I've said this before but a family moved to Waco with us and so some people who have been in our life group for 15 years moved their children and with us they live two doors down from us and which is yeah which is amazing and so I walked into their house the other day and on their counter or three jars of jelly beans and I'm just like gosh you guys really love jelly beans I'm like what's going on they're like no they they represent our kids and I was like what do you mean like germophobes like they have to have their own jar or what's going on they said no it's how many months it's a visual representation of how many months we have left with our children and so every month we pull a jelly bean out so that we can actually see that so that we know how long we have to pour into them to disciple them I thought wow just the visual visual representation of our life in months and so this is your life when you were born okay if you live to be 80 years old this is your life it's 960 jelly beans that's 960 months for a person who would live 80 years and so that is your life in jelly beans but the problem is for some of us a lot of our life is behind us right some of us a little more and you got that left that is the number of months that you have to steward and so I just thought about this reality this question what are you going to do with your life and we're in this series false advertising where we take a commercial and we look at the lie of the commercial and we combat that lie with truth and this idea today around how do you want to steward your life there were a lot of commercials to choose from and so I could have gone a lot of different ways with this the hardest part was actually narrowing it down but I did to our friends at mercedes-benz and so if you would watch this and I'll be back with you don't want to be clear if you have a Mercedes Benz I don't have any problem with that assuming that you're good steward of the Lords resources and you generous with the resources that he's entrusted to you but the reality of all the commercials that we watch are you're missing out if you don't do this go here experience this buy this have this then you're missing out what and this idea of a bucket list or what are the things that you are going to do before you die what are the things that you want to do before you die what are you gonna do with your life and I'm so passionate about this because in my early 20s I wasted mine I look back on those years and I realized that I wasted my life pursuing pointless pleasure just thinking about the next thing that I would could go to and be entertained by and be amused by the next vacation the next massage may be for you it's the next mani or pedi or or for me you know I've said before I was enslaved to a pornography addiction owned to me it's epidemic right now and I look at those years of my life those months gone by and they were wasted not just on pointless pleasure but also on stacking up stuff want to be a millionaire before I was 30 when I graduated from college my first job paid $23,000 a year but I had what they called ambitious ambition I was driven I climbed up and got to a place was making two hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year and even more than that I bought the car obnoxious car had 27 motorcycles penthouse condo suits watches for every day of the week stacking up stuff and I look back on the months of my life I wish I would have invested them more in the kingdom but it wasn't just the stacking of stuff then there was the senseless success chase the deal I remember the deal I had tasted for 18 months I entertained this guy I worked for a fortune 12 company was climbing up got to the global account manager the pinnacle of this particular sales organization managing a team and if I close this deal I remember this plant if I closed this deal it paid 60 grand I take the 60 grand to buy the house I flip the house take that money and then I buy a just upgrade upgrade upgrade upgrade and you know why it worked it worked I did it but I look back on those months and the success was senseless it had no eternal implications whatsoever I will not get to heaven look back on that month of my life and get to celebrate something with Jesus I didn't know him I thought I knew him I didn't live for him my ministry was impotence there's nothing there and I say that to you because I don't want you to waste your life I don't want you to miss out on these months and so we're talking about what are you gonna do with your life and I want to give you three things I want you to learn three things from the Scriptures these ancient texts we're gonna open up what not to do and we're gonna look into someone's Journal today I don't know if you know that person that just has everything you know they're there their kids are always obedient she has the perfect husband lots of followers on Instagram she's always dressed so cute and it seems like they have discretionary income where they can do whatever they want and every time I look at them they're in Bora Bora Fiji or Tahiti I mean do they live in Hawaii like what's going on right that person they that you look at and you you you covet what they have not because they found a greater truth than you have but because you think they found a greater happiness than you have that if you could be like them then you would be more happy today we're gonna look at a guy who is better than you and every way he's faster than you he jumps higher than you he makes more money than you he has a bigger job than you he has a better-looking spouse than you and more spouses than you if you go to wealth results.com it's a secular website it lists the top 10 wealthiest people of all time number 1 on their list is a man named King Solomon his net worth was the equivalent today of two point one trillion dollars okay John Rockefellers number two at six hundred and thirty billion dollars that means King Solomon was the wealthiest man by a margin of 1.5 trillion dollars that's this guy he could endure any kind of pleasure anytime he wanted and you're going to peer into a journal that he wrote in the last five years of his life where he's depressed and despairing and he's telling us he's giving us instructions this is what I want you to live for and this is what he says let's dive in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 1 I said to myself come now I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good but that also proved to be meaningless laughter I said is madness and what does pleasure accomplish I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly my mind still guiding me with wisdom I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heaven during the few days of their life pleasure any kind of pleasure is available to this man that you could possibly dream up your wildest dreams is available to him every single day laughter he has access to the best comedians in the land Jim Gaffigan is sitting in his living room cheer me up Jim he's watching hangover on repeat just trying to muse himself with laughter why he threw the most epic parties it is well-documented that King Solomon had 15,000 people for dinner every night when he threw a party the menu again documented he served 100,000 heads of cattle not 100,000 filet mignon does that be impressive 100,000 cows and he had vineyards he has access to the finest alcohol one can imagine you have never been to a party like King Solomon through and I know you're like now dude you don't know me man I was the president of my fraternity we did this we did this thing no that's cool you had two kegs all right dude has vineyards all right he beats us by a huge margin and this is what he says folly I endured it he has 700 wives and 300 live-in sex workers he doesn't need pornography he's got the real thing right there anytime he wants it's a weekend in Vegas for King Solomon every single day and he says don't spend your life on pointless pleasure that's my first point don't spend your life on pointless pleasure you have to think about what is your temptation I think for some of us entertainment is our God we're always thinking about the next movie we're gonna see the next book we're gonna read the next vacation we're going to go on I spend time with young adults of where music festivals are their God they're just constantly living for the weekend living for the break not living the moments for God trying to get away to a place where they can act like they don't have to follow God whether it's Halloween whether it's a trip to the beach or a trip to the pool where can I go or I can pretend like I'm not under the authority of the creator and for so many of us this pursuit of pleasure means sex that's been lots of times with single people that would think if I don't get to do this I'm just gonna explode like do you know how many people have died because they didn't have sex no no and no one's ever gotten to God I mean they hey what were you doing down there you're trying to hold withhold that from me he's not withholding goodness from you we feel so entitled to this though right and and so then we we resort to the Internet and to images and you know how powerful my ministry was and I was enslaved to pornography there was no ministry man there was no ministry it was just wasted months there was no ministry there were no lives changing there are no people being impacted for a hernia when a great reason not to look at porn there's no time there's no time and I think there's a part of us that hey I can do whatever I want I can pursue whatever pleasure word like my my two-year-old I can do whatever I want no you can't I see that on the internet I mean just recently there's this big hey it's my body I can do whatever I want with it you know the problem with that statement it's this book it says in first Corinthians six otherwise it says do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you've received from God you are not your own let me say that again you are not your own you are not your own you've been bought by a price therefore honor God with your body because it's his body and you got it don't know you've got it on loan so be careful what you do with it it belongs to him you got it on loan we just got back from we just got back from vacation so something that's been planned for a while and I got to take two other couples with us two other friends we went to one of these all-inclusive resorts and and I don't know if you've ever been to them I'm a fan is they just everything's like it is my pleasure it is my pleasure ask Monica Mike how come you don't ever say that to me you know it is my pleasure like you asked something this is my pleasure and and it's oh you can eat whatever you want like whenever you want and and it's like if you can't decide between the desserts like I don't know if I want this one or this one I'm like we'll bring me all three you know it's like that kind of place and and and so then in the morning we had breakfast together with these two other couples and I asked hey is your quiet time richer or more difficult on vacation is it better or more difficult to spend time with God and to a person we all said it's more difficult and which is weird because like I said we got nothing to do like we can spend all morning just you know in the Word of God but it's like you know my gospel we can walk down the beach or go swimming or go on this excursion or get a massage so this is if there's too many distractions that's what I'm afraid of see I just don't want us to miss out on life the enemy he's got one game plan he's got one offense that he runs to distract you by the world that the scripture presents a really clear dichotomy you can live for the kingdom or you can live for the world and there are a lot of people that think they're living for the kingdom and they're really living for the world and they lose the game they lose the game they lose they get to the end of the race and they realize they lost they thought they won and they lost so don't live for pointless pleasure he says that I undertook great projects I built houses for myself I'm planted vineyards I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them I made reservoirs of water groves of flourishing trees I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house I also owned more herds and flocks than in Jerusalem before me I am a silver and goal for myself and the treasurer of Kings and provinces I acquired male and female singers and a harem as well the delights of a man's heart he has singers like that's cool you got the new t-swift album dude has t-swift in his living room talking about how awesome she is like that's what's going on right now like he has access to all of this it's interesting King Solomon he was king 900 BC 900 BC was an amazing time to be king of Israel but 3,000 years later now if you go three miles south of Jerusalem you're gonna see this it's the pools of Solomon that's from Google Maps Google images they're still there today 3,000 years it's not the pools he swim in those were the pools that were used to water his flowers you getting the picture and it's there 3,000 years later what if yours is gonna be here 3,000 years after you're gone only the things you did for eternity only the things you did for the cause of Jesus Christ his income is 1 billion dollars a year that's not his net worth that's his income his house took 13 years to build my house took 13 months to build his house 13 years to build he say well that's because they didn't have power tools or like front end loaders no no the temple that's God's house took seven years to build Solomon's took 13 the temple is pretty ornate big grand I've seen it it's an amazing place Solomon's Palace 13 years ago it was like a city and he says don't spend your life stacking up stuff my second point don't spend your life stacking up stuff he goes on a shopping spree little retail therapy if you will we do this right trying to find meaning and buying stuff I do man I like going I got that Amazon Prime account you know I like walk up to the door I see one of those little boxes aren't excited you know sometimes like full disclosure and just transparency sometimes I don't even remember what I bought it's like Christmas I'm like oh man what is it you know and I get it and I'm like okay I'm tearing it oh it's a sleep mask great you know it's like whatever you hit I just I can't even remember what I ordered you do a little shopping maybe go to the mall get some new clothes like we don't buy new clothes because we don't have clothes like we don't buy new clothes because our old clothes disintegrated we don't buy new clothes like we don't buy new jeans because our old jeans have holes in them because we buy jeans with holes in them you know what I mean like so it's all about to feel better we want to feel better and I just have this angst man I'm like what if we're playing the game all wrong I just hear me out on this what if Jesus King Jesus so we're gonna spend a lot of time with Mannion we said don't store for yourselves treasures on earth or rest him also destroyed a store for yourselves treasures in heaven arrest the month they're not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal why you so worried you see how God takes care of the flowers King Solomon and all of his splendor was not dressed like one of these what you worried about why are you so anxious what if he bent it what if we're playing the game all wrong the other day my kids found an old Nintendo Wii I bought a couple years ago and he got put in a box through a move and they found it it was like they found the Ark of the Covenant they're like daddy what is this how am I go that you know let me see let me show you what that is gonna be amazing so I hook it up to the TV you know and they're the only game that I have the only disc is it's like old Nintendo games and so one of them is they found this game Tetris they like Daddy were playing this game Tetris is so funny I'm like dude that's the old-school man that's mine they let your daddy teach you some things you know and and but they con the girls oh my my girls are 12 and 10 and then Weston is 6 then the 12 and 10 euro they come in to Daddy Weston is so amazing at Tetris like he's the best that we can't believe you will not believe how good he is at this game and I'm like six are you serious you know like he's so good I don't know and so it's just like like and they're just there they're just nagging me for 3 days you've got to come watch Weston play Tetris you got to come watch Weston play Tetris and so finally I go up on alright Weston I want to see you do your thing and so he sits down he's got the controller and the girls are around there like that he got to see him and in the games like ready set go and he found this button you push it and it just drops the blocks you know it just drops him as fasting he's always a he pushes as fast as he can he goes boo boo boo boo boo boo game over he goes and I'm like what and they're like daddy isn't he amazing did you see how fast he did that I'm like no no no no no that's not how you play Tetris I'm not trying to stack the blocks as fast as you can no that's not how you play a yeah yeah didn't you see how fast it said game over I was like that's because you lost no no no no no you didn't see it down you got to put the blocks where they go you got to put them where they go that's the point of the game and wait can you imagine having this conversation with God hey did you see me down there big man I had some stuff the game was played you were supposed to put my stuff where it goes you were supposed to put my stuff where it goes you you were playing it all wrong oh you you got distracted by the world yeah seen that she says don't spend your life stacking up stuff what else first night I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me in all this my wisdom stayed with me greater than anyone by far he's the goat he's the greatest of all time he's supreme successes him I denied myself nothing my eyes desired I refused my heart no pleasure my heart took delight and all my labor and this was the reward from my toil yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve everything was meaningless a chasing after the wind nothing was gained Under the Sun he's the greatest that has ever been that's what he wrote about himself and it's true history books still support this idea and he says it's not about success don't spend your life on senseless success my third point don't spend your life on senseless success he has 30,000 employees like that's cool man you just made it to mid-level management way to go he has 30,000 employees in his home this guy he's ruling a country I think we're all working hard like we work hard in school to work hard at work to hope that we have those moments where we don't have to work hard it's this strange paradigm dichotomy the word fails me it's this strange thing we do right I spent a lot of time with young adults and it's like they they go to school and then they go to grad school and then after they've gone to grad school I stood Emily and we have these these deep philosophical conversations and I'm like man if you could do anything like what do you want to do that God you know I kind of like wish I had like a shack on the beach and I could surf all day it's like you just worked really really hard essentially so that you could be homeless like that's your goal you know like you could have done this in a different way I'm serious like think about this what really really wealthy person do you know that doesn't vacation in a third-world country it's like I got a week off of work what am I gonna do let's go hang out with the poor people you know where they live do we not do that because I think there's this dichotomy in all of our hearts that that we are either really really driven and ambitious and we want to climb the ladder we want to own things and control things or we want to be completely free from responsibility and in my heart they're both there I mean I remember interviewing at AT&T and just saying I want your job I'm gonna work hard so that you get promoted so that you pull me into your job and then you all work hard again and you get promoted and you pull me in that's what's gonna happen that's what happened and then I the Lord coming to vocational ministry and you know what I would love to tell you that when I went into vocational ministry all of that stuff went away all the selfish ambition it was out the window and then I was just there to make much of Jesus and that's kind of how it started but it's not what how it continued because I worked for this church and there were these guys that would gather in this room and they would make decisions the management team and I was on the other side of the door and so I'm now new to this staff and I'm like I want to be in that room I want to make decisions I want to control things and not just that but you know when I went into ministry I took a big pay cut I'd really like to make more money and not just that but you know I really like this talking in front of people it's fun for me I like people telling me I did a good job you know feeds something in me I like this stuff so I'd like to do that and and the senior pastor called a meeting with the elders and invited me to his a hail one we want to meet with you and I'm like oh great what is this about we go and we sit in a room they said some really kind things and they said there's three things we'd like to do we'd like to invite you on the management team we'd like to give you a generous raise and we'd like you to start teaching on Sundays more it was really humble meeting was adjourned I got in my car I didn't go anywhere i sat outside that house and I began to weep all by myself and I said out loud God it will never be enough god it will never be enough and I look at my life and I'm like I can remember when I wanted a hundred likes on Instagram and a thousand followers and then a thousand likes and ten thousand followers and I can remember when I wanted five hundred people to show up on a Tuesday and then three thousand people and then and then the opportunity to speak in front of a hundred thousand people a week fourteen campuses and it will never be enough and it was like God in His mercy and his kindness to me was saying that's right JP anything that you do for you will never be enough remember when you got in this thing it was for me remember when you had the faith take the pay cut member when you had the faith to say I just want to make much of Jesus I just want to do everything for him I'll do anything if I can make it about Jesus but at some point in this game it became about you and as long as it's about you I'm talking to you now something I learned it will never be enough like what if we're really really great at the wrong things at the cost of the right things failure should not be your greatest concern succeeding at the wrong things should be your greatest concern failure should not be your greatest fear succeeding at the wrong things in this temporary life that should be your greatest fear because failure is an amazing teacher we learn things from failure but succeeding at the wrong things is an amazing distraction we get to the end of the game thought we were playing it right only to find we were doing it wrong so this is what Solomon says at the end of his journal at the end of his life I'm turning to the last chapter now Ecclesiastes 12 and a man who has everything experienced everything he says remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come now all has been heard here is the conclusion of the matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the duty of all mankind for God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing whether it is good or evil it will all be seen for exactly what it was was in storing stuff for you lost forever gone can't enjoy it with God was it senseless success for you climbing the corporate ladder running the rat race as fast as you can throwing around and away the weekends and the months having no eternal implications no eternal advantage whatsoever or you have this opportunity to take your months and the story go Jesus Kingdom put your treasures with him where it's sealed with him so that one day you can at the foot of Jesus lay your life as an offering and enjoy them with Jesus for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever but every single month is either stored forever or lost forever i sat with our staff Reese's this week this past Tuesday and I just said you know anybody that really gets this do you know anybody that really lives like there's a god they believe his word they have pure motives in their actions like they just live for God they had this incredible faith I said whoo I said encouraged me tell me like share stories with who and he started sharing and there was this theme they were saying you know there's this this new recent convert in college and you know there's this this person who just trusted Christ they just are getting after it telling everybody and this other new believer and I said hey guys do you see the theme here you're all talking about people who just came to the faith what happened to us what happens do we just learn the church game we learn the politics we learn what to say in to who how to play what happened to us you and ya know do you remember a time where you're like man I'll do anything for Jesus if he asked me like a move anywhere go everything's tell everything whatever it takes he's real I'm gonna be with him forever what else is there what happened to us in summary don't spend your life on pointless pleasure don't spend your life stacking stuff and don't spend your life on senseless success spend every moment you have knowing God and making him known spend every moment you have knowing God and making him known every moment redeem every single moment knowing God and making him known doing everything you can for the glory there's this angst that can create in this matter what am I supposed to do JP just get rid of everything like not like nice things I can't say something I like nice things I like nice things I like shiny things and bright things and things you can play with right but you're called to enjoy those things we enjoy them to the glory of God we hold them loosely we share them we're generous with them we use them for God's kingdom we leverage them for God's kingdom we have things we don't enjoy things collecting dust things in storage those aren't your things those belong to somebody else you're stacking them up don't have anything you don't enjoy that you don't enjoy for the glory of God so privilege to learn this lesson early in my ministry I had just come on staff at a church and my first ministry job and and the senior pastor was a guy I trusted Christ under a hero of mine and I was tasked with young adult life group single life groups singles life groups and and a man had just died and his two sons that survived him were in their 20s and so the senior pastor was going to do the funeral and he invited me to come with him to meet these two boys and just to hear about their father and so he's like you want to go i matter of course you know road trip with my hero like let's go and and so we're we're driving through dallas and we get to the area of dallas where you know the really wealthy area of dallas and we're driving by all the big houses a big house a big house big house then we get to the area of dallas it's like the really really really wealthy area of the wealthy area of Dallas it's where the big houses are on big estates like lots of land okay rivers running through their yard in the middle of the city kind of place and and like you can't even see the houses you just see the guardhouse is the gate and so we pull up to one of these gates in the guardhouse is there the guardhouse is bigger than my house and and the gate slowly opens like a Jurassic Park game there opens up and we drive down this cobblestone road through this Arboretum like yard beautiful flowers perfectly manicured yard and the the cobblestone road winds it round and we pulled up to this huge enormous white mansion big mahogany double doors up front and we we walk like where are we and we walk up to it and the door opens that we walk in everything in the house is big I mean there are paintings on the wall of painters who died long ago whom you've heard of okay you follow me big frames and and you know large walls high ceilings everything's big big TV whatnot big furniture but I noticed something weird there were these yellow post-it notes all over the wall yellow post-it notes and we sit down with these two boys who are mourning the loss of their father and there's some sad moments and then some light-hearted moments and at some point I got the courage to ask I was with the yellow post-it notes and said well you know dad became a Christian later in his life he was diagnosed with cancer he knew he was going to die and in his last days he just wanted to be surrounded by the Word of God he would recite verses you'd have us write them down and put them on the wall around them he wanted to be surrounded by the Word of God so what else they looked at each other and they looked back at me and they say man nobody could come near him without hearing the gospel every nurse every doctor every visitor anybody that came into her house near his room near the hospital he was that when he was on Hospice wherever he was if someone came in earshot proximity of they were going to hear how Jesus Christ had died for their sins and God had raised him from the dead so that they could have a hope for eternal life he would tell everybody what house they looked at each other and they looked at me and they said huh your dad was really well resourced I said yes he was you know and they said in his last days he just want to give it all away he got so frustrated because he called in the attorneys it was locked up in trust it was locked up in these accounts that he couldn't really unlock and and you know there there were these meetings that went long and he was frustrated that he couldn't just give it all away what else and they looked at each other and they looked back at me and they had this strange smirk on their face and they said right before he died he said up in his bed and he yelled told wait don't wait like I did don't wait and it was just this heavy moment I said what do you think he meant I said like I said he became a Christian later in his life I think he just looked back with lots of regret lots of regret that in his last days he prioritized the Word of God giving away the things of God sharing the truths of God with everyone he could he had perspective I'm so thankful for that moment because there's a man who's so tempted and struggles with getting swept up by the world it sobered me and I think back on that moment all the time those guys shared with me it was the perfect word for two sons who had just inherited millions and millions of millions hundreds of millions of dollars don't it's the same thinking Solomon's telling us don't wait let me pray that we would father we we do need your help because there's a real temptation to think that we're a long time from dying and so we might as well check off our bucket list would you conform our bucket list the desires of your heart that the things that we'd want to do most are no your word to share your truth with others and to share your resources would you make us conduits not containers would you make us pipes not pails father would you use us to your glory would you satisfy the angst in our hearts with holy activity you know us to do or would honor you not for your approval but from it because of what you've done for us through your son Jesus Christ it is in his name that we worship you now
