Bamboozled - You Work Hard, You Deserve it
Bamboozled: The Lie of “You Work Hard, You Deserve It”
In 2000, filmmaker Spike Lee released a movie called Bamboozled — a satirical story about how race, ratings, and power can cause the sudden rise and fall of a TV show. But beneath the satire was a deeper warning: don’t be fooled by the lies we’re told.
That idea — being tricked or bamboozled — is at the heart of our current sermon series at The Well Church. We’re exploring how easily we can be deceived into believing the lies the enemy tells us about our wants, our work, our witness, and our worry.
Last week, Pastor Currey reminded us of David and Bathsheba and the lie, “If you want it, you can have it.”
This week, Pastor Trey challenged another cultural lie that’s just as dangerous:
“You work hard, you deserve it.”
The Trap of Consumerism
At first glance, that statement sounds innocent enough. After all, hard work is good — even biblical. But the problem lies in what we think we deserve.
When most of us say, “I deserve it,” the it isn’t rest, peace, or time with God.
It’s stuff.
We live in a culture that constantly invites us to consume more — more houses, more cars, more clothes, more food, more of everything. That’s consumerism.
Consumerism is the idolatrous pursuit of satisfaction through stuff.
And no one understood that better than King Solomon.
Solomon: The Original Consumer
In Ecclesiastes 2, Solomon — the “preacher king” — reflects on his life. He says:
“I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made gardens and parks and planted every kind of fruit tree in them.” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-5, CSB)
Solomon built palaces, not houses. His home took 13 years to complete — almost twice as long as the temple of God. His empire was overflowing with cedar, gold, and luxury. He even constructed a separate house for Pharaoh’s daughter — one of 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Why? Because he believed the lie:
“I work hard, I deserve it.”
He was chasing satisfaction through creation instead of the Creator.
The Endless Search for “More”
Notice how Solomon keeps repeating the phrase “for myself.”
“I built for myself. I planted for myself. I made for myself.”
That repetition is the heart of consumerism — a life that revolves around me.
But look closer at what Solomon built: gardens, vineyards, fruit trees, flowing water. What does that remind you of?
The Garden of Eden.
Solomon was trying to recreate paradise — to fill an eternal longing with temporary things.
Deep down, his pursuit wasn’t about palaces or possessions. It was about the ache for eternity — the longing for God Himself.
“As the deer pants for water, so my soul longs for You.” — Psalm 42:1
No matter what we buy or how much we own, that ache remains until it’s filled by God.
Solomon’s Conclusion
After accumulating everything the world could offer, Solomon came to a sobering realization:
“When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11, CSB)
All of it — the palaces, the vineyards, the gold — was incapable of producing satisfaction.
Solomon thought he needed to earn satisfaction through work and wealth, but what he truly needed was someone, not something.
He needed the God who had already done the work.
The Good Life
In Ecclesiastes 3:11–12, Solomon finally understands:
“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts… There is nothing better than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.”
But in Hebrew, it’s not our good life — it’s His good life.
God’s good life isn’t about living to consume, but about consuming to live.
He gives us food, drink, and clothing as resources, not as the source of joy.
Three Truths About Consumption
Pastor Trey closed with three truths that challenge our culture’s obsession with more:
The more you consume, the more you conform.
The more we fill our lives with stuff, the more we become like the world around us instead of being transformed by God (Romans 12:2).The more you consume, the more you exploit.
Our consumption often comes at the expense of others. The systems that feed our “more” are built on exploitation. (Visit slaveryfootprint.org to see the global impact of what you buy.)The more you consume, the less you conserve.
If our focus is on keeping up with others, how can we care for our neighbors who have less? True discipleship means giving — shirts to the shirtless, food to the hungry, water to the thirsty.
The Real Question
So here’s the question we’re left with:
What is God calling you to consume less of?
And what is God calling you to consume more of?
If your answer isn’t Him, then you’ve been bamboozled.
A Final Reflection
It’s easy to fall into the lie that we can earn satisfaction — that we work hard and therefore deserve more.
But the truth is, the work that matters most has already been done.
Christ invites us to step off the treadmill of “more” and into the rest of His grace.
Because the real good life — the one that satisfies — isn’t found in what we consume.
It’s found in who consumes us.
