Sermon Tone Analysis

*GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE*

*“Making the Right Investments”*

*Ecclesiastes 1,2*

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The other day I received an e-mail from Guidestone with my retirement statement.

I looked at the numbers and was a little discouraged.

When I look at what has been put aside for 14 years *I have the desire to get the most of the money I have saved.*

How to get the biggest bang for the buck.

I look at the funds that they are invested in and how they are performing, short term and long term.

*I try to evaluate* where I might need to make some changes.

The problem is, *I am not a financial investor.

*

 

*So for me to truly make the best choice I need to have a professional give me some guidance.*

Someone with some *experience*, personally and professionally.

Someone with some *success* in what they do.

Someone who has a *desire for me to succeed*.

When you *go to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting *Guidestone has advisors that will do an evaluation of your account.

They begin to ask you many questions so *they can help you with what will meet your specific needs*.

But *it is up to me to follow their advice or not to follow their advice.*

* *

*Life can be looked at the same way, we want to get the most out of every day we have.*

*We want to make the right investments with each day we have.*

So how is that done?

 

*We are not professionals.

We need help.*

*Lets use some basic tips on how to find just the right professional to help us.

*

 

*WE HAVE GOT TO…*

*- ASK THE RIGHT PERSON*

You want to make sure they know their stuff.

*Over the coming weeks we will be getting some advice from probably the wisest life advisor God inspired in the Bible.

Solomon*

 

*Just as we need to follow the advice of just the right person when it comes to the investment of our finances, God inspired the right person with words that will help us to invest wisely.*

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*We find his advice in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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*Nowhere in this book did the author give his name, but the descriptions he gave of himself and his experiences would indicate that the writer was King Solomon.*

He called himself “son of David” and “king in Jerusalem” (1:1, 12), and he claimed to have great wealth and wisdom (2:1–11, and 1:13; see 1 Kings 4:20–34 and 10:1ff).

*You want to make sure of their experience.*

Solomon ruled over a great nation that required a large standing army and extensive government agencies.

*You want to check their track record.*

King Solomon *began his reign as a humble servant of the Lord,* seeking God’s wisdom and help (1 Kings 3:5–15).

As he grew older, *his heart turned away from Jehovah to the false gods of the many wives he had taken from foreign lands* (1 Kings 11:1ff).

These marriages were motivated primarily by politics, not love, as *Solomon sought alliances with the nations around Israel.

*

 

Ecclesiastes appears to be the kind of book a person would write near the close of life, *reflecting on life’s experiences and the lessons learned.*

*He came back to God and renewed his dedication and devotion to Him*.

He is now looking at life, not as a ruler over a nation, but a teacher(preacher) to students.

*After you ask the right person they will begin to gain perspective as to who you are.*

*- GAIN PERSPECTIVE*

*Under the sun.

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*Solomon is reflecting on his experiences and giving advice here on an earthly perspective.

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* *

*He begins by saying that everything is futile.*

*The word means “emptiness, futility, vapor, that which vanishes quickly and leaves nothing behind.”*

*G.

Campbell Morgan perfectly summarizes Solomon’s outlook: “This man had been living through all these experiences under the sun, concerned with nothing above the sun...until there came a moment in which he had seen the whole of life.

*

*And there was something over the sun.

It is only as a man takes account of that which is over the sun as well as that which is under the sun that things under the sun are seen in their true light” *

      *STAGE OF LIFE – *

They are going to tell you to start early.

Invest as much as you can early.

Many think they have all the time in the world.

They can always start in a couple of years.

*Turning 7, almost 16, turn 21, turning 30, pushing 40, reached 50, meet 60, hit 70, day to day at 80, meal to meal at 90.*

 

*As we invest in life we must not look at it from that perspective, we must live life as if it were gone tomorrow.*

*Kerry Shook, a pastor in Houston, TX has recently written a book called “One Month to Live” where he used this to challenge his church to live life the next 30 days as if it were their last.

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*It that were the case there are many investments we would make in those 30 days to make them the best.

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*Relationships would look different, priorities would look different, our relationship with God would look different.*

What stage of life are we in?

What is our passion?

*      *

*      CURRENT HOLDINGS*

What kind of profit do you have, profit is excellent; surplus, advantage, gain; that which is left over.

*Solomon asks the question, “What does a man gain for all his efforts he labors at?”*

 

*Just as an investor would tell us to do an evaluation as to our current financial condition*, *we need to take a look at what we have been investing our life in.*

*Are we investing in things of futility that will quickly fade away?*

Or are we investing in things that will last for eternity?*

*

*      END GOAL*

A good investor is going to ask us what we want to gain from the investments we have put aside.

What are you working for?

* *

*Solomon speaks of labor – to toil to the point of exhaustion and yet experience little or no fulfillment in your work.*

Toil carries the ideas of grief, misery, frustration, and weariness.

* *

*Solomon is trying to help us look at our goal.*

*Is it purely what is under the sun, or is it greater than that.*

*Mark 8:36* says, “/For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?”/

What do we want from our life?

*Many investors find out that their clients have never looked past this week when it comes to money.*

There has never been any goals set as to why they are doing what they are doing.

*Life is the same way.

*

*Are we living with a short term goal or investing for eternity.*

* *

*Investors might also find out that their clients have been investing in the wrong thing.*

* *

*Solomon reveals in the balance of chapter 1 and in chapter 2 that, wisdom is futile, pleasure is futile, possessions are futile, pursuit for work only is futile.*

*Start investing now in the things that will give you the most in this life and the life to come.*

* *

*- LISTEN TO THEIR ADVICE*

*Just as we should listen to the advice of a wise investor, we should listen to Solomon’s conclusions and avoid the heartache and pain that we endure when we experiment on our own in life.*

* *

*It is…*

*Practical Investment – No matter how much wealth, education, or social prestige you may have, life without God is futile.

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* *

*You are only chasing after the wind if you expect to find satisfaction and personal fulfillment in the things of the world.

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* *

*Solomon had everything and yet his life was empty.*

* *

*Personal Investment – If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then all that you work for and live for will ultimately perish, and you will perish too.

*

*Invest your years in that which is eternal.*

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\\ /Is Life Worth Living?/

Vanity of vanities,” lamented Solomon, “all is vanity!”

Solomon liked that word “vanity”; he used it thirty-eight times in Ecclesiastes as he wrote about life “under the sun.”

The word means “emptiness, futility, vapor, that which vanishes quickly and leaves nothing behind.”

The American poet Carl Sandburg compared life to “an onion—you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”

What a relief to turn from these pessimistic views and hear Jesus Christ say, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Or to read Paul’s majestic declaration, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor.