Built To Last

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful in all His words and kind in all His actions (Ps. 145:13).

We’ve all seen the ads — from Red Wing boots to Rolex watches, the promise is, “Built To Last.” It's one of man’s favorite fairy tales. We stamp it on trucks and appliances as though a tagline could postpone the inevitable. Marketers love variations on the theme as well — think “Built Ford Tough” or Chevy’s “Like A Rock.” Who remembers the “Lonely Repairman” Maytag campaign — an ad blitz boasting their products were so dependable the repairman had nothing to do?

Examples abound because the messaging works — people are sold on the idea of a shoe or car or washing machine that’ll never wear out. Of course, such promises ring hollow. They have as much credibility as the “Worry-Free Living” signs posted outside new neighborhoods.

I appreciate a well-made tool or truck as much as the next man, and I’m sure plenty of Rolexes have been handed down for generations. I can’t pretend all man-made items are created equal. Even so — “Nothing lasts forever.” Jesus is well aware of our tendency to invest in the things of this life:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:19-21).

There’s no shortage of treasure on earth and, if you wanted, you could spend a lifetime collecting it, but what’s the point, really? It will not last, and it will not bring you peace or joy or lasting comfort. Don’t misunderstand, there’s nothing wrong with working hard, and making a living for you and your family — notice, Jesus’ concern is the heart. So, fine, have an abundance of wealth and things through trade, work, or inheritance, but do not let them claim your heart.

The same concern appears in Paul. Notice his use of want, desire, love, and craving.

Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows (1 Tim. 6:9-10).

Christians are not exempt from such desires and temptations, even if some of us think we’re bullet-proof. Sadly, fantasies of windfalls, inheritances, or even ill-gotten gains do not belong exclusively to the world — Paul was addressing the church, after all. Satan never introduces himself honestly. Greed does not say, "I want more because my heart loves money." It says, "I just want to provide." "I just want to be wise." "I just want to do more good" (Jn. 12:5-6). Sin knows how to sound prudent; that's what makes it so dangerous.

Yet, the warning stands — many sorrows await those whose hearts secretly crave wealth. There’s the rub again. Paul does not say, “Those who long for and attain it…pierce themselves through…” It is the craving itself which leads to ruin — the desires themselves that prove harmful. The poison enters long before the payoff.

Paul does not warn only about rich men. He warns about wanting to be rich. Greed can damn a poor man just as quickly as a wealthy one. Even if one sells his soul to acquire wealth, he will find it a disenchanting mistress and a cruel master: He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile (Ecc. 5:10).

In the end, it’s like pouring water into a sieve, expecting it to fill up. Love of wealth is a devourer, not a satisfier. Feed it, and it inflames your appetite; it leaves you emptier than it found you.

This is the reality God wants us to see, and the Truth that the Devil diligently works to conceal with lies. His great lie is if you make a certain salary or get a bigger house or get power or prestige, then you’ll be happy. You can insure your house, lock your doors, diversify your accounts, but you will still die naked. You will die with empty hands.

To seek happiness in wealth is vanity. Money cannot satisfy a discontented heart. If it cannot make you content before you have it, it will not make you content once you do. Many live in quiet resentment over what they lack, and envy drives them into compromise and further sin. A content man is never poor, and a discontent man is never rich. “If anything is worse than the addiction money brings, it is the emptiness it leaves. Man, with eternity in his heart, needs better nourishment than this” (Derek Kidner).

Wealth can disappear suddenly through misfortune and, in the end, we lose all material wealth in death. Just exactly as man comes into the world, so shall he go: He had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand (Ecc. 5:15). Job echoes these words, as does Paul (Job 1:21; 1 Tim. 6:7), so why get so worked up over such things that we can’t take with us? Is that going to matter in eternity when standing before Christ to be judged?

You cannot take your wealth with you when you die, but you can use it now in a way that lays up treasure for the age to come — as a good foundation for the future, so that you may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Tim. 6:19). Pursuing and building wealth for the sake of wealth eventually leads to loneliness, sorrow, and anger (Ecc. 5:17).

You were made for so much more, my friend — life does not consist in an abundance of possessions (Lk. 12:15).

People live, experience all the seasons of life, they work, they die, yet time marches on, and Solomon asks, “What profit does the worker have in all his toil?” (Ecc. 3:9).

This life only makes sense in light of eternity.

God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecc. 3:11).

Every man knows, however dimly, that he was made for more than a few decades of labor before death takes him. God has set eternity in the human heart. That longing is real. We feel it because we were not made to find our rest in salaries, square footage, engines, jewelry, or accounts. We were made for God. Everything here is wearing out. Cars rust. Clothes fray. Houses crack. Bodies weaken. The whole world is a showroom full of perishing things. But unlike everything man makes, what God builds does not decay, malfunction, or die.

Man cannot see the whole of what God is doing from beginning to end, but he can see enough to know this: God’s work abides. His purposes do not wear out.

So it is with man’s salvation. God’s purpose in Christ was not a reaction. It was not an afterthought. Long before men ever coined slogans about what was “built to last,” God had already determined His Son's kingdom would outlast every empire, every fortune, every machine, every fad, and every grave.

So let the advertisers make their promises. Let men boast in what is “built to last.” Their boots crack. Their trucks rust. Their watches stop. Their houses rot.

There is only one thing built to last when all is said and done: the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He is reigning now. His rule is righteous. His kingdom is unshakable. That is why Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Everything else is on the way to the scrapyard. Your money is not saving you. Your stuff is not satisfying you. Your plans are not securing you. You are going to die, and Christ is going to reign.

Jesus Christ is not another product being sold to improve your lifestyle. He is the King to whom every sinner owes allegiance.

So stop giving your heart to things you cannot keep. They are hollowing you out. Stop measuring your life by what you own. Turn from the sin that is killing you. Put your trust not in perishable things, but in the precious blood of Christ. Submit to His rule while the invitation still stands. The kingdom will endure forever. Will you be found in it?

He who believes and is baptized will be saved, he who does not believe will be condemned (Mk. 16:16).