No Profit Under the Sun

In Ecc 2:11 Solomon wrote, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun”.

You don’t want to live your life for no profit under the sun.  But that’s the way it is for people without Christ.  Like Paul wrote Timothy, “for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out”, 1 Tim 6:7.

Mk 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul”?  Prov 11:4 “Riches profit not in the day of wrath”.  The plowing of the wicked is sin.  All your gains, possessions, awards, accomplishments, and riches stay down here.

Until you get saved, life is about everything under the sun.  But when you’re saved, you are now connected by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ and eternal life.  You are connected to the resurrected life of Christ.  Life is now above you and eternal.

Is 48:17, “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go”.  Now we can live by faith, not by sight.  It’s not what you see that profits.  It’s by what the Lord teaches you that you can profit.

So he teaches us to seek first the Kingdom of God, to lay hold on eternal life, to set your affection on things above, to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, to do all to the glory of God.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, we now have the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.  And he has gifted us with something to profit.  1 Cor 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal”.  Now we have the gifts to profit in eternity.

So, how do we profit?

Serve the Lord.  This temporal life will pass.  There’s no profit under the sun, unless you follow 1 Cor 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”.  We are to serve as unto the Lord.  Wives submit as unto the Lord.  Husbands love as Christ loves the church.

Col 3:24, “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ”.

Give to the Lord.  Prov 19:17 “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again”.  The Lord takes care of our needs now, Lk 6:38.  And we lay up treasures in heaven, Matt 6:20.  Read 1 Tim 6:17-19.

Jews in Jerusalem gave their land and houses.  If they had held on to them, they would have lost them all in 70 AD.

Preach the gospel of the Lord.  It is the power of God unto salvation. It changes lives, gets others to heaven, and makes an eternal difference in others lives.  Paul wrote, 1 Cor 10:33, “Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved”.

Take care of the body of the Lord.  “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price”, 1 Cor 6:19-20.  You have to take care of this vessel.  1 Tim 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come”.

Conclusion: Ask yourself this question, “How does what I’m doing relate to where I’m going”?  Do these four things that God has instructed us to do, through the Spirit.

Only one life, twill soon be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last.  Otherwise, as Solomon said, there is no profit under the sun.