Ecclesiastes 11-12

You have given in his own heart in our heart like you tell us in Ecclesiastes 3 11 That you have made everything beautiful in its time and you placed eternity in the hearts of all men And thank you for giving us an eternal perspective through Jesus Christ Thank you for this day. Thank you for this evening Pray your blessing that you bless the study of your word pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen All right David Let's see what we can do about honoring God in life so start with Ecclesiastes 11 1 through 12 and then we'll go and Go to 1 1 2. I'm sorry 11 Well, so This was interesting because you know, you try to understand what Solomon communicates sometimes it's a challenge So, so I had a I had to read read read read read and then read some more and and and get some help And so I think I've got it down pretty good. I think you'll get the point I think so Anyway, honor God in life live by faith and wisdom Cast your prayer the surface of the waters where you will find it after many days Divide your portion to seven or even to eight Well, you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth So First of all You want to live by faith and wisdom, you know live like the merchant like the merchant this this first version or a couple verses Solomon is Referring to a lot of commentators say that he's talking about his own experience Where he had ships and I don't we have time to go in and look at Kings and see all the background But we had ships and he would send them out One passages you can read talks about he sends out ships and three years later. They come back with all sorts of goods including Wild animals and gold and spices and all sorts of stuff, right? So Solomon knows what it means to to send out as a merchant would to send out goods To the far reaches and and to try to sell those goods So they will come back with a profit. And so that's what this is talking about. It's just cast your bread on the surface of the waters He his ships he ships his grain to potential customers in faith That the ships will return with profits and then divide your portion to seven talks about diversification Diversifies his shipments. In other words, don't send them all to one spot. Oh You got ahead of me That was not punchline Good job, Susan. Go start. That's right. Don't put all your eggs in one basket That's that's the modern way of saying it. Don't put all your eggs in one basket So he diversifies his shipments to protect against disaster So He went in here as a businessman understand that go ahead that experience where you going, you know, I can tell you In the insurance business, you never know where your sales are going to come from So you so you go you advertise and you market and you and you do I? Word of mouth or whatever. All you know is that if you don't go and cast your bread You're not going to get a profit. You're not going to get a sale, right? I had my oldest son when he was I'll I guess probably in the second grade or so roughly Playing baseball here in you listen It was his first year with kid pitch and I y'all remember kid pitching buddy here know what that's like Yeah, you know when when you hit kid pitch all of a sudden you got this this boy on the mound This boy on the mound is throwing a ball at you and he's not very accurate Yeah, oh so here comes the ball at Brian and You know, he would just he would just as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. He would immediately step back Because he's afraid of getting hit, you know, and so You know, of course, that's the most boring time. I mean those games are so boring. I mean a walk walk walk walk walk, you know And so finally one day I set him down some son. I Said if you don't swing the bat, you'll never hit the ball And what you've got to learn how to do swing the bat, okay You know, so you start swinging you won't hit and right now I'd let you strike out Swinging then walk Everybody goes that's nuts. No, it's not Not with a seven eight year old. That's not nuts. You got to teach him how to hit the ball And so so sure enough, you know, he took me to heart. He took his dad's Instruction I wasn't a coach. I was coaching from home and in that day that you know, we had both boys playing and so At the same time it's always the same time Drop one off and then when and drop the other one off and I came back to Brian's game and here's his coach is beaming He said you missed it. And I said what Brian got a hit You know, it's so So anyway, that's the start of the story Brian liked it so much He kept getting better and better and better at by the end of the year. He was an all-star So he went from not swinging the bat and afraid and stepping outside the box to getting onto the all-star team Now that's because he cast his bread Okay, that's what this is talking about. The same thing holds true. I want y'all to get this now Same thing holds true with sharing the gospel Okay, if you don't share the gospel Nobody. Yeah Yeah It's baseball story. Okay one day I didn't get to the game soon enough and when I got there my kids Behind 25 to nothing. Mm-hmm. And I walked up. I said Rick. What are y'all doing? He said don't worry dad. We hadn't had Advantage Anyway, yeah, so it's the same most truth for sharing the gospel, right? Over making a disciple, you know, if you don't if you don't initiate You know, I told y'all before I think I told you the story back The young man that was sitting in front of us on a Sunday morning back for two months ago I mean Chad and what Terry and I are doing when we come into our into the worship center We look around if anybody in our section, we don't know we go in a man We go stick our hands out. Hey, I'm David. It's Terry and you know, I hadn't seen you before you've been coming along Just something like that. And yeah, I caught fishing. I'm going fishing All right, and so this Sunday was Chad's turn and Chad and Marcelo was sitting in front of us and And so we friended them and the main in Kevin my daughter's son-in-law set with us as well And they came along and got a big party going got to know him that type of thing services over I go up to the decision station. I Watching they're saying their goodbyes and all that and all of a sudden here comes Chad and Marcelo. I'm thinking they're gonna tell me by The Chad walks up onto the platform, he said David SS what he said he says I'm the paralytic that was a Sunday that John preached about the paralytic coming down through the roof He said I'm the paralytic. I said you are he said yeah, you ready to some about that He said I am right then and there You know that he meant to a prayer of faith that he received Jesus as a savior No, and and that's and I want you to understand something it started when David and Terry sticks their hand out and says Hey hadn't seen you before Glad you're here You know, we've been here a while. We can tell you think you want to know about church Right That's not sir. You've got to cast your bread that cast your bread. All right, we might not make it till next week now I mean, I mean through the night now after all that so moving on Okay, so live by faith and wisdom like the merchant now We're going to see what it looks like to live like the farmer if the clouds are full They pour out rain upon the earth and where their tree falls toward the south or toward the north Wherever the tree falls their life. He watches the wind will not sow and he looks at the clouds will not read This is you do not know the path of the wind or how bones are formed a woman was a pregnant woman So you do not know the activity of God who makes all things so so you're seeing the morning and do not be idle evening For you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed or whether both of them alike will be good So like the farmer first of all, he understands the clouds bring rain Which is needed to produce a what? Harvest harvest who said that go start? We've got that we can't cut the go sir. And while bringing the rain the winds may Knock down a tree, right? It happens Well, he knows that he can't think about the fallen tree That's the past right, but he must take advantage of the present opportunity the clouds If he's to have a harvest so he doesn't focus on the circumstances but on the job at hand he doesn't let what determine when he sells he doesn't let the wind Determine when he sows nor the clouds determine when he reaps now This is circumstances, right? He knows that he cannot understand the activity of God the path of wind or how babies are formed and I'm gonna get the rest Second so this is circumstances so just like The merchant who sends out his ships the farmer cannot let the circumstances He faces dictate to him when he sows or when he reaps right? You just can't we can't let circumstances dictate to us When we live for God when we don't right we gotta live for God no matter what the circumstance We need to honor God and everything we do And we need to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes our way To make the most of it for the Lord for the glory of the Lord. So having said that Ron's favorite part His a favorite part is Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and I told him I would let him do this part So we can fill in the rest of those blanks. So Ron Yeah, yeah I Know stones and a time to gather stones the time to embrace and time to shun embracing the time to search and a time to give up as long a time to keep the time to throw away the time to tear apart the time to sew together a time to be silent and a time to speak a time to love a Time to hate a time for war a time for peace But profit is there to the worker from that in which he told soils I have seen the task which God has given the son of the man which Occupied himself he has made everything appropriate in time He has also set eternity in their hearts Yes, so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end so He knows he can't understand the activity of God. So he Trusts right? He trusts that God has a what plan plan a time and a purpose for everything a Time and a purpose for everything and plan fits in just right then I'll give you a go start for that. No a Time and a purpose for a plan for everything he chooses to live by what? faith faith So we honor God When we trust God We don't understand our circumstances, but we know God's in it, right? So we circumstances don't work out. Yeah, I like I like that he points out You know sowing in the morning may not May not work. So be sure you sow in the morning in the evening. He's being realistic about it Yeah, not all of our efforts are going to Produce fruit. So Brian doesn't hit the ball every time he swings the bat. Is that right? Oh, yeah, I can tell you he did Right, yes, we don't know when Right I mean, yeah, when you talk about witnessing, you know, I I Witnessed to some of my neighbors that were elderly that were not going to be long for this world and And I was just sure because God put it on my heart I was just sure that they were going to trust in the Lord and they didn't and You know for a while. I was like the Lord did I miss did I not understand you? Right. Did you was this not the right time? Did I not do the right thing? Did I not say the right, you know, because it didn't Happen the way I envisioned it in my mind, you know, and so To understand that sometimes it's not going to work the way you think it is But it's still plus God that he's still working and that rocks us. That's right Even if it's even if he's just working in me Hey, hey listen, that's legit. That's good. Susan. That's very good. Maybe you can Say I'm supposed to be faithful not necessarily successful. Oh, that's great He's got a gold star everybody I Like that, that's a good yeah And sometimes you're not successful at the time You share or don't talk to them. So sometimes you find out later on even years later Okay, so I got a story about that Yeah, this is fun I Know I'm prepared for as many we want to do Hey, look, but back to sharing the gospel. So 27 years of age. We got married young. All right so I'm out to lunch with the salesman and He's got trying to get to know me. I never met him before that say He says he says tell me he says are you married? I said, yeah, he said how long you been married? I said seven years. He's looking at my age. He's going, you know He's looking at me I think it's seven years But he said seven years. He says how did you do that in the divorce capital of the world now? Later, I found out he had just got the divorce And he's about my age and he asked that question and David says first and foremost Me and my wife were born-again believers in Jesus Christ He said born-again. I've heard that term. What does that mean? And For the next hour. I didn't share the gospel. I answered questions. I Was sharing the gospel, but there was no track. I was running on I was just answering questions and sharing the gospel. So we're going back to the office He's taking me back to my office And I said, well, I said his name was David tested. That's it. It said this this makes this he said, yeah I said well, are you ready to receive Jesus? I Don't know he said I need to think about it some more. Okay He'll call on me again. We'll go to lunch again. I'll get him, right? That's what I'm thinking I was in August or so fast-forward to February. We're having a revival here. And for those of you that were here it was a revival with We had 500 people saved. You remember that? Well, you were saving that revival. I can't think of the guy's name. But anyway, it was doesn't matter So I felt led to call David up and say hey come to revival with me. So I called David up He came we go to the service. I turned to him at the invitation I said David, did you ever come to that point where you received Jesus as your savior? He said I sure did He said it was on X day. He decided to meet the date and the time and where he was He said yeah, you don't know I Don't you wouldn't it was the point being Faithful, right? Faithful when you get the opportunity share Be like The merchant be like the farmer. So he lives wisely By making the what most of every day back to your point Susan sowing in the morning in the evening Even a variety of crops. He doesn't know where there is going to be the turnips this year or the okra, right? Yeah, no Okra Well, there you go But y'all get the point right a variety trusting that God will bless back your point Susan He will bless at least some of the efforts That he has made for a harvest Let's see, let's see how Paul puts it in Ephesians 5 so Susan since you brought that in let's go let you read Therefore be careful how you walk not as unwise man in his wise Making the most of your time because the days are evil So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is What's the will of the Lord right? To make the most of your time living for him Be thankful and faithful be faithful be careful how we walk Not as unwise men, but as wise Make the most of her time. All right, so I was living by faith and wisdom Honor God in life living by faith and wisdom. How about honor God in life by living joyously? Now the light is pleasant. It is good for the eyes to see the Sun Indeed if a man should live many years Let him rejoice in them all and let him remember the days of darkness, but they will be many Everything that has come will be that is to come will be futility Rejoice young man during your childhood and let your heart be pleasant in the days of young manhood But and follow the impulses of your heart that desires of Christ You know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things now when I read that I thought wait a minute Wait a minute. Yes, because why is that because the vast majority of young men if they follow their hearts are getting into trouble Well, okay good point cat, right It's amazing the attitude of young people, you know, I think that I used to be one, right? I can't remember All you think that you're right you think that you know what's best nobody can tell you anything Yeah, I mean that was me then but As no people like we're like overly ambitious just super zealous Like, you know There's a word I use that I see in a lot of ads. It's called bulletproof You think you're bulletproof? invincible, right But you're not right But if and what you don't know and here's here's the sad part of it What you don't know at that age is that the mistake you make at that age can affect you the rest of your life. Yeah And that's the part That I agree for some of these kids I work with out to the college, you know He had we had some baseball boys that did something stupid You know, they go out to a golf course They drive the cars under the green and you know, anybody that knows it first of all, you know, that is forbidden But they drive the cars in the green and tear up the green All right, then they go into the pro shop and they start pocketing golf balls that are set there to purchase And they get caught on camera And you know you're going what are you thinking but they're not They're not they're doing exactly what we say to the negative side of this is that you can go down the path of sinning Real easily because you're you don't you know, they're more than they're that's their thing We're not getting caught or whatever. They might be thinking what they don't understand is they represented ABU They gave ABU a black eye and the punishment for not for giving us a black eye They are not traveling with the team this week and To go to the national tournament And That's right, that's at least the correct phone Yeah, so that that's going to impact in the rest of their lives now It could be for the good if someone at one of them takes it and says, okay, I missed up a car Right, it could be for the good but also could be for the bad So enough of that, but I wanted you see that's all that one verse that one and I thought whoo He's almost hitting follow the impulses of your heart the desires you're at Okay, I think when you do it with wisdom when we do it though See, but it also says right after yet yet. No. Yeah, God will bring to judgment all these things Yeah, there you go. So the thing is you can do that's why and see God's gonna judge you good or bad for it. That's right, and you're getting ahead of me cap But I'll give you a go-start anyway Hey, there you go You see that not she said all things are allowed but not all things are good. Oh, yeah Yeah, you want to tell me? See that both in James spells it out perfectly and we talked about being tempted but James is not all you know God doesn't tempt you, you know, it's your desire It gets you to go and and I think that's part of the Transformation process process, but we need to go through to become, you know Like Jesus, you know, we transform our minds We transform our will know the big the biggest what I think is transforming our desires You start having desire desire the same thing that Jesus desire. That's the challenge. I write I Have an earnestly earnest desire to do this and it's when we start beating ourselves Making that desire turn inward. It basically just corrupt your heart and leads to sin sin leads to death. There you go It's a cycle. Yep It's something that I feel like we all as Christians struggle with the fruit of self-discipline We always emphasize the food of love peace joy but the fruit of self-discipline where you're choosing the spirit over the flesh because We're always get those thoughts like you said those the direst pop up in our mind But the Bible says God is greater than our thoughts, you know So if we just live by faith to choose the spirit to say let our no be no Yes, I'm saying no to that thought and saying yes to God's will so Well, we all are All right, so Solomon's saying be excited about what each new day brings Opportunities to live for and with God through the good times and Adversities back to Susan's point not everything every day is going to be successful, right? But you'd be excited about the fact you've got a new opportunity As I've said on some other occasion this I heard this mother's to you know, you wake up going. Hello Lord. Here's David reporting for duty Here I am I say it this way have your way with me today use me any way you choose and I'm excited about the opportunity used any way he chooses Sometimes it's a challenge get used the way he chooses Like having a conversation about some knuckleheaded baseball players, but No, I think sometimes He uses us by us just Be obedient to live a godly life. Yeah, that's I mean not even I mean Sometimes we get to share our faith, but we all work in a place Where it's ungodliness. I mean, this is the world So sometimes God just calls us just to do the right thing Be different We we're on Commission where I I work everything I get paid by what I do But I don't work don't get paid But you have to choose it if it needs just give an example it needs a bowl Not a whole assembly then sell the bowl The other company would make more and you'd make more if you saw them sold the whole assembly But what God wants us to do is trust him and do what's right? Not what is easiest always I don't know. I what I'm I'm trying to what my point. I think I'm trying to make is that Sometimes just doing the right thing is the first step To putting ourself in a position to be used right doing the right thing and God does Not in ours. I mean, yeah, it's real easy because we're simple man. It's really good to say. Well, no one's going to know and I'm going to make more money and The company is going to make more money. Well, that doesn't make it right. It doesn't need it. It's not right. No good Okay, so Opportunities to live for and with God through the good times and versus young people should take advantage of their age All right That's the ability to enjoy life in ways they're no longer possible for those of us that have beyond a young age For the old I actually took Asian added to be okay Yeah, so But they should be careful not to sin what we're talking about while pursuing their impulses and desires So let's see what numbers 1539 says now mark 7 20 23. So Amanda, why don't you read numbers? To do them and not follow after your own part and your own life after which you have played the hard way Hmm Hmm. All right Y'all know what the tassel is, right? No, you don't. Okay So you have to go back and read I think it's a bit because it's where it's first brought up But but God gave instructions through Moses that ever all all the men were to wear these Caught a robe It's not the technical term of it But anyway caught a robe and it and on the road they were to type four on on the four corners of the road they were tied tassels and the tassels had an actual bit they had a Pattern that that the Lord gave here's how it's supposed to look All right, and they were the purpose of it of the tassel was to remind them just as it says right here Remind them of the commandments the Lord says to do them. All right Pockets Well, it could be I don't know what they do today It could be if it looks like a tassel was it was dangling and it's got it's got a weave to it Okay It could very well be it yeah, yeah could very well be it so so anyway That's the purpose of a tassel and again all what he was doing is every time it means you're walking along that thing is Flopping. All right So it's not you can't you can see the tassels on the neighbor in front of you that get the kitten gap outside you You look down you see you, you know, you see them. They're all over the place. And so they're reminded people, you know Obey the commandments to the Lord obey the commands for right? So that's that's what this verse is referring to get we'll look at Mark 7 and see how Jesus put it. All right, so Who hadn't read you can't hear it but Or from within out of the heart of men receives evil thought Fornication theft murder adultery He's a coveting and wickedness as well as deceit and traveling Envy slander pride and foolishness all these evil things proceed from within and just look at all right So all these evil things proceed from the man So he's talking about the sin That comes out when you pursue your impulses and desires And back to the point who were made the point while goes the heart This is JJ's talking about the heart and John and Ron likes to quote a verse. I think it's out of Jeremiah The heart is what? Yes, really wicked right and who can know it Right, so you got to guard your heart. You got to guard your heart So young person learn that early in life and you'll avoid a whole lot of problems, right But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy life Telling the guys at breakfast when we were discussing the lesson There's something we can do we could do when we were younger that we can't do this so much now And what my family like to do is river raft, you know We look we enjoy God's creation and we enjoy going into the mountains and and seeing the scenery that the gods created and so Probably a dozen vacations we had over the years where we went out and we would choose Where our destiny was by what river was there we that we could raft All right. And so, you know, there's this there's this one incident where where We put in the Akoi River in Tennessee and you know, we're pros by that time so anyway The guy said there says, you know asked us we told him. Hey, this is probably our six or seven time We've ever wrapped it, you know, we're good. Okay, last one go over. Here's how I command So make sure you understand my commands, right? So you'll respond to them. Okay, we got out of it All right. Now when we put in here, he says that you see that spot over there by that rock. Yeah, you see it That's our target We want to hit that spot because and one of the boys I think asked me what happens if we miss it He says we hit guy to pull We what we hit guy to pull Well, just a minute So we put in mr Spot we hit guy to pull and all of a sudden the guide and my youngest son Brent are flying over the boat into the water So then it's up to me to figure out how to get those boys back in the boat Yeah, that's guy to pull yeah, that's guy to pull and so later on we get down to the end of the run and You know, he's had a lot of fun with us. We've had a blast He leans over to Terry my wife says, okay, whatever I say, you just hold on. Don't don't listen to me. Just hold on Don't don't listen to me just hold on He said I got a plan Now tell Amanda that Amanda was probably 10 or something like that. So she didn't go to Amanda and says it's Amanda Amanda didn't understand her So all of a sudden he says high side right or whatever all of us dutifully do high side, right next thing You know, we're in the water And Amanda's on top of us Oh We're scrambling and Terry's in a panic. Where's my baby? And so we come up and we're all fine, you know, and we all laugh and just had a great time Listen, Terry and I've talked about taking our grandkids river rafting And we have basically said no You know Terry says I tell you what David you can go I'm not going So There's something about getting to this stage of life where the joints don't work the way they used to the muscles aren't as strong as and then and your your Reflexes aren't as good and the whole works. I mean y'all not there yet. Listen Enjoying life while you're young Because when you get to this certain age, it stops you start to be more challenging to enjoy it that way then you mean I Saw the upper end of the scale Hellas keen in his 70s, that's not me You want to tell about it Ron And They let you And then you have to find your way down and then the helicopter meets you down at the bottom of that mountain and take you To another another place, but you're seeing a fresh powder all the way Wow They give you there by showing you this video, you know, where it's nice sunshine. You're knee-high powder and you sort of For breath by the press Sushi down the mountain like this is the Floating happen up. We had one day of that during the week all the rest of the time. We're going through trees And that kind of thing and my That tree So what you decide All right, so that's a boy, all right you still you need to enjoy life, all right, well you can But again be careful not to sin All right So keep in mind that we all will be judged and held the account for what we do both good and bad So the other thing young people don't understand is that while you enjoy life You can also be investing in the in the in the in the kingdom, you know You can be investing in the kingdom. You can be laying up the treasures And if you start laying them up early You know by the time you get to my age you've you've laid up some treasures, you know, so Man, make it make take advantage of make the most of it. All right Okay, so we move grief and anger from your heart put away pain for your body because childhood and a prime of life are fleeting I read that I thought hmm. What does that mean? Well young people need to guard themselves while enjoying life They should be striving to live within the will of God and lay a firm foundation for their future If you're living within the will of God, you'll be experiencing the peace of God Not grief anger and pain Which also includes and let's see what Matthew 6 24 34 says Joyce your favorite passage of Scripture Well, you gotta give a little context to it now All right, go ahead Not for your corporate bodies, but you will put on it's not like more food in the body more than food The bird of the air did you not go for me or gather in the barn yet? You're a similar father Are you not work much more than they and prove you by any worries have several hours? One and why are you worried about coach a very powerful woman to the field? Did you not twirl nor do they sense and I say to you that not even Solomon and all the stories But if God suppose the grass of the fields the life today and tomorrow is so infernus You'll be not much more for you You have little faith Not worried then saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing? But again, how do you do all these things for your brother's father knows what you need that she nails the big and Not worried about tomorrow, but tomorrow's a So what's the word is repeated most often in there Worry or worry, right another word for worries anxiety, right? Anxiety don't be anxious. Don't worry. Now. What do young people tend to do? worry Worry, they get anxious Those of us that older worried all of our lives to figure it out, you know, it didn't do any good worry You what you figure out back to the whole point is God Right, he's got it. You don't know how he's got it, but that's okay Guess what? He's your daddy And he loves you and he's got you Takes a lot of worry away when you get that perspective Right. So while you're enjoying life, don't worry. Don't be anxious Make it a habit Don't be anxious Make sure you're with it. And by the way, we've said before when you get outside the circle, right? We do it circling board because outside the circle and said that the number one thing that goes away that P word That starts peace Amanda said it don't start Amanda. Peace. Peace So you stay in the circle you got peace and the worry goes away you get outside the circle No, peace, and you got a lot to worry All right so that being said That concludes chapter 11. Hey, let's go Jeff. Oh, we got plenty of time Okay Worry in pain which also includes worry or anxiety even one of those works Did you get the rest of that one? Don't we need to guard themselves? Live within the will of God lay a firm foundation for the future Experience the peace of God and Pain, which also includes anxiety or worry, which is the results of sin All right, as I put it a second ago getting outside the circle All right. Okay Jeff 12 Remember also your creator the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years grow near when you will say I have No delight in them before the Sun the light the moon the stars are darkened and clouds return the heck of the rain He's setting us up for something here In the day now what's this the day that the watchman the joyous house tremble and mighty men stooped the grinding ones stand idle because they're Few and those who look through the windows grow dim. Why are you describing Eugene? I don't get this all right, and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mills low and one will arise at the sound of bird and all the dollars Song will sing softly Furthermore men are afraid of a high place the terrors on the road the almond tree blossoms the grasshopper drags itself along and the caper Ineffective for man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street now Remember him before the silver cords broken and the golden bowls crushed the picture by the will shatter the will of the sisters crushed Then the dust will return to the earth as it was And the spirit will return to God who gave it then the advantage says the preacher all is vanity. What's he describing you? Old age he's describing what's inevitable, right? What's happening? The first is just remember us that you're created that word remember is key remember has the meaning of not call to mind No, it's not that kind of remember remember is Pay attention to and consider with the intention of obeying in other words when you remember God Remember what he said and what he what you're supposed to do, right? It's more than just calling to mind it's it is Focusing and honing in on what he said and how you're to respond Obedience David. Does that mean if if I'm on the wrong road and I'm thinking about God and I remember his words That that can help me and make a course correction, too Absolutely, if you if you're if you consider what God what you know by the time you're our age You've seen a lot of things you've done wrong and done right but you've seen God work so the wise man remembers what he's learned and remembers that obeying God gives more peace and gives more contentment But and if I worry and I try to do it my own and he doesn't make anything any better And it always makes things worse It's like saying man. I sure wish it was January so I could retire Well at your waist you're wishing away six months of your life Which you may have less than six months to be here and you might have one day to be you So it's it's pitiful that we sometimes say I wish I wish I don't like the situation This isn't fun Instead of looking for what God might be trying to teach us and what we can learn Just wishing we weren't in that situation We're wishing our life away, so I'm saying The point All right So remember has that meaning pay attention to consider to pay attention to consider with the attention of a bank When a youth fails to remember his or her creator The result is evil days a heart that is hardened towards God and a life of darkness Now I can tell you Because I've seen it play out. There's a lot of accuracy in that statement a Lot of accuracy on the other slip side of the coin, right? I've also seen it play out where the youth honored God Remembered him live for him and I watched what God did with that young man's life the young woman's life, right? and I've seen it play out to where their lives have been full of You know joy in the Lord and and usefulness to God in his kingdom. So it goes both ways So Remember you got a choice to make which one are you going to make? You can remember you're going to forget and he says to remember when you're young because old age is coming Now look at that So you understand what those different things explain the watchmen are your arms and hands and they tremble I Don't have to tell you what happens to older people and you hold their hands out and you can see it starts to do that number, right You know, I don't don't pay attention to you I'm not gonna say a thing Mighty men are the legs the knees and the shoulders and they start to stoop if you're grinding ones of your teeth They stand idle because you've lost them The windows are your vision it grows dim the doors are your hearing and they're shut so the sound is low You wake up with the birds, but wish you could sleep longer You Know I hate it when six o'clock comes along and the alarm hadn't run yet yet. I'm wide awake, you know I mean, you know, it's just not right. I want to sleep this alarm goes off So anyway Moving on. Let's see. What's next? Those are song is your voice it starts to quiver and we can I Hi, I used to have a really good voice. I thought you know when I was saying boy I don't want to sing in public now for nothing Yeah, there you go There you go You're afraid of heights and tear and tears on the road and that's being afraid of falling. Okay Almond tree blossoms are what color? Why she got white hair? you drag yourself along like a Grasshopper who's worn himself out at the end of the summer and We won't talk about the capybara, but it's an aphrodisiac so you can figure that out for yourself It's ineffective. You ultimately go to the eternal home. You ultimately go to your turn So what I just come to get is inevitable. Yeah, it's inevitable. Nobody gets away, huh? No So the silver cord breaking in the golden lamp things is basically backed in in the people of wealth primarily would have lamps that were suspended from the from the ceiling and They that most people couldn't afford it They just had the candle sitting on the side of it someone that could afford it would have a lamp It would be like a chandelier pray suspended from the ceiling and The golden The lamp would be like a golden because that signifies wealth right and a silver cord signifies wealth so you got a silver chain or of some sort that's holding it to the ceiling and It and you can imagine what looks like it's suspended and all of a sudden the chain breaks And when the chain breaks what happens to the lamp? It shatters crushed right? Okay. So that's that part of it. The other part is is that the cistern or the well? If this is describing, you know, we're anybody here ever had drawn water from a well Okay, so, you know what it's like that you have to have some type of a pulley system, don't you well back then it was the crank that cranked the wheel right that turned and it wound up the The rope or whatever was suspended holding the picture, right and it wears out well And so what this is picturing is the wheel brakes somehow know the wheel brakes next thing, you know You know into the bottom of the world goes and guess what happens It's lost. It's crushed. It's crushed. So death comes just like You're very, you know, most people, you know, it comes suddenly. I told you before my my father I In September he was in great health November starts to change and a couple months later. He's gone to me. That's fast I wasn't expecting that but I would expect that I knew he's gonna die, but I would expect it to like that Okay, it's inevitable it's you know, you're We got crushed we got shattered our body returned our body returns to dust and our spirit returns to God So remember him Solomon says Before death if you don't remember him, then your life is lived in vain If you do remember him, then it's not in vain So I say remember him because without him all is vanity life is meaningless when you remember him Your life is not in vain first finish 1558 Who hasn't read yet? someone Go ahead Therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast Immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toll Your toil is not in vain in the Lord So you did that picture if you if you have remitness, that's what happens when you remember it, right? It'd be steadfast Immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord. You are remembering Lord That's that's that is a picture of remembering the Lord when you do that your works not in vain Now you might but not be seeing any earthly result But back to jeans platinum star while I go if you're faithful, that's all God requires it Yeah, okay. He didn't require the result. He requires the obedience Right. The results are in his hands so When you remember him your life is not in vain. All right So now we're gonna look at living and learning Honor him by living and learning in addition to being a wise man The preacher also taught the people knowledge and he pondered searched out and arranged many proverbs the preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly the words of wise men are like goads and masters of These collections are like whatever nails they're given by one Shepherd So beyond this my son be warned the writing of many books is endless and excessive devotion to books is wearing to the body so Learn the Proverbs of Solomon wrote and we're going to look at 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17. Chris is your turn The word I'm looking for is that first word I mean the first part of all scriptures what Inspired inspired. So the Proverbs of Solomon wrote word of what? Inspired they were under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He wrote a bunch of them Wrong at one point in time. You could tell me how many there were how many were there Ron? Proverbs, did you know that didn't you tell me the numbers? 3000 that way is 3000 3000 Okay, that's a bunch of Proverbs So We want we want to learn the Proverbs they're delightful truths and let's look at Proverbs 8 6 to 11 No, you said you haven't read yet, right? Listen, or I will speak noble thing and the opening of my lips will reveal right things For my mouth will utter truth and wickedness is an abomination to my lips All of the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness There is nothing crooked or perverted in them They are all straightforward to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge Take my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than the choices goal For wisdom is better than jewels and all desirable things cannot compare with them so wisdom They're delightful truths to live by if you live by those Proverbs Man, you're you're well on your way We're on your way, so they're like goats they pride the reader to pay attention and pursue truth I don't know if y'all in this habit or not, but We I got this habit and I know bunch of us in here are but I read a proverb every day You know, I mean I try to I don't think I'm not perfect at it, but you know, there's 31 Proverbs for chapters So probably day you you're reading, you know chapter day of Proverbs You do that 12 months out of the year and it starts to sink in Starts to make an impact and have to have a result And so I would encourage you if you're not doing that, that's just a good habit to get into It the wisdom starts to rub off and God starts to bring the mind things and I Won't give you I can't give you several examples. How do you do with me? you know You know this It's a thing and hurt and hurt So There goes they probably your pay attention pursuit truth. They are like well-driven nails a well-driven nails gonna do what? With pieces of lumber is driven into it's going to hold it together, right? It's going to hold together and that means it's going to make sense. It's going it's going to accomplish What it's intended to do it's going to make sense It's going to hold everything together All right So they make sense. So don't read and apply anything to your life. This is never looking at the books Says but beyond this my son Be warned the writing of many books is endless, etc. Etc It's just so don't read and apply anything to your life That doesn't line up with or find its source in the Word of God That doesn't mean you don't read what it what it's saying is you don't read and apply All right We've got a man here. This so well read individuals name is JJ Kennedy He reads a lot he reads a lot about a lot of things he reads he reads about the the you know, the Beliefs of atheists believe me. They got they got some beliefs, right? He's a big into apologetics Creation I mean he and I've had lots of conversations But JJ when you read something that doesn't line up with God's Word, how did you handle it? Yeah What looking up on the internet first of all st. Basil right in 4th century monk, and he wrote a piece on Advice to young men regarding Greek philosophy and there's how men When you go out into the world, we're going to be have all kinds of philosophies that are going to come But his main point was make sure you know, you're going to hear a lot of things But you need you need filters and you filter everything Through the lens of Scripture. Yeah, and if it doesn't line up with Scripture go if it doesn't if it doesn't conflict With Scripture you might be able to apply. There's man's wisdom. That's that's good with you know for living in this world But if it conflicts with that with anything that conflicts with the scriptures and the Word of God Don't let it in get rid of it and it's pretty pretty wise It's a great life. It's a long deal, but you find it on the air So point being again, it's not nothing wrong with reading It's it's what you do with what you read You bet it for true Now obviously you want to steer away from that that you know is evil to begin with There would be no reason for you to put something Yeah, you would know be no reason to fill your mind with with evil junk. It's a nun. All right, none But there are some things that did it doesn't hurt to go find out what an atheist is thinking That way, you know how to engage in maybe Just I just didn't hurt to none to understand what Mormonism is what their beliefs are When you go and you read about Mormonism or beliefs you realize most of what they believe doesn't line up with what God says The same way What the enemy even studies us the children of God? He I remember and in the Gospels where Satan was trying to quote Scripture to Jesus, but he was taking it out of context and Jesus said do not test the Lord your God man does not live by bread alone, but by the Word of God and He had the bag back because he knew he didn't have no power Yeah, well, he certainly wasn't going to apply God's Word to his life, was he? Carol We have Probably everybody in this room is a Mormon missionary to come to the door and so that They have a Perfect have a powerful they have a President and they use the president tell them what you know So I asked one of the first-generation Mormons, I said, what is the latest word from your president? And he said Mary But agree with everything you say so one day I was not there my husband came to the door and the Mormon missionaries came and It really puzzled my husband because you know, he They agreed with everything he said And so later I said, oh, I forgot to tell you they agree with everything we say And so and I said we believe in being led by the Spirit, you know Well, what spirit but anyway, my husband was he didn't know that and I forgot But now they they will you know, they will agree with everything we say so I didn't know it everybody knew that but if you didn't happen to Listen to what the president said, then you agree back on being led by the Spirit of you know, whatever they agree. Yeah Yeah All right, so live and learn finally live obediently the conclusion when all has been heard is fear God This is what Ron has been waiting to get to this verse Since we started I mean that week one. He was already quoting this verse. So Ron go ahead and finish Yeah Oh Yeah This brings us to an important point. Obedience to God brings honor to God Like a Muslim says, you know, what's the biggest event of man, you know Life, but with Him. And God is the man of the world and it's really the main thing that God wants us to do So What is the Latin the Lord is part of us and then justly to live to love and merciful kindness Then to walk humbly with the Lord And walking humbly with the Lord bring glory to God And that obedience to him Hearing up. There you go So fear God keep his commandments because this applies to every person for God will bring every act of judgment Everything which is hidden where there is good or evil every acts going to be in judgment Point number one to obey God you must first fear him fear him That word fear is an attitude of reverence awe and respect that honors him for who he truly is creator God You you're honoring you're recognizing. He's God and You're bowing before him as your God. Okay, that's fearing God psalm 112 Who hasn't read yet? Someone yeah Okay, someone who wants to read Go ahead How blessed is the man who fears the Lord who greatly delights in his commandment His descendants will be mighty on earth the generation of the upright will be blessed Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous It is well with the man who is gracious and limbs He will maintain his cause and judgment for he will never be shaken the righteous will be remembered forever He will not fear evil tidings. His heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld He will not fear until he looks the satisfaction on a dad Adversary, he has given freely to the poor his righteousness endures forever His horn will be exalted in honor. The wicked will see it and be vexed He will mash his teeth and melt away the desire of the wicked will perish so How blessed is the man who what? Fears the Lord fears the Lord All right, so obey God first you must fear him secondly to obey God. You must what keep his commandments You must know them before you can keep them. So let's see what God says about her Jesus said about those commandments Great With all your soul This is the great and foremost the name the second is like each I love your name right here So on these two commandments depend a whole lot you know It is so true what he said, obviously Well as you read the Old Testament and you start looking all the laws and all the rules All right, you come to understand they do categorize in those two areas Either one you're loving God in the way you're living The sacrifices you make the worship you give you bring the offerings you bring the vows you make a Nazarite Etc. Etc. You're honoring God, right? And the other is you're loving people. Don't steal don't kill Yeah, blah blah blah right on down the road Either you're loving God. You're loving people Simple childlike faith. Yeah Yeah, so how are we doing It's like I'll look at one thing there's a thing Where are our feet? He had Simba What does he see in the reflection of the water and symbol looks in the water and see he sees a reflection of his father That's I feel like that's how we all the children of God for in Christ When we're able to look at one another in Jesus in our neighbor the greatness There's in you is a reflection of the greatness that is within me. That's good. We're great Christ, that's a good word. That's a it's a gold star right there about everyone a plus infinity Yeah, absolutely So love God and love people and so finally and we are going to make it Judgment is coming and your fear and obedience or lack thereof Will be made known and given its due reward If you truly fear God and keep his commandments, you're nothing to fear and judgment. Why is that Romans 8 1 who knows it by heart? There is right there is therefore now a condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus so If we fear God keep us mammoths we have nothing to fear because there's no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus Anything else anybody want to add Ron you or JJ want to come up and wrap up? That's True but they still summarized in the love God must be well. Yeah, I mean if you stop and look at it Yeah, two categories if you if you stop and look at it if you ask yourself if I do that and my loving God If I do that my living people Just ask that question and and and am I loving like God that's the other one here Here's where we struggle now devil preach To me I'm gonna talk about me I have yet to love like Jesus loves The kind of compassion he has the kind of grace he gives When I stop and look at myself I go man, I'm so short of the mark I Want to be there? Ain't that true? Yeah, yeah I Mean you really think about that, you know There's a talk given by John Roberts. He's the Supreme Court justice to his graduating son ninth grade he says I Normally give speeches to wish the graduates well, but I'm not going to wish that upon you I'm gonna wish that someone really hurt you deeply hurt you so deeply that you really understand What true justice is really about? See, I want you to to be betrayed so badly That you wonder if you can have any friendships at all, but you see I want you to understand What really true having true? Faithfulness is all about and I want you to be not loved I want you to be treated hated because I want you to understand what real love is all about And David hit the nail on the head because now he's asking us to be God's asking us to be honest with ourself And of course, this is what Solomon is doing. He's just being really open and honest He's saying I'm really blew it y'all and I want you to know that. I know I blew it. I'm the wisest wisest of the wise I'm the smartest of the smart. I'm the richest of the rich I'm the greatest of the great but I want to let you know that everything is meaningless without God See now we realize now we're getting into something that really is important because now what David is a pot is a saying Is that he's honestly assessing himself, you know, that's what God wants us to do Because you realize that that we have a great great opportunity To be light and salt in a very dark needy world This is a dark world and it's going downhill and as you notice fast, yes, and This nation is going into bankruptcy But it but the thing is is that is it money that really is matters in regard to the economy of this nation? And there was a great You know economist. His name is a Robert Fogel He's the first American economist to win the Nobel Prize and he was a professor of economics at University of Chicago He's the one that talks about the dispersion of your funds Right, and which is solid and sound but he was asked. What is it that gives a nation? Economic success and he says in his book called the fourth great awakening. It's not about money And it's not about economics. It's about virtue They knew this the 15 virtues top to bottom. The last virtue is self-esteem selfishness Pride the first virtue is he called a teleology and teleology is the fact that it has meaning and Significance, what is the significance and meaning of money? It's just tender Now what we realize is that that's the same thing with our life we can either use it To spend it on ourself or we can use it to invest in other people's lives See you all get an a-plus because you're using the time that you have so that you can you can Invest it in the life of one another and in our lives And in the lives of the people that you love the most. See that's what the life With the Lord is all about Because if we don't do that, what happens is we start going down that rabbit trail of life just spending it Not investing life Investing life See could we think of term thinking times in terms of money? there's a chronos time and that's the the The number time, you know, they're eighty six thousand four hundred seconds a day And the question is what I'm going to do with it. We can spend it like Ron Yamamoto does He spends it frivolously in front of a TV set To my shame, but the thing is there's a lot of ballgame going on, you know But you know, but the thing is is that God also has Kairos time see products time is quantitative and that's what we have to make the measure of and that's why Solomon is really Saying something really important to us, right? Because if we use time Chronologically Quantitatively, we can leave live quantitative lives. I talked with a lot of medical students and they're thinking well If I finish this medical school, I can really earn some money, you know It's so and you talk about a lot of people they're wanting to earn money You know so that they can live the way they think you ought to live But you see the problem with that is that we start living Quantitatively, then what happens we find that doctors burn out by the age 50, you know They want to leave this and at a 53% rate by the time they're 50 years old So now you realize they're not having any fun. Just like Solomon but you see the only way that you can get from being a What we call a competent doctor All every medical students going to be competent in what they do. They're going to all be good at what they do But not all of them are going to be great at what they do the difference between goodness and greatness for us even in this world is the fact that we now have a teacher Named Solomon and a guy that is sharing Solomon in the right way To show us that really is love that really helps doesn't it? That's what the obedience to God does that brings honor and glory to God? and so now if we bring honor and glory to God what happens is something transformative happens Changes us our heart It changes other people whose hearts need to be encouraged and and embraced and Because there are lots of unlovable people in this world, right? And and so Claire and Chris know that that in the hospital. There are a lot of unlovable doctors there And see the problem is is that we have the wrong idea of what love is So what is it that can get doctors out of that rat hole? What is it that can get us out of that rat hole? See it's really true compassion See because what we've done is we lost trust not only in our economy, but the way people live and treat people See, and that's destructive of the whole world. Really I'm strife envy strife that leads to frightful Conflict and we're bitter and angry at people and we start people to treating people that way And so now we realize though if we really want to get down to nitty-gritty The whole idea what God is trying to do when he gives us a new commandment John 13 34 a new commandment that I give you that you love one another as I have just loved you by being a servant leader Servant leader is someone who is moving like a physician can move from just being a good doctor to a great doctor To take upon themselves the mantra of Jesus Christ, which is John 13 34 He became a servant leader by going to a cross and by going to the cross. He emphasized the idea of forgiveness emphasized the idea of grace Loving kindness merciful kindness and he embraced the idea of true agape love Now all of you have demonstrated the qualities of agape love. Okay, just by showing up to listen to the likes of us That's agape love Patient kind not envious not boastful not proud not rude not self-seeking not easily angered Keeps no records of wrongs does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth You know, it's protects those trusts those hopes always perseveres This kind of love never fails. Why? Because it's God's love that that's given from heaven to us. We love because God first loved us We draw near to God because he draws near to us, you know And see now we realize that we get to be the conduit and instrument of God himself So we are representatives of him and ambassadors of him whether we like it or not, you know We're many preachers. They don't preach as well as this guy or that guy But you know, the thing is that you're you know, you have models that and no one's going to be like these guys No one's going to be like you The only DNA that it'll ever happen on planet Earth is you No one else ever like you. So therefore God wants us to be the best we can possibly be And that's called greatness and excellence and that's compassion in action So from God, he helps us to understand his love, you know This is a Proverbs 8 12 through 14 Solomonic Solomonic wisdom and God gives us his wisdom from above Jesus's wisdom here to our heart wisdom from above is first of all pure peaceable considerate submissive Both merciful the true impartial and sincere See, that's all about what God is doing in and through us to move his truth from his head To heart and now to hands because that what she gives us He's helping us to cultivate through the power of his Holy Spirit And you you you all demonstrate that but what you're saying Because it's the Holy Spirit that moves in our hearts to change us inside out And now we realize that now that's the nitty-gritty of what Solomon is saying He says I've messed up big time big time Now what I want you to realize that now the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord See, that's a Proverbs 9 10 and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding so that then we can love Like Jesus loves and see now you're all prepared to do that and you're going to do that better than us Because you're younger than us and you know a running start you can run now and we we can't You know But you see where it's going because it's a journey with the Lord Everything that we do now God's Holy Spirit is with the Lord And now God's challenging us to to impact the Lord the world With his love and grace and wisdom and you get we get to do that together Now before all of you leave now. I have a book for you. It's called Don't quit until you're finished. Okay, and that's a book by a pastor Jimmy Draper and it's really a book to just sort of peruse through Joseph I read that together and it's really a magnificent book and Jimmy did a great job and Thank You David and JJ for laboring with us and I think that you know, we're going to be considering something new for the spring semester and So we'll just finish spring. Oh, I mean the fall We're not going to take a year off. No. No. Yeah, sometimes we think that the court may be cut before that Well, I would just thank you for the love that you've shown us in giving us This wisdom and Lord, we just know that you gave it for a purpose and that purpose is to be applied That we should not the wisdom should not be dormant It should be active in our lives and we should properly learn how to apply that And thank you for the Holy Spirit that we have that will guide us along those way So Lord as we go now, we just pray that Lord that we would walk in the light We would we would not sin against you grieve you disappoint you in any way as we go go about our daily lives in this Coming week that we might walk in wisdom and Lord that we might walk in expectations or what you're going to do with each and every one of us that we can apply this wisdom that we've learned and Lord that we would everything that we do Lord would just glorify you and the way we live our lives and Everything we would do Lord we would do with your with your approval. So we thank you now in Jesus name for that Amen. Amen. Well, thank you so much So much, this is our