don't understand them all but there's 26 different genders. we're changing the meaning of gender. Matter of fact I have a feeling we're going to get to a point where people will say we should just erase gender because there's no reason to have it. We're all equal and neither gender has any meaning since we're all the same. But I believe that in each of the genders God has kissed them with his divine nature he has kissed them with his divine purpose and we can understand God within them.

And so it has a meaning and so one of the things that the enemy would love to do is to remove meaning from everything. That there are no absolutes there are no direct meanings that we can say this is true but everything is relative because when you do that you erase God from his creation. Do you see what's happening in society today? You lose worth you lose meaning and everything becomes as Solomon said meaningless meaningless meaningless meaningless four times he says it.

So we look there the world's most wise and successful person can find no worth or meaning. I want to read a quote that I had from the value series and if you haven't heard that it's going to be up online this week the final two parts of it for those that came this will be a repeat. This is from Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl was one of the most well-known Holocaust survivors he wrote the book Man's Search for Meaning and while I don't agree with everything in the book it was a book that deeply shaped me.

It says this Don't aim at success the more you aim at it and make it a target the more you're going to miss it. For success like happiness cannot be pursued it must ensue let me read that again because you can chew on that for like a month okay? For success like happiness and I would say contentment as well cannot be pursued it must ensue and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the byproduct of one's surrender to a person God other than one's self.

Obviously we're being told in all the literature of the day chase your happiness go after it you find the shiny thing and when you get the shiny thing you will be happy. That is incorrect. I would say that as he says there that if we are living for a greater meaning and we add meaning to everything that we do then in that if you get that shiny thing and God brings it to your feet because of the meaning you won't be asking yourself when you get the shiny thing what's the next shiny thing?

You will look at it and say this shiny thing has value because I did it for the love of God or I did it for the sake of joy of others or I did it for the sake of benevolence or helping the poor for helping other people or caring about those that are oppressed those that are disenfranchised it is the meaning of everything that we do that gives us value and a life worth living and in that only will we find contentment in that only will we find our happiness.

I learned a long time ago that a successful shiny church will never make me happy and to look at this and say why am I here and ask myself every single day why am I coming to work? Why am I coming to ministry? Why am I here? Because I want to see lives changed and in the end I want to see people know God in a deeper and better way. It's not about that next shiny thing at least we try to make it not.

Continuing on now circling the tower three quick things and then we're done. First of all we have to figure out what it all means. What brings meaning is not what you have or what you have done but the values that lie as the foundation of both. Knowing your values why you're doing what you're doing why is your marriage going in the direction it is what do you value?

Why is your home have the culture that it does? Why are you pursuing those goals on the board at work? Why are you doing what you do? The first lesson of contentment then is this is found in the living for meaning. That's the first lesson in this whole series on contentment is asking yourself this question what is the meaning in what I'm doing? What does it mean?

What does it mean? Why am I doing this? Why am I here? Why am I putting myself why am I suffering? You know suffering can have value when it has meaning. That's something we're going to learn from Job a man who suffered but he never wasted a crisis. You know that's what I think I will say is never waste a crisis. We just want to get out of crisis as soon as possible but what does it say?

Recently I received an email I didn't like too much and I got it and the first question I had I asked myself on a regular basis what is true? What is true and what is the meaning? And it is in finding truth and finding the meaning of that email that all parties involved found a solution that brought glory to God as opposed to just saying you know what I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to go off the handle here.

I'm going to assert my power here. I'm going to gather my little troops to do what I do to get where I'm going to get. No because I hopefully have gotten to the place at this point in ministry why am I here? And the purpose of unity that's one thing Eddie Foyer is all about unity and many others in the church. Not unity at the sake of truth but what is true and what is happening and so I ask you to find meaning in everything that you do and when you respond ask yourself what is the meaning what do I what is the meaning behind my response what am I trying to accomplish?

Next thing besides finding out what it all means and asking your question so just put in your life here's a little to do you can go home and do this put your list your work your vacation to wherever you're going to go your relationship your kids your soccer your coach the soccer team and then right behind it what is the meaning why am I doing this? What is the meaning?

And perhaps some things need to have crosses and be struck through. Number two enough is never enough verse eight in the scripture all things he says are what? wearisome wow you know what without you know I want to say this anything the Holy Spirit is giving you will never burn you out I want to say anything that the Holy Spirit is giving you he will give you the tools and the ability to do when we feel burnout it is often times because we are doing things beyond the margin perhaps more than God is calling us to all things he says are wearisome more than one can say the eye never has what?

enough of seeing nor the ear of hearing why is this? let me tell you let me tell you why you cannot be satisfied let me tell you why the house the 700 husbands and 300 male concubines just got to keep it real okay why that will never satisfy you first of all because they're men that's the number one reason you're not built for the temporal you're built for eternity God designed us for eternity we're we're we're an engine we're like a car trying to be a submarine does that make sense or vice versa you are built that no temporal thing will ever satisfy you that's how God built us there's only one thing and he built us that way for a reason because there's only one thing that will ever satisfy you and can satisfy you God himself because God is eternal and when we get to heaven that we will be completely satisfied the lie of the enemy that you're going to get there and be bored there's no boredom in heaven there's no time so time doesn't pass so there will be no boredom and you will be completely enraptured with the with the eternity of God of all of his goodness of all of his riches you're built for eternity no earthly thing will ever satisfy so why are you living for today why are you living for just this thing that we can get that next thing enough will never be enough unless the reason behind it is God I want to find your eternity in my marriage I want to harvest the things that you have and I want to have all things that I need every in Ephesians it says every spiritual blessing is available to you everything you need for living today as long as you make God first Ecclesiastes 3.11 says he has made everything beautiful in its time he has also set eternity in the human heart wow he has set eternity in your heart all humans have eternity in their heart yet no one can fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end the second lesson of contentment then from Solomon is seeing the beauty in Ecclesiastes 3.11 says he has made everything what beautiful and so in the midst of that to see the beauty of God's eternity in everything when you walk and you see a flower or when you're driving and you finally for the first time wake up and realize you've been going up Genesis because you're from San Diego since 1969 and you've never seen a live oak matter of fact we had a family picture taken in the canyon what's the canyon at the bottom of the hill right there and I'm sitting on a live oak and I have a picture because my mom just got it out this week and says I'd like to blow this up of us and our grandma and we're sitting on a live oak and I still had never seen a live oak until yesterday when I decided to say God I will never be satisfied and in this moment in these people in this place I want to experience you enough will never be enough and so the third one then is to unearth the joy Ecclesiastes 6.1 I have seen another evil under the sun and it weighs heavenly on mankind God gives some people wealth possessions and honor so that they lack nothing of their heart's desire but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them the third lesson of contentment from Solomon is to find joy that comes from the creator in all that you do he says in the in the end if you look at the conclusion of the matter and I want you to go to the end this is your homework this week to go to the end of Ecclesiastes and read the final chapter of the conclusion of the matter and I will let you find the answer the final answer what he says the conclusion of the matter is but he alludes to it in Ecclesiastes 2.24 there is nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil this also I see is from where the hand of God what he is saying there and let me just give it to you in the basic script is that God is saying whatever you're doing today invite me into it and enjoy it with me and even in the suffering give it meaning and invite me in and then you will find contentment because like an empty cup I will fill every moment of your day with the eternity that is me amen you