Robbed while Robed in Black - Audio
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Good morning. If you have a Bible, turn it to Ecclesiastes, excuse me, Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Not even 20 years ago, they opened as they always did at 8 o'clock in the morning. A few years later, it was 6 a.m. Open time. Then it became 5 a.m. Then 4 a.m. And then came the 12 midnight time slot, which has dominated the past decade. But not to be undone. This year would be different. This year, our culture would hurriedly finish dinner to ensure we had plenty of time to get to Target or Walmart, which opened at 8 p.m. this year on Thanksgiving Day. But oh, oh, what a disappointment. Many felt that evening. Or despite a prompt arrival at 8 p.m. Instead of being met by the face of that pleasant Walmart greeter, instead it became quite clear that a thousand other shoppers were already in line, the ones in back having arrived a few hours before you, the ones in front having camped out for days, even weeks. You know what I'm talking about. Black Friday. Raise your hands, you guilty people. Black Friday participants, raise your hands high. Don't be shy. We have a few, all right. Anyone camp out? Okay. Good. I think there are a few more Black Friday participants than let on there. Only in America. Only in America. Can we go round the table sharing about the things that truly matter, only to finish dinner, driving and searching hastily for the things that matter not. And now it's not just Black Friday. No, no. Not to be outdone. There's small business Saturday. And there's Cyber Monday. For whatever reason they left Sunday alone. I'm really not sure why. Because my thought is that 7/11 should really jump on Slurpee Sunday. I know I would camp out for Slurpee Sunday. There might be a few of you. But Black Friday folks, it's really quite aptly named. Retailers call it Black Friday because it's the day they bring in hordes of profit. But were you to ask for a spiritual reason why it's called Black Friday? You might be given a different answer. A spiritual person would call it Black Friday, not for how profitable it is, but because it is often symptomatic of the Black hole that such consumerism and materialism can form in our souls. In silence, a Black hole is an astronomical element in space where gravity prevents anything from escaping. The outer rim of a Black hole is called an event horizon. And it marks the point of no return. Once any mass or any light enters that event horizon, the outer rim of a Black hole, it gets completely absorbed, never to be seen again. Folks, Black Friday, in and of itself is not evil. But without careful consideration of why we instinctively desire to shop and consume on the day after, or sometimes now the very day upon which we are to be giving thanks without any spiritual consideration, such consumerism can become a Black hole in our soul that sucks out our light and robs us of all that is true and good. When we wrap our minds around material things, when we cover ourselves in consumerism, we end up losing much. And so the title of this message today robbed while robed in Black. When all we do is clothe ourselves with a consumer mentality, we end up being robbed of all that is good. Black Friday may be over, but its effects can still plague us during this time of year, in which our minds and our eyes are to be focused on much higher things. King Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, had something to say to his culture and ironically 3000 years later, it still holds true for ours. Would you stand with me as we read from Ecclesiastes chapter 5? Ecclesiastes chapter 5, the words and wisdom of King Solomon beginning in verse 10. He writes, he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. So what profit have the owners, except to see them with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. There is a severe evil, which I have seen under the sun, riches kept for their owner to his hurt. But those same riches perish through misfortune. When he begets the sun, there's nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, make it shall he return to go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a severe evil, just exactly as he came, so shall he go. For what profit has he, who has labored for the wind, all his days, he
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The vanity of things...things should never be the basis for our happiness. Physical & emotional unrest comes to the one who is obsessed with money and things. What is money and your things to you?