The Heartaches of the Rich & Famous

Number of years ago there was a very well-known and popular TV program called The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It ran for 11 years on television and it was very popular because it afforded the opportunity for people to gawk and envy what they saw on the screen of the extravagant homes and lifestyles of famous entertainers, athletes, and business executives. The idea was to show the opulence in which they lived and let everybody else wish it were them. That's why the TV program was so popular. Well Solomon is going to show us the fine print on the deal. Solomon is going to show us the high price tag that may accompany that kind of lifestyle. You see we have bought into this idea, really the lie of the enemy, that money and material possessions that it can provide will bring you happiness and security. So happiness and fulfillment and purpose in life and security in life is wrapped up in things in wealth or in riches. And Solomon is going to tell us in the book of Ecclesiastes that there is another side to that story because he's going to show us the fine print which is not glamorizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous but showing us the hard reality of the heart aches of the rich and famous. Now I don't mean to be pessimistic, I just mean to be real. Solomon is dealing in chapters 3 through 5 of Ecclesiastes with hard realities in life. We've seen 7 of them, this is the last one. He started this section of the book by describing that God has a purpose and plan for all of life. Everything becomes beautiful in his time. He will end this section by once again stressing for us what it means to live life with meaning and purpose and fulfillment and enjoyment. But in between the book ends there, the beginning of chapter 3 and the end of chapter 5, he deals with 8 hard realities of life that seem to call into question whether or not God really is in control of all things and certainly whether or not all things work together for good or are beautiful in his time. The last of those is a very compelling description of the heartache of the rich and famous. Solomon will in this passage reveal to us the heart aches that tend to accompany the pursuit of wealth and I've been very careful in choosing those words. Solomon intends to show us he will reveal the heart aches that tend to accompany the pursuit of wealth. It's not the attainment of wealth, it is not the possession of wealth that Solomon has a problem with. It is the pursuit of wealth, it is the love of wealth, the drive, the ambition to get as much of it as you can get that becomes all consuming, gets its hooks in you and like an addiction begins to drive your life. That's what Solomon is talking about and he ought to know. He was the richest man in the world in his day, $20 million a year just in gold. On top of that all the other trade that he did with every other nation who was trading in his day in the world. On top of that a magnificent palace in Jerusalem, many other homes spread throughout the country of Israel. He was able with multitudes of horses, glasses that he drank from made of pure gold, a beautiful gold overlay on his ivory throne, parks that he enjoyed himself, resorts they would be today, a chariot overlaid with gold, a personal bodyguard of 60 soldiers, Solomon knew what it was like to live large. He knew what it was like to be wealthy and enjoy all of the wealth and fame that comes with that lifestyle and he's going to show us there is another side to the story. What is the heartache? What are the heartaches of those who make it their aim and pursuit in life to gain riches and wealth? What are they? Well there are seven of them. Let's quickly see what Solomon has to say. Verses eight and nine the first one is corruption. Corruption tends to accompany that drive for possessions. Verse eight he says in Ecclesiastes five, if you see the poor oppressed in a district and justice and rights denied do not be surprised at such things. For one official is eyed by a higher one and over them both are and over them both are others higher still, easy for you to say. The increase from the land is taken by all the king himself profits from the fields. Now here's the situation that Solomon is painting for us. There is oppression, the poor are being oppressed by the rich and those who have power and wealth and fame, their rights are denied. There is no justice either in the legal system or in personal business dealings because the officials who are gaining more and more wealth and power are in it for number one. They are in it to enrich themselves and to line their own pockets. And he says really shouldn't be shocked at that. That is so common in government. It is common in business. It is common in life because the officials who are doing that to the poor there are officials over them doing the same thing and getting their skim off of the top two and then there are officials over them doing the same thing and the corruption may go all the way to the top. In fact that seems to be what verse 9 is talking about. The increase from the land is taken by all the king himself profits from the fields. Now there are a couple of words in that verse and the original language that are difficult to understand. And so for that reason there have been a number of interpretations of verse 9 at least four common interpretations. One of them makes the king look like a good guy that he really is the last resort and he's going to take up for the poor that doesn't seem to fit the context. I think that Solomon is either saying the officials who are unjustly taking advantage of the poor are using the king as an excuse. Well, the king has to profit from these lands too. After all it was Old Testament custom described in Amos chapter 7 where the first cut of the crops went to the king as taxes. So the king profits from the land as well. Maybe these officials were just using the king as a scapegoat and excuse for their own graft and greed or maybe Solomon is saying that the corruption goes in some cases all the way to the top. Remember he's writing to foreign powers to nations around him and this is observable in many places where the corruption goes all the way to the king. But corruption comes hand in glove with the desire, the pursuit of the ambition for riches and wealth. In order to get there there are oftentimes people who are squashed under the feet of those who are climbing that ladder of success. What happens and what Solomon is implying by this is that money tends to bring influence. It tends to bring control. It tends to bring power and somewhere along the way. If you buy into that philosophy somewhere along the way your integrity begins to be whittled away. You cut corners ethically. You become a little loose with the truth. And you use what money you're getting to gain more influence and more power. And so there are kickbacks and payoffs involved in that and before long you're a part of the system you've bought into the system of corruption. That can be and often is one of the heartaches not only to the person who becomes engaged in corruption but to those who suffer from it. Heartaches of the rich and famous. But Solomon gives us a second one. This satisfaction, look at verse 10, how powerfully and wisely he phrases this, verse 10, whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. Solomon is warning us that money and the abundance of goods that it provides will not satisfy you. It will not because the human heart was made for God to be, for us to be satisfied only in God. Our human heart was made for that. Jesus said as much in the book of Luke chapter 12 when he was answering a question by a man who felt like he should have more the inheritance from his brother and Jesus is warning about the greed behind that question. And he said to them, watch out beyond your guard against all kinds of greed. Life, notice this statement, life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. See that's the negative side of the statement. Life does not consist. Life is not found. Purpose meaning fulfillment in life is not found in the abundance of possessions. The positive side is that life, abundance, fulfillment, contentment, purpose in life is found in a relationship with God. It cannot be attained by a pursuit of riches and wealth. Now please note that Solomon does not say the possession of wealth or riches. Notice again verse 10, he says, the love, whoever loves money, never has any, whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. You see God has given many people abundant material things and wealth and they have seen it as a gift from God and they use it as a wise steward of God. They bless others with it. They enjoy what they have, but they bless others with it. They bless the work of God with it and they are content and fulfilled and have purpose in life. But when you put money and riches as the love at the center of your heart, then you will never have enough. You will never be satisfied with your income. You see when it becomes your God, when wealth and money becomes the thing that you love, the thing that you find satisfaction in, the thing that you will sacrifice other important things for, the thing that will control your heart and your purpose and direction in life. When money becomes the thing that you place all of your security in, then it has taken the place of God because only God can provide those things I just described. And so it becomes an idol, it becomes a God and it creates a craving that grows and grows just like an addiction. It creates in your heart an appetite that can never be satisfied. You will never have enough. That's what Solomon is saying. If possessions becomes your love, the ambition of your life, the pursuit of your life, you will never have enough, no matter how much income you have. I've mentioned this many times before, someone asked John D. Rockefeller back in the 1920s, the richest man on earth and his day, how much is enough and his response was so telling he said just a little more. Just a little more. I don't care if you have billions of dollars, just a little more, maybe you'll have enough. It creates an appetite that can never be satisfied. You've got to have a little more. That's what Solomon is saying. Dis-satisfaction. Historical scholars disagree over whether or not Nero was responsible for the burning of Rome in 64 AD. But those who believe he was responsible for it and they are many, believe they understand the motivation why he would do such a thing. He wanted to clear the center of Rome for his own building project, what would become known as the Golden House. It was his palace. It consumed 300 acres of downtown Rome, on which he built meadows, streams and waterfalls and this huge golden palace, porches of gold, ceilings of ivory inlaid with precious metals that glimmered and sparkled in the sunlight. And on and on it goes 300 rooms in that house, none of them living quarters. It didn't live there. This was a showcase to entertain people. 300 rooms. Unbelievable opulence. Built by a man who was driving himself crazy with the desire for more and ended up in 68 AD taking his own life. At the time he was building this in Rome, he had a prisoner deep in a dungeon in his prison. That prisoner's name was Paul. Paul didn't have anything. He wrote Timothy, please bring me a cloak for the winter. I don't even have anything to keep warm in. Bring the parchment in the books. I don't have anything to read or study. I don't have anything. And there was only one person who had stayed with him. Others had left. Some for good reasons. Some had deserted him. There's nothing. But he writes with the confidence of a warrior who has stayed true to Christ and is ready with joy to meet his Lord. Tremendous difference in the outlook of these two men. One has everything the world could offer and more, but that's his God. And he dies an unfulfilled, hopeless man. One has nothing but he has learned in whatever state he is to be content because he knows his contentment and the focus of his life is on Jesus Christ and not on his stuff. However, much or a little that may be. You see, part of the heartache of the rich and famous, if that is your life, an ambition is dissatisfaction. Third one, increased obligation. Again, Solomon in such a succinct way describes much of the heartache of the rich and famous. First obligation, verse 11, as goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? An amazing description. The idea is this. That more money means more uses for that money and more users of that money. And so the owner of it all just kind of comes, watches it come and watches it go. He just gets to feast his eyes on it as it comes and goes. The more he has, the more uses there are for that money. The more bills, the higher those bills are, the higher his taxes are, the bigger payments he owes, and then he's got to have people to help him manage all that. He's got to have an accountant, then a tax advisor, and a lawyer, and then people to help run his household. So the money's going. It's going fast and it's going a lot of different directions. And then there are other users, there are other people who flock to the side of a person who has seemingly unlimited wealth, even his or her own children or other relatives, or people who claim to be relatives, or people who suddenly become friends. Solomon talks about that in chapter 19 of Proverbs when he says this, wealth attracts many friends, but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them. Many curry favor with the ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts. Progo son found that out, didn't he? As long as he had his billfold full, he had a lot of friends that were seeking to have fun with him. When the money dried up, there was no one to help him. wealth attracts friends. So Solomon says, it increases your obligation. There are more uses for your money. There are more users of your money, and it becomes a heartache to the one who just watches it come and go. All he can do is feast his eyes on it as it comes and goes. What a sad way to live. But there's more. What about at night? Solomon describes the fourth heartache as unrest, verse 12, the sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but for the rich their abundance permits them no sleep. Wonderful contrast, isn't it? Amazingly true contrast. The laborer, guy works with his hands all day long, works hard, comes home, plays with his kids a little bit, eats his chili and cornbread, watches a little TV, goes to bed within five minutes you can hear him snoring. But not so, the rich and famous. Because that person whose whole life focus is on wealth and gaining more of it is plagued with worries over how he can keep it all and grow it. Will the latest financial deal really go through? Will the latest merger or acquisition of that business? Will it happen? Are there entanglements with this? And so he works late trying to make it all fit together and he comes home and eats a rich meal of the best food, but it just serves to irritate his already churning stomach and he can't sleep. Lifestyles of the rich and famous? Heartaches of the rich and famous. Or anyone whose heart is set on wealth and riches, whether or not you have it, it's the same for those who make it their God. Unrest. But then notice the next one, uncertainty. Uncertainty, look at verse 13, I have seen a grievous evil under the sun, wealth hordered to the harm of its owners or wealth lost through some misfortune so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit. Now notice, Solomon actually describes two different kinds of uncertainty, both of which are harmful. The first kind of uncertainty is the hoarding kind of uncertainty. Hording wealth, doing everything you can to get more and more and more and pulling it together so that you control it, nobody else can touch it, nobody else will share in it, it's mine. And that kind of hoarding comes because of uncertainty, uncertainty about the future, what's going to happen. Now I want to make sure I've got everything I need when it happens and that uncertainty creates the kind of person who becomes harmful to himself or herself. It begins to eat them alive. The hoarding becomes an obsession and you begin to become the kind of person who will not think about others or share with others who has a heart for others because of uncertainty hoarding. But the second kind of uncertainty is not the hoarding kind, but notice what he says in verse 14, or here's another kind of uncertainty, wealth lost through some misfortune so that when they have children there is nothing left for the children to inherit. This kind of uncertainty is the uncertainty of losing money, the prospect of losing money, maybe not through fully spending, maybe the guy didn't gamble it all away, maybe he's acted very wisely, maybe he's invested it all, but he goes to bed at night wondering what's going to happen to the stock market. Get's up in the first thing he checks in the mornings, what happened to the stock market yesterday. Last thing he checks for, he goes to bed, what happened to the stock market, what's happening in Tokyo right now that may send waves across the rest of the world today. And he's thinking and thinking and thinking, the uncertainty of what may happen, will the investments fail or will my business fail or will there be a catastrophic illness that could use up all of my resources or will there be a lawsuit that will wipe me out or will there be a natural catastrophe that will take everything away? I mean on and on it goes, the worry of uncertainty. If all of your security is based on material things, on wealth or riches, then you will live a life of uncertainty because Solomon's point is this, money can be lost. Now, if that's all you're banking on, pardon the pun, if that's all you're banking on, then you will live with constant uncertainty. Paul said it this way, in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 17, command those he's speaking to Timothy as a pastor, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth. Notice the next phrase, which is so uncertain. To put their hope in God who literally provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Don't put your hope. See, that's a whole point of this passage. Don't love. Don't make it the ambition of your life. Don't make it the basis of your security, what you have in material possessions or wealth because that's uncertain. You ever noticed, I checked it again today this morning. I checked it. I didn't check anything higher than a $20 bill. But on the 1, the 5, the 10 and the 20, there is a bird on our currency. I'm not sure if it probably is because it's a part of the seal of the United States actually to evil. But when I thought of that, I thought of the verses that Solomon gives us in Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23 says this and it's on the screen for you. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches and they are gone. Now notice the next phrase, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. The next time you spend a buck or ten bucks or twenty bucks, take a look at that before it leaves your hand. It's got a bird on it. It's sprouted wings and it has flown away, hasn't it? And I know what you're thinking, but it sure flies out of my billfold real quick. Flies out of my pocket real quick, it does, doesn't it? That's Solomon's point. The uncertainty of riches, they fly away. They can leave us as quickly as they may have come. If that's what you're fixing your security on, you will be bitterly disappointed because of the uncertainty. The uncertainty involved. Solomon goes on to give us a sixth pitfall. A sixth heart ache of the rich and famous and that is the prospect of death, verse 15. Everyone comes naked from their mother's womb and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This too is a grievous evil. As everyone comes, so they depart. And what do they gain since they toil for the wind? Very similar to that expression chasing the wind in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here's Solomon's point. You can see it very clearly in these two verses. We're all going to die someday. And when we die, we will go out of this world just like we came into this world with absolutely nothing. We didn't bring anything in with us. We will not take anything out with us. Like we came into this world naked, we will go out of this world naked. The same, the idea is you bring nothing in, you carry nothing out. You come with no possessions, you leave with no possessions. You leave it all behind. Now for the person who's built all of their life around wealth and riches, that is the worst prospect possible. That's the thing they dread the most. And so death looms before them as a great enemy. The prospect of death is chilling. It is fearful for the one who has lived for and focused on money or riches. And the ultimate irony, the ultimate heartache is you're going to leave it all behind. And so for that person, death is this chilling prospect, this awful prospect that you don't even want to think about because everything you have is focused on this life. What Solomon is telling us, what he's reminding us of is that we will all die. He says everyone, everyone comes naked from their mother's womb and as everyone comes so they depart, you're going to die. I'm going to die. Given obviously the rapture, if the Lord comes first, some of us will escape that. Thank God for that. All else being equal, we're going to die. We all came into this world. We're all going to leave this world. What Solomon is reinforcing with us is when you die someday, what matters is not your portfolio, what matters is not how much of a kingdom you've built, what matters is not what kind of possessions you have, what matters is what you've done with your life spiritually, what matters is what you've laid ahead in heaven, what you've put up there, that's what matters, what you did to prepare for eternity is what matters. Now part of that obviously may be the wise stewardship of the possessions God's given you and whatever wealth and riches he's allowed you to have. You've used that faithfully to enjoy it, yes, but also to bless others and his kingdom work with what he's given you. And that's laying treasure up in heaven. But if you've given no attention to your soul, your most precious possession, you are not ready to die. And so I would be remiss if I did not remind you how to make sure that your soul is cared for at death. You see, you came into this world just like all of us did, not only naked physically, naked spiritually. You came into this world with nothing, not a relationship with God. That was broken by Adam's sin and everyone who's come into this world since then has come into this world separated from God. No exceptions. All of us included. But God loves us so much that He doesn't want us to spend the meaning of this existence on this earth, much less in eternity separated from Him because of that condition. So He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, to pay for our sins, to take the penalty for our sin, to take God's holy and just wrath against sin, to take it on Himself instead of us, in place of us. And so you see, my friend, the only way you can make sure that your soul will be in heaven someday is if you place your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the cross to pay for your sin. Then and only then can you give your soul a home in heaven and prepare for death, be ready when you die, to spend eternity in heaven. The prospect of death is absolutely fearfully chilling to someone whose whole life is built around stuff they're going to have to leave behind death. But if your whole life is focused on eternity and on the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever God gives you here, is icing on the cake, it's here to enjoy and to use for His glory, but ultimately you're going to leave it all behind and be with Him. That is where peace and contentment is found. Solomon gives us one other description of the heartaches of the rich and famous and it's this in verse 17, a gloomy outlook on life. And this really is the result of all the other heartaches because of all the other stuff he's mentioned, verse 17 is true. All their days they eat in darkness with great frustration, affliction and anger. All their days they eat in darkness. What can they pay the power bill? That's not the point is it. It's his emotional spiritual darkness. This is a darkness of soul that crowds in on them every time they sit down to a table of food. They eat in darkness every day and notice with great frustration, affliction and anger and great frustration or vexation of spiritual, mental anguish is what the Hebrew word means. Affliction has to do with bodily ailments, anger has to do with that burning resentment, that preoccupation with people who cheated you out of a little bit or people who caused your business to decline that one year or people who took advantage of you or a deal that was lost or a scheme that you got into that backfired on you and that gnaws at you and that angers you and it frustrates you and you die a bitter person and you got a string of broken relationships in your path because of the way you lived. Husband, wife, children, estranged from you because your whole focus in life was on riches and wealth. Let me ask you something, is that kind of person enjoying life, finding fulfillment and purpose and meaning in life? Absolutely not. Solomon is going to get back to that and how that's found at the end of chapter 5 but this person surely isn't living that way. Case in point, prime example of the very thing Solomon talks about here was Howard Hughes. Howard Hughes. If you don't know much about him, you ought to read about his life. He's a fascinating man, brilliant man. Born in the early part of the 1900s, lived till 1976. Howard Hughes was a filmmaker, made some of the most well-known films of the 20s, 30s and early 40s. Howard Hughes was a businessman who almost single-handedly built Las Vegas. Howard Hughes was an engineer who developed a whole new aircraft, a whole new airplane who, when he was sick in the hospital one time, didn't like the way the hospital bed felt and so he developed, engineered a new one which is the basis of all of our hospital beds today. The man was incredibly brilliant. He was an aviator himself before the soundbearer was broken, Howard Hughes held the record for airspeed, set it several times. He set a record for piloting solo around the world. He actually survived two air crashes, an amazing man, one of the wealthiest men in the world at his time, one of the most influential men in the world. He lived the lifestyle of the rich and famous. He read about the last 20 years of his life. He became very paranoid, racked with physical pain because of the injuries he'd received in those crashes, mentally tormented, filled with drug abuse, he became a recluse. He would buy hotels and dedicate a whole four to his own living quarters and never leave, just stay right there inside. For months at a time, never bathing or brushing his teeth, paranoid of germs. His beer growing to his waist, his hair growing to his waist, letting his fingernails and toenails grow until they were inches long and turned like corkscrews, mentally deranged. When he died in 1976, his six foot four frame could only hold 90 pounds and he was unrecognizable could only be identified by his fingerprints after death. Now, am I saying that everybody who is wealthy is going to end up like that? No, obviously not. That's way too naive to think that. What I am saying is he is an example of the extreme to which the heart aches of those who place their whole security in wealth that Solomon talks about. He is an example of the extreme to which that may take you. You may not go that far, but if all you have is in this life built up in whatever wealth or possessions or riches you have, or even if you don't have it, but you long for it, and you wish you could have it, and your whole life is driven by anger and seething bitterness because you don't have it, you're in the same boat. Same boat. What I am saying is this, if you put at the very center of your life, if you buy into the mentality that money and possessions will make you happy and will really satisfy you and give you contentment in life and you start to pursue that, you better look at the high price tag first. You better read the fine print in the deal first. What Solomon has done is he has shown us up front the price tag. He has made bigger the fine print so we can see it and understand it. This is where it leads to. What I am saying is this, don't look for wealth for true fulfillment in life. That comes only from Christ. If God gives you wealth, riches, fame, whatever it may be, or to whatever degree He gives that to you, enjoy it, but recognize it as a gift of His. He could take it any time He wants. As long as you have it, use it as a wise steward to bless others, the blesses Kingdom work, to yes enjoy yourself, but don't put your heart on it and don't build your security on it. That comes only from Christ. Father help us to read the fine print and look at the price tag that Solomon has told us about. Help us to see and understand that if we place our heart's desire on material things, we will end up just where Solomon has described here. If maybe a glamorous lifestyle but a heart that is aching still for fulfillment and meaning and purpose in life, Father I pray that wherever we are today in our stage of life and our socio-economic circumstances that you would help us not to fall pray to the lure of this world which screams at us to get more and more and more because that's where our security is found. Help us not to listen to that lie, but to understand that all that we need is found in Christ we are complete in Him. Thank you for our Savior, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.