Living a Good Life: Guiding Truths to Define Success, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? The book of Mark reminds us that we can be wildly successful in things that, once we have them, turn out to be utterly meaningless. Are we striving for the wrong goals, all the while neglecting true and lasting success? Today, Pastor Rich shares seven ways that we misdefine success and seven guiding truths from Ecclesiastes 5 to help us realize our true purpose before God. Making sense of the journey, there's only what we could wish if we can live a good life. Everybody wants to live a good life. Problem is, who defines that?

What does that look like? And too many people live in quiet desperation because they desire to live a good life, but life doesn't turn out the way they anticipated. There's bumps in the road, there's setbacks, there's adversity, there's pain, there's loss. How do we make sense of this journey? Ecclesiastes asks that question. We're going to focus on one particular aspect of the journey today in Ecclesiastes 5, and I've entitled it, Making Sense of Your Occupation, What Keeps You Occupied? Our occupation, our vocation, vocation comes from the word calling, voca, to call, the voice.

We make sense of our occupation. What does Solomon observe here in this text? There's two directions I want to look at this. One is the negative side and the other is the positive side, the principles that we glean from scripture. But first of all, there's clear warnings in this. As we started Chapter 5, there were warnings. It started with a warning in terms of our worship.

God is looking for worshippers who worship Him with a whole heart, not a divided heart. But you know, so it is with our occupation. If we pursue our occupation with the wrong definition of success, if we pursue our occupation with the wrong preoccupation, with the wrong aim, with the wrong motive, we're going to be disappointed. And we will wonder, why doesn't this make any sense? What's missing here?

And so as we continue in Ecclesiastes 5, now we're looking at verses 8 and 20. Let me begin by pointing out from this text, seven snags of misdefined success, because everybody wants to be successful, don't they? But what does success mean? And you cannot realize success until first you have identified purpose. You cannot realize or even define success until first you have identified purpose. Where do we get our purpose?

What defines our purpose? This is why we have God's self-disclosure. This is why it's so important for us to understand that much of what Solomon describes is life under the sun. But he reminds us that there's more than just under the sun. There is beyond the sun. That is what we need referencing our existence and our experience under the sun. And when we neglect that, when we forget about what is beyond the sun, and we're simply living with a view of earthbound thinking under the sun, then we will misdefine success.

And that has seven snags that come with that. Because if there's nothing more than just under the sun, then I will be preoccupied with the question, how am I doing? As opposed to how are we doing? Here's the first snag, verse eight. If you see a province in a province, the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher and there is yet a higher one over them. The first snag of misdefined success is subjugating people. We use people for self advancement, and that happens at all levels.

Don't think that just happens at the levels of government. No, that happens at the personal level to the propensity to use others for my self advancement. And when we feel we can control people, then we feel that we're in a better shape to control our circumstances. And every one of us has a propensity to do this, to control people in order to control my circumstances, because in back of my mind is the question, how am I doing?

Here's the truth. Think about this. We are driven with earthbound thinking. We are driven to rise above others because we count on human partiality. This is a characteristic of a misdefined success under the sun. We are driven to rise above others because we count on human partiality.

What does that mean? If I write the higher my position, the more I will be loved, respected and liked, the more worth I will have in the eyes of other people. We count on human partiality. We expect it to be, and therefore that is something that drives us to rise above other people, and I will use other people to do that. But what becomes true from verse eight here is that no one, no one gets to the top. Everyone is under authority and anyone who thinks they're at the top is deluded. And how many people have arrived there and think I am so high up that the rules don't apply to me? How many celebrities have we seen? They are at the top of their game, the top of their career, the top of their celebrity. And they think the rules don't apply to them or a politician or a businessman or whatever.

The rules don't apply to me, and we don't we don't really say that to ourselves, but in the back of our minds, we can very easily tend to believe that because I have the capacity to be able to manipulate the rules or override them. So many headlines are filled with people, noted people today who are at the top of their game, who fail. So a very real possibility, a real snag of misdefined success under the sun is subjugating people. Number two, satisfaction eluded. Look at verse 10 with me. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.

This also is vanity. That's a pretty clear verse, isn't it? And yet how many people spend their lives in pursuit of what they think is going to bring them satisfaction?

Let me make something clear in verse 10. Money is not the issue. What is? It's the love of money.

There's a difference there. Money is not the issue. It's the love of it that is. The desire towards money, the attitude towards money, the place that we give money and wealth in our lives. Love is what informs our desires and motivates our actions. It's what we devote ourselves to. A young man loves a woman, a woman loves a young man. They devote themselves to each other. They're drawn to each other.

There's a compulsion there, right? That's that love. Love is what informs desires and motivates actions. Why, Paul said to Timothy in 610, the love of money is a root of all forms of evil. Money is not the issue.

The love of it is. Johnny Carson put it well a long time ago. He says the one thing good about money is that it keeps you from worrying about not having money.

Plain and simple, isn't it? Get this clear, this statement, Ecclesiastes 5 10. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. You think that is the source of your satisfaction. Learn now.

It is not. You cannot be satisfied because there will always be a need for more. It will not satisfy you. If material wealth is your aim, if it is your end goal, you will lose real life. We see that in verse 16.

We'll get that later on. But you'll run into a wall of despair and meaninglessness. And that is something that Solomon himself encountered. He pursued material wealth. He pursued everything he could to bring satisfaction.

He says it's empty. Snag number three of a misdefined success. Snag number three is shallow relationships. When goods increase, verse 11, when goods increase, they increase who eat them.

And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Shallow relationships is a snag of misdefined success. You see, the more money you have, the more people there will be to help you spend it.

The prodigal son figured that out, didn't he? You see, if things are the most important to you, then don't be surprised when people want to use you to get your things. And you're so busy that you drift into shallow relationships with those closest and that God has entrusted to you. We see that following because the fourth snag of misdefined success is stress. Stress look at verse 12, sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. Misdefined success will bring you inordinate stress, busyness and preoccupation of having to maintain, to protect and to control what is yours because these are the things that you're looking to to trust and to bring you satisfaction. And so you have to put so much of your time into maintaining them and protecting them and controlling them. And that will lead you to brood over the past and worry about the future.

The things that go wrong are the things that could go wrong. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.