Ecclesiates 1_4-18

The speaker begins with a prayer, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to study the Bible. They discuss the book of Ecclesiastes, which explores the meaning of life. They mention that Solomon, the author, is going through a midlife crisis at the end of his life. The speaker talks about the physical and psychological effects of stress and the pressures of society. They mention that Solomon made poor choices despite having wisdom from God. The downward spiral in his life leads to a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of fearing God and obeying his commandments. They mention the benefits of wisdom and knowledge from God. The speaker ends with a fun activity involving blowing bubbles and promises to discuss Hebrew terms in the next session. in prayer, and we'll start. Dear Lord, thank you again for this time together to examine your word, not only in the light of learning more about you, but also for you to actually change our hearts in regard to the study of your word. We thank you that your word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, divides to the soul and the spirit joins to the marrow, and is a discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. So dear Lord, we pray that you'd help us to trust you with all our heart, help us to fear you with all our heart, help us to love you with all our heart. We pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. So Ecclesiastes is really a book that is striving for us to understand not intellectually, but also spiritually. So we see that Solomon is speaking from the heart, and as he speaks, he's calling himself the preacher. And the whole idea is a preacher who is really undergoing the stresses of life and looking at his life in retrospect. And as you look at this, he starts off with vanity of vanities, all this vanity, you know, all is empty, all is meaningless. And the whole idea is the fact that we see a man who is undergoing a midlife crisis, but he's doing it at the end of his life. And various studies have been done in regard to midlife crises of men and women. And Lee Stockford studied 2,100 people. And in this study, he found that 80% of people that were undergoing this kind of midlife crisis were between the ages of 35 and 45. So isn't that interesting? That seems young to me to be a midlife crisis. That's really true. But you know, from the standpoint of medical problems, we find that the highest occurrence of things like heart attack, stroke, it occurs in that age range also. I would have thought it would be older too. But usually it's in the people in the prime of life. So we're looking at people who are really, really healthy. People who are young, their heart young in body. And we find that the thing is that causes these issues of life and the challenges of life are things that cause stress in one's life. The stress hormones of life are cortisol, you know, adrenaline. So if we're under stress, bombarding our bodies with stress, we have high levels of cortisol or the what we call stress hormones. So what happens is degradative to the system. So it causes bone to weaken, it causes osteoporosis, it causes our immune mechanism to weaken, you know, causing us and leading us to the problem of being more vulnerable to infections and things like that. So the downward spiral occurs. And we'll be talking about that a bit more as we go along in our study. But you know, that sort of sets up the idea that why the circle that we have in life, and we find that it's biological changes, you know, we have a shift of our enzymes, we have a shift of our... Hi, David. Good to see you. We have a shift in the chemistry of our body, you know, because of the hormone levels. We also have a problem psychologically, we find that we view ourselves differently. And we look at the worth of our bodies and the worth of ourselves related to the kind of things that we accomplish in life. You know, the world says we have to look good, feel good, make good, do good or you know good. See, so now we realize that the world has its impact upon us, because then we become fall prey to the world system. And the world system is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and private life. See, that's 1 John 2, 15, 16. And so now we see that we have the pressures of life, you know, that affect us. And socially, it also we have a meaningful life and we feel like the way that we are feeling socially about ourselves is if we're well accepted. I know most of us, you know, if you're an introvert like me, you know, you feel like, wow, I'm out there to try to please man. And the problem is, that's impossible. You know, and that's an impossible thing. So, and when we look at Solomon, really, and we'll be talking about this more as we go along in our study. We talked about Solomon, he's at the end of life. And now remember, in first Kings, you know, God asked, we asked Solomon, really, what can I give you so that you become a king that leads your nation well? And he asked God for wisdom. And God says to him, well, because you asked for wisdom, I'm going to give you that and everything else thrown in. But then in, you know, first Kings four, now he talks about the fact that now I want you to not do some things. I don't want you to collect wives, you know, and 700 concubines misses the mark of it. I don't want you to collect horses, stables of 20,000 horses misses the mark a little bit. And I don't want you to keep gold. I don't want you to collect things. He had gold shields on his palace walls, valued at a million dollars in today's economy, a piece. How about that? See, now we realize that he's on a downward spiral, doing all the things that God told him not to do, even though he's been given wisdom. And we're going to talk about that also. You know, now there's wisdom of the world and there's wisdom from above. And we're gonna be talking about that. And I think most of you already understand that since we did our study on James. But you see, the idea now is the fact that the problem is that he chose to do things his way. God has a solution for him, but he chose to go his own way. And that's the Judges 21, 25. In those days, God wanted a theocracy. And since there was no God in their life, you know, they're putting, setting aside God, they're doing what's right in their own eyes. So what doing right in their own eyes leads to is, first of all, leads to spiritual apostasy, starting the downward spiral. That leads to moral awfulness, and that leads to then political anarchy. You know, life becomes very disordered. Now we're going to look at that disordered life now, because that is why he looks at life as, he looks at life as vain and empty, you know. And then we're going to see that he talks about all the different philosophies of life, you know. And we're going to be talking, you know, about the things that are most challenging to him, you know. The thing is, is that he ends up in a position where life is meaningless. And life is meaningless because, see, he's saying that I'm going to live life the way I want to live life. And because I'm living my life the way I want to live life, then what happens? See, his life is empty and vain. So life then becomes meaningless and empty. So what happens to him at the end of life? Okay, I'm projecting a little bit now. I'm saying that because he had so many different women and wives in his life, this guy probably has some venereal disease, okay. And therefore, you know, he's sick. And the main sickness in the old days, before penicillin was available, was gonorrhea and syphilis. And of course, there were various stages that, Dr. Clare here, she'll tell you all the stages of the syphilis and they're all bad, okay. But the cure for syphilis is a medication called penicillin. And they didn't have that available at that time. So now we see not only as a physical problem, but it's a moral problem also. So now he's falling. And see what happens is it sort of starts a domino effect in life. Now we realize that, hmm, what do we do? See, the best is yet to come. Because you know what, you all know what the answer is. You've read the rest of the book. And the rest of the book says, in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, you know, here's the conclusion. Fear God and obey his commandments. We're going to be talking about the benefits of fearing God. Because in Proverbs, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1, 7. And also Proverbs 9 and 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. And once we get into that pattern of life, you know, now putting God into the system of our thinking, now that's here. See, God wants us to think here. It's a both-and. So now we get to talk not only philosophically, but also theologically about why God has used Solomon to talk philosophically about life. Now, philosophy is philos, meaning love, and sophia, meaning love of wisdom. So now we're going to be talking about a person who does not love wisdom, you know, and also a person who does love wisdom from God. And so that sort of sets the stage, David, for you. And it's open. So we have a lot of questions to ask. Now, the main question we want to ask is why. Why is what Solomon's saying so important? And that's where we are. David? Um, so I, I'm sorry I missed last week. I had, I was looking forward to it because I felt like it's one thing we're going to do right quick. I thought it was really going to be got on the point and I thought it'd be kind of fun to do. So if you'll take your little soap bubbles. All right. What I want you to do is I want you to have a little competition at the table you're at. All right. Who can blow the biggest bubble? All right. Who can blow the biggest bubble? We're going to give us, you know, two or three attempts each and let's see who can blow the biggest bubble. All right. Ronnie, go get you some soap over there. Oh, wow. Oh, you're going to do it that way. It's not going to work. There you go. All right. Have we decided who can blow the biggest one yet? All right. All right. Now one more, one more little fun game with it. And we'll, we'll call it a day on this. And Kat just did this, but I want to see who can blow the most bubbles with one breath. You had a good run there. That's a good one. Look at that. Wow. All right. So now you don't have to turn those bubbles in. You can take them home with you. You can take them home with you. And if you have kids or whatever, grandkids, you know, what are you going to do? All right. I had a purpose in this. So we're going to look at last week. We looked at, I wasn't here, but I was going to walk you down through several Greek, I mean, Hebrew terms. All right. But the first one that we're going to look at tonight, we're going to look at just reviewing back to where Ron started last week. This, this word for preacher, right? That word for preacher or translated teacher, what is significant about it is that it's a public speaker who brings a crowd together, but it's as if he's debating within himself. In other words, Solomon right here, as you read his words, you want to understand he's just not speaking out to you. He's speaking to himself. He's evaluating what have I done with my life? What have I done? So that it's key to understand that when Solomon speaks, he's speaking to himself, right? And we get the privilege of listening in and seeing how it might apply to us. The second word we're going to look at is one that we just kind of looked at for a second with this little object list in vanity. The word Hevel, translated vanity. It also means emptiness, futility, vapor, whatever disappears quickly, leaves nothing behind, does not satisfy. And here's where it comes in with a little exercise was, there's a seminary professor that I read about, wants to find it as whatever is left after you break a soap bubble. Now, let's get home with me. Think about all the effort you put in just to blow a little bubble, right? And magnify that, the effort you put into life. And if your life is not lined up, if it's purpose is not in line with what God wants, when the day is done, it's like that bubble just popped. Of what value is that? Of what value is that? One of the translations that we refer to, I thought it was pretty interesting last week. I'm not sure if I had it in the handout let me see if it says it in here. One of the translations I read says, what is there to show? There's another way of saying it. What have I got to show for all the effort I put into life? That's what Psalms is talking about. He's debating within himself, right? So we got to listen to what he's saying. And then what advantages does man have? This word getron in Hebrew is translated advantage. It also translates profit, gain, excel, excellency, better, and surplus. Basically it means that which is left over. So when the day's done, if what is left over has no eternal value, then what have you just done? It's a big waste of time. It's a big waste of time. So just quickly kind of going through last week again, when he talks about man, he's referring to man as made from the earth. He's not talking about spiritual man. He's talking about man from the earth. Not the man that was in God's image, but the actual physical man, all right? This word emal in Hebrew is translated work. And what's interesting about this, because going back and reading this again, it says what advantages does man have in all his work? That word work right there in Hebrew translates hard work, toil, labors, efforts. In other words, it means to work to the point of exhaustion and yet experience little or no fulfillment. So associated with that word, and when I was going over this with Terry, Terry has some times at work where she really struggles with her environment that she works in. There you probably know. She's probably shared that with you. And I'm reading this and all of a sudden I see her mind going, I can relate to this. I can relate to this. I work to the point of exhaustion, but there's no fulfillment. And what's associated with that word is grief, misery, frustration, weariness. She's not whistling while she works in other words, right? And Solomon's not whistling while he works here either. He's debating with himself, why am I doing this? And all the misery that comes with it. And under the sun is the final thing we're going to look at. It's 29 times used in Ecclesiastes, also along with the phrase under heaven. It refers to looking at life from a human perspective. So again, what's Solomon doing? He's looking under the sun as he is debating within himself. He's going, what is going on under the sun with no consideration of above the sun, right? Excuse me. So under the sun, man's viewpoint involves trying to make sense out of life by planning, applying man's wisdom and experience, which Ron mentioned a while ago. So I was going to have you guys do a summary paraphrase last week, and that was going to be kind of, I'm going to have you do it, but I'm going to read you mine. And Kat, I'll make sure you get a copy, okay, for what it's worth. All right. When Solomon, who had an abundance of every needed resource given to him by God, while approaching the end of his life, paused and reflected on his life's experiences, priorities, and achievements, he lamented that all the effort, along with all the accompanying grief, misery, and weariness to find meaning, purpose, satisfaction, and fulfillment in life apart from God was worthless, of no eternal significance or value. And as Noel said a minute ago, a big waste of the life God had given him. I really believe he is lamenting what he did under the sun that Ron talked about a few minutes ago. All those years under the sun, and he looks at it and says, what was that all about? So that was last week. Any questions or thoughts? I just have a comment. It just seems to me, when you look at that, he had every single monetary blessing, every Cadillac, every Mercedes. I'm just saying, everything you possibly want maturely, but it just isn't satisfied. If you don't have a relationship with God, and you just don't have a purpose, and you see so many people that have so much financially, or so much wealth, or so much prosperity, but yet, they're miserable. What did Rockefeller say? Anybody know what Rockefeller said? Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Yeah, what did he say? One more dollar. One more dollar, just a dollar more. And he was asked, how much is enough? He said, just a dollar more, just a little bit more. Never satisfied. And when his day was done, what can I say? Can't take it with me. That's right. All right, so that's last week. Let's go to this week. So I've titled these lessons, What Really Matters? Last week is when everything seems meaningless, and this week is when pursuing life's answers is so frustrating. So we're just going to walk verse by verse through this, all right? And we're going to see how Solomon unpacks this a little bit in terms of his deliberation within himself. He says, you know, a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, panting, it returns to its place where it rises. Gusting to the south, turning to the north, turning, turning, goes the wind, and the wind returns and cycles. All the streams flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full. The streams are flowing to the place, and they flow there again. So answers aren't found in science, all right? Answers aren't found in science. This is his first point. He says, a generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The earth is relatively what? Stable. It's a good answer, Kat. I had the word permanent. You want to add that? Stable is a good one. It is dependable. Its laws have been discovered and utilized by mankind. What are some examples of the good use of the laws of nature? Airplanes. Airplanes, yeah. Airplanes. Mattresses. Mattresses, there we go. A good mattress. A good mattress. Yeah. Using light for energy. Light, yeah. Edison's discovery of fluorescent bulbs, right? They're the incandescent bulbs, right? I mean, wow, you know? Yeah. What's another example? Water. Water. Well, we have put water to good use. Now, some of us haven't. But a lot of us have. You know, Ron's profession does something with science that's really important, you know? And Claire dispenses it. What would that be, Claire? Medicine. Medicine. Yeah. Medicine. Hi, Andrea. Hello. I'm reading it again. Well, thank you. Thank you. So we've done good things with what God has created that's dependable. We've also done some things that are not so good. Back to the airplane. What does the airplane deliver? What? Drugs. They're on drugs, right? But what does it deliver? Bombs. Yeah, bombs. We have put, you know, when those scientists discovered how to split an atom, the smallest particle that they knew of at the time, basically. They figured out how to split it and release all of that energy that's stored within it. Mass destruction. Amazing. Airplanes can also cause a strike. They can, can't they? Yeah. We've found that out over all of it. Oh, did you? Or was it the airline you were flying on that caused it? No, I'm generalizing. You're generalizing. I don't fly anymore. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I get that a lot. All right. All right. So, good and bad. So man is transient. Transient. Which means what? His life on this earth is how long? Temporary. Temporary. The earth has been around since the beginning. My life has been on this planet as of next week, 69 years. That's nothing. I know I'm not old. Thank you, Gene. I won't say how old you are. I'm 39. I'm 39 plus. That's right. So, yeah. So, transient. Mankind's continuity is maintained through births and the life cycle from generation to generation. If we didn't have the reproductive cycle, if God, there's a reason why God said to Adam and Eve and to mankind, this is the fruitful and multiply, right? Because if we're not fruitful and multiply, then we are not going to exist. So, there's a reason for that and God had a purpose in it. Two absolute truths concerning human nature and human beings. Life is what? Short and death is what? Certain. Life is short and death is certain. So, how do those truths affect people and their perspectives about life? Anything goes. That's right. That's a good answer. I'm sorry. I'm going to give my age away. The commercial comes back from the past. You only go around once in life, right? To do what? Have all the gusto you can get. It's all about me. It's all about me. So, your perspective is very self-centered and self-focused. And again, remember Solomon is deliberating within himself here. And he's evaluating this. And these are conclusions he's coming to, right? A generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets. What happens every 24 hours? A new day. Sunrise and sunset. How does it happen? He didn't know this at the time, but we know today. What is it? The earth is turning. Earth rotation. That's correct. Earth is turning on its axis. For what purpose, by the way? Why did God spin the earth? Come on, scientists. Seasons, but there's more than that. For life. Exactly. For life. If the earth's not spinning, one side is really cold and dark, and the other side is what? Really hot and unbearable. In Texas, that happens every day. True, Gene. True. I'm kind of like Solomon. You're kind of like Solomon, okay. All right. So, it's turning to sustain life. And what changes about that? Absolutely nothing, right? It's like clock. It's ongoing, continuous. Not so with men. Gusting to the south, turning to the north, goes the wind. What do we know about the wind? You can't see it. You can't see it. It's invisible. What else do we know? It's unpredictable. It's unpredictable. What else do we know? Direction. It changes directions. What else do we know? It takes seeds to other places. It takes seeds to other places. Oh, it is used by God for a purpose. That's great. What else? It blows all the leaves out of my tree. Yeah, it creates work, doesn't it? It creates work. Yeah, so we know all that, right? So, what impact does the wind have on life? It's actually going to happen in the night. Yeah, what is that? The weather, right? The weather. If there is no wind, there's no weather. If there's no weather, there's no what? Life. Life. The weather, what God used in his creation is beyond our understanding, but boy, it makes a lot of sense when you stop and look at it. So, Solomon's point again is that man comes and goes, but the wind remains. I guess the question is fully understood. Obviously, the answer is no. If you don't believe me, watch the weather, right? Watch the weather and just see how predictable, how good they are. I mean, they've gotten better, but I think if they get 50 percent, they're having a good day, you know? I mean, they just, it's a thankless position they've got to try to forecast, but nevertheless, again, Solomon's point is man comes and goes, but the wind remains. All the stream flows to the sea, and the sea's never full. Solomon's describing the water cycle. What are the four steps of the water cycle? It goes back to seventh grade science. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation. One more. You're there. Possessor of precipitation. Collection. Collection. It doesn't go away. I mean, it's in a cycle. It's a cycle, but it's always there. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing when you think about it. Yeah. So, what aspects of God's creation are involved in this water cycle? We've already talked about the sun, the wind, the oceans, the rivers, the lakes, all the bodies of water. All that's involved in it. I read a statistic, 97 percent of the water of the world is contained in the oceans and rivers, and in other words, it stays static. You know, we have two inches of rain or 12 inches of rain. It doesn't matter. The amount of water that is collected, it stays static, basically. All right? Overall. So, anyway, why is that important? Back to the question a while ago, why is it important that this happens? It sustains life. And what never changes? The water cycle. Now, it has its moments. We call those droughts or floods, right? It has its moments. It's still the water cycle. It's just that it's not dumping it in the right way, the way you want it dumped, in the right place where you want it dumped sometimes, right? Sometimes you're getting more than you want. It's not being cycled the way we want it. No, you're right. Exactly. It's not being cycled the way we want it. There you go. There you go. So, again, Solomon's point is that continues, but man comes and goes. So, when nature is considered apart from God, it's considered uniform, predictable, unchangeable, and uninterruptible. You know, there's movements afoot to try to figure out how to make it rain and all that type of thing. And we might gain some, you know, impact there, I don't know, at some point in time. But I'm not sure you can interrupt the way to pass. It's just a thought. Now, I can tell you what does interrupt the way to pass. Yeah, well, a thing called a volcano, right? Now, man has nothing to do with volcanoes. That's all about God's creation, right? But when all of that stuff comes up out of the earth, and it literally darkens the sky, it changes weather patterns, right? So, man can't do it, I don't think. But that's my opinion. It's uninterruptible. Man's pursuit of understanding the meaning of life by understanding nature. If you're going to try to understand life based on that, you're going to be frustrated, you're going to be despondent, at least a frustration and despondency. Because there's no answers when you look at life strictly by nature. There's no answered prayer. There's no miracles. It's just there. Now, we know better. Again, we're looking under the sun, right? But the reality is God created nature, and he does answer prayer. He does do miracles. So, let's look at some of them. Joshua 10, 6-14, Susan. Not one of them shall stand before you. So Joshua came upon them suddenly by marching all night from Jogaila, and the Lord confounded them before Israel. And he slew them with great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Bethphoron, and struck them as far as Azekah and Nakedah. And they fled from before Israel while they were on the descent of Bethphoron. The Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword. Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day, when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, O sun, stand still at Gibeon, and O moon, in the valley of Ajala. So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation avenged themselves of their enemy. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. All right. So when we get our eyes out from under the sun, and we look above the sun, who's there that can make a difference? God. And who has total control over his creation? God. All right. So, God made the sun stand still. First he sent hailstones. He sent hailstones. Wow. Yeah. He killed more of the enemy with hailstones. That's a good point. That's a good point. But here's what, back to the point, right? My point I'm making. Joshua prays, right? God answers the prayer. And the point we made is, when you look under the sun, there's no answer prayer, and there's no miracle. You look above the sun, and you've got an answer prayer, and you've got a miracle. Right? God is more than capable. So let's look at the next one, Isaiah 38, 1-8. Claire? How I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what's good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your fallen nations, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you this day from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend his city. This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz to go back ten steps. So the sun's shadow went back ten steps on the stairway of which it has gone down. Oh, again, God answers a prayer, and God does a miracle. Right? Next, Exodus 14, and Joshua 3-4. And these are easy. I'm going to go ahead, and I didn't put them down because I think you guys know what happens in Exodus 14. But Exodus 14, right? Joyce, you're already screening. What is the answer? What's happening in Exodus 14? Ah, she does this one. The parting of which sea? The Red Sea, right? The parting of the sea. And then it's not long after that, right? Oh, forty years, give or take, and something else gets parted. What's that? The Jordan River. So twice, God parts water so that his people can walk on dry ground. Twice. That psalm comes back. When you think you're going under, when you think you're going under, part the waters, right? Part the waters. I mean, you can pray that prayer, and who knows what he'll do. All right. Mark 4, 35-41. I love this one. Who hasn't read it would like to read it? Go ahead, Morgan. That day when Ethan came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side, leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't we care if we drown? He got up, reviewed the wind, and said to the waves, quiet and still. Then the wind died down, completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have the faith? They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obeyed. And who is it? He's God. He's God, right? Overgrown nature. Overgrown nature. He sure did. That would have confounded the weatherman. It sure would have. Oh, man. Then you have Matthew 6, 25 to 34, and one of these great passages that Jesus taught. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, as to what you'll put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the buildings of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spend. Yet I say to you, that not even Solomon, in all of his glory, clothed himself like one of these. I guarantee you Solomon had a wardrobe. But not like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you? You of little faith. Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. To do what? Seek first what? His kingdom. And what? His righteousness. And all that other stuff he'll take care of. All these things come as he said. So don't worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. And so I ask the question, what will he do for you? What will he do for you? Now, we've got the time, because I'm looking at the clock. If one of you feels led to share, and I don't want you to force yourself, but if you feel led to share, share something that you prayed for one time, that God answered and did something miraculous. Morgan. I met this lady. I was working at a bookstore at the time, a PCC bookstore. She came in, and I helped her find her book, and I noticed she had a hospital band. So I was like, hey, what's going on? Tell me your story. She said, well, I'm having open heart surgery tomorrow morning, and I just wanted to get all my books so I can study in recovery. I said, that's awesome. What can you pray for me? Well, that's one of her stories. I prayed for her for like that week, you know, a couple weeks, and I forgot about it. And I'm doing clinicals in Dallas, and this lady hit the top of my mind one day. I'm like, God, I pray that she's doing well. I felt like this deep sorrow almost, but I knew, you know, God was bringing her to my mind just like out of nowhere. But God, like, I just pray that she's doing okay. So I'm heading home from clinicals. I get on this crowded, the TRE, crowded TRE. There's one seat available at this table, and I go on a sit-down, and then in comes this lady. She sits right across from me. She's telling me about her classes, her law classes. The lady that I met four years prior was also, she was going to be a lawyer. And we're talking, and we're talking, and I'm like, wow, wow. As I cross the campus, and right under that, the beginning of a huge scar. And I, like, every time I tell that story, I break out in showbiz because, like, God showed me her. Okay. And I got to hear her stories of how well she was doing in her life. And I'm like, thank you, God. I didn't even, like, like, comprehend everything that was happening right in that moment. But once I got home, I just cried. I cried and cried. And it's like, it's okay. It's okay. I'm breaking out now. Lord, thank you. That's great. Great story. Anybody else want to share? I do, David. When we were young, I had three other brothers, and I'm the younger brother. And we found out, my two older brothers were gone, but Neil, my younger brother, and I were still. And we found out that Mom had cancer. We didn't understand, really, what it was, but there was a chance she was going to die. And we got, Neil and I got down on our knees in our bedroom and prayed for Mom, and she lived 17 more years. So, and I don't think it was cancer. So, I mean, it's just, I didn't really think that much about it growing up, because as a kid, I knew that God was the one, as we've been taught, that God could do anything. And we believed it. But I look back as I've grown up and into a man and then raised my own kids, and God brought back up to me one time when I was scouting something, what did I do when you were 10? Yeah, He brought it back. Yeah. Reminded you. It's a good word, man. Anybody else? Joyce? I really don't want to. Well, this is our family verse. Okay. We were in Colorado. We were still doing some training, and we couldn't find a church there in Denver. It was just, we looked, and it's a church I decided we would not find one there. So, it's a big church, but we didn't go find it. And so, that's how God answered our prayer, to seek God's name in verse. Yeah. That's great, Joyce. Okay. That story was written by a team called Denver Broncos. They're not very good. Right now. So, the team doctors asked if I would join them to be in charge of the sports clinic there, which had been really an honor, because I was just a neophyte orthopedic surgeon. But what happened was the pastor of the church that we were going to come back to was going to visit Colorado, and he was only going to be there one day. And that one day happened to be a game day. So, I'm asking my boss if I could take a day off on a game day, and he looked at me like, I'm crazy. But he said, okay. But I had to do some extra work and stuff. But what happened on that day, we went up to, they wanted to see the campus of Colorado University. There are two major valleys there, called the Big Thompson Canyon, and also the Boulder Canyon. We chose to go to Boulder Canyon, which is just outside Boulder, Colorado. But we were going to go up to the Big Thompson, because that's a real pretty one. And that ends up in Estes Park, which is one of the most beautiful places in Colorado. But we chose to go up Boulder Canyon, and as we were up there enjoying the sun, we heard thunder and lightning, all sorts of noise. And what that was, well, what it was, was there was a thunderstorm in the Big Thompson Canyon. It rained solidly for around three or four hours. But a wall of water, because it rained so much, because they had to release some water. A wall of water came down that Big Thompson, 20 feet high. There were 200 missionaries from Campus for Sacred Christ in that canyon, and they all were washed away. And we were going to be in that canyon. So we felt like Matthew 6.33 was really a turning point in our lives. Because when we came back from Colorado to Texas, we didn't have a job, because the job that was offered to me was in Colorado. But God answered prayer, time after time after time, to permit me to be in this area for almost four years. Church. At a good church. Yeah, at a good church. And this is one of the churches. Yeah. Well, Jim? Mine's not dramatic like that. But a few, about a year ago, my niece was going through a divorce. She's got five kids, and the car breaks down and is in the break. And so she's getting it fixed. And she didn't have, her kids are like 22 to, you know, six years old. And she couldn't afford to buy her a car, and I was financially able to help her in that way. And so I started looking. I mean, looking and, you know, about cars. And I used to sell cars after I was a schoolteacher for a long time. And I was praying, and my sister was praying, and we just couldn't find anything. We couldn't find anything. And finally, one Sunday morning, I got up looking, and the budget was $10,000, and you can't buy anything for $10,000, really. You know, you would think that you couldn't, and it's just junk after junk after junk. And Lexus came up. Lexus. Yeah, right. Long story short, the lady was a schoolteacher, drove back and forth to Dallas. She wanted $8,800 for it. And I said, I did a negotiation skill that you learn in certain businesses, and she took $8,000 for it. My niece drove it for four months. Sold it for four months. It was just, and the people we sold it to, the people that sold it to her, he was a, her husband was a dentist, but she said, I want, I know she needs to have this. That's good. When she sold it, the people that sold it to, that's kind of what it was. Wow. So it stayed in the ministry. I guess, but it was, and then I got, I got one more. Oh, okay. I told her, I don't like talking to my aunt. We're all close relatives, and this was like a stepmother, and she died in January. We were in Utah, and my cousin Paul said, well, we want you, we want you to come to the funeral. Some great grandkids, grandkids, and kids are going to talk. You know, you're close. They're going to want you to talk. That was what was said. I said, okay. So I get down there, and I go into the hall, the fellowship hall where they're having the funeral. My cousin was there, and she said, well, congratulations. I said, why is that? She said, well, you're doing the funeral. I said, no, I'm not. Yeah, you are. But anyway, I was the minister that did the funeral, which, you know, if you've done funerals, you've got to prepare, but God prepared me in a special way that, you know, He led me to talk about Psalms 23 and go through that with them, and then to share. Tim Flader told me one time that, you know, at a funeral, he had God say, if we're Christians, we'll see you later. If we're not, you need to say goodbye. And that's because I knew that a lot of people that were alive did not know the Lord is so good. And I said that to them. I'm going to see her again. God works in strange ways, because I was not really ready to do that. But he gave you the words to say. I was thinking about it when I brought it up. I was thinking about some of that psalm, and then he said it. I'm like, oh, I need to do it. So I just did it. And then I was thinking about it. Well, we'll have a fair time in a minute, and we'll pray for her. Well, that's good. I didn't think that in this group here, we wouldn't have stories. I knew we'd have some stories. I just didn't know who would feel led to share them. I could talk to you all with my stories. I'm not going to do that. I want to hear everybody else's stories. So Solomon says, under the sun, answers aren't found in science. But we know above the sun, there's a God. And we know that he supersedes all science. Right. He made science. He made science. He's in total charge of science. And he does miracles, and he answers prayer. Answers aren't found in anything new. All things are worrisome. Man is unable to speak. The eye is not satisfied by seeing, or the ear filled with hearing. Which has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done. Get this. There's nothing new under the sun. Can one say anything about anything? I'm sorry. Can one say anything about anything? Look, this is new. It has already existed in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those who will come after. There will also be no remembrance by those who follow them. Now, there's a lot of truth in some of this stuff he's saying here. And we're going to get into that. But again, remember, he's debating with himself. He's looking under the sun. So what's so appealing about something that's new to you? Come on. Nobody's drawn to things new in here? OK. But I learned a lot from that doctor about grief and indifference. And he said, and some of you can tell me, I peed. He told you. Yes. I had never heard of it. It refers to post-traumatic stress disorder. And I thought, you know, my granddaughter was brutally murdered. This February. And so that's what he said. But I didn't know. But he told me that. And just a little bit more learning that trauma can, like, 20 years later, come back. And somebody else. But I didn't know that. So good. Things are new. Things are new. I'm able to feel. I haven't been able to feel. Yeah. The trauma in my childhood. And then just the past 10 years. And, like, being able to completely new and completely amazing. So you can feel now. All right. Let me show you. I'm going to show you something. This thing right here. No, but what it can do is. And I can't, I can't learn it all. I don't know how to use it. There's one thing I know for everybody, but it does mean. In my lifetime, I've had a wonderful wife. Had four wonderful kids. Six wonderful grandkids. And five wonderful great grandkids. And every one of them is a miracle of life. Yeah. Something new. Well, good. To see how that life goes out and makes the way forward. And my oldest grandson is now 32. And to see them have a full life is that's new and that's wonderful. It's good. That's true. God can only create something new. God is the only one that can create something new. I think we lost our feet. Sorry, guys. See if I can get him back on. There we go. Back on. Okay. So I asked the question, what's so appealing? I said the experience, distraction, deliverance. What new things or experiences are on your bucket list? And I have a bucket list. I don't know if you guys. I have a bucket list. It involves travel. There's things in God's creation I've yet to see. And I want to see, you know, firsthand. I mean, I can see them online, but I want to see them firsthand. You know, I did the Alaska cruise. I'd go back in a heartbeat. You know, that was a blast. But I've yet to see Great Britain. I want to go see Great Britain. Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland. Ah, there it is. Switzerland. Switzerland's on your bucket list. All right. You know, I want to see some national parks. I get to go to Yellowstone. I want to go to Yellowstone, you know. You want to see the art? The art. Yeah, that would be fun. It is. It's incredible. There you go. So there's things on your bucket list. How are we like the ancient Greeks? Let's look at Acts 17, 21. Acts 17, 21. Who has that and can read it? No one? Now, all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. Well, you can get highly focused on telling and hearing something new and not make any progress in life. Would you agree? Yeah. Right? If you know the whole story there, you know that Paul engaged them in a conversation and presented the gospel, the good news. And when he made the point that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, that coming out of the dead into life, that befuddled him. Some of them said, well, I want to hear more. Some of them said, ha, he's crazy. Some of them said, I want in. So the new that God does, again, we look above the sun. When God does something new, it's new. And rising from the dead was new. And I want in. Right? And guess what? I'm going to rise myself. Right? We got a word from Solomon there. We only go so far. McAfee, what's going on here? Did I lose him again? Okay, here we go. All right. Where are we at? All right. So what's so frustrating about learning or experiencing new things? I don't know about you guys. The more you learn, the more you experience, the more you want to know and experience. It's just, it's a never ending cycle of trying to learn more and experience more. And again, we're under the sun. Are you ever satisfied? Well, are you ever satisfied? Yeah. Most of us struggle to be satisfied. Right? Yeah. Okay. You'll be satisfied. You'll get all the meat you want. Yeah. You'll hurt. You'll be questioning yourself. Why did I do that? Yeah. So, but why are we not satisfied? Let's look at Ecclesiastes 3.11. If we're looking under the sun and looking at the stuff that's under the sun, let's see. Go ahead. So God has put what in our heart? Eternity. So if we're looking under the sun, we're not seeing eternity, are we? We're seeing the temporary. That's the reason if we look under the sun, we're not going to be satisfied. But when we look above the sun and we see eternity, and we know we have an eternity already secure in Christ, then we are satisfied, right? We're satisfied. So God's put eternity in our hearts. Matthew 11.28. Somebody read that. If you are struggling with being satisfied or being at peace, all you have to do is look above the sun and go to Jesus, right? And he'll give you rest. So what has been is what will be, is the next verse. What isn't new about new inventions or discoveries like the atom bomb, computers, vaccines, medications? What isn't new about them? They all come from what? God, but matter, material things. They're all made out of something that already existed, right? What, you know, the atom has already existed. It's not new. The medications that are manufactured already exist in their raw form. They're just formulated, but they're still the same stuff. It's still carbon. It's still sulfur. It's still hydrogen. It's still nitrogen. It's all still the same. So that's what's not new, the materials. Edison said that his inventions were only bringing out the secrets of nature and applying them for the happiness of mankind. I thought that was a great insight he had about all of his experiments and all the different things that he was the first to discover. He says all he's doing is bringing out the secrets of nature and applying them for the happiness of mankind. So who's the only one who can create something new? God. What is he continually creating? Here's the big verse of the day, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Ron, quoted by memory. And all things become new. Yeah. Again, where are we looking? Up above the sun, right? Above the sun. That's the verse of the day. He made a new creature out of me. Praise his name. What will he ultimately create in the future? Revelation 21, 1 through 5. I'll tell you in summary form, new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem. He's not done. He's not done. He's creating a mansion or a heavenly dwelling place for us right now. He's not done. Isn't that good? And while we've been here speaking tonight, there have been who knows how many thousands and more up on this planet of earth who have become new creatures in him, right? You know that there has to have been thousands in these brief hours that we're together. It is that bowed their knee and received his salvation by faith. How do you know it has? We've got more brothers and sisters now. Our family's enlarging. It's awesome. There's no remembrance of those who came before, he says, that those who will come after there'll be also be no remembrance by those who follow them. So why do we think something is new? Why do we often think that? And the answer is our memories are deficient and we don't study history. The reality is, again, even though there might be a new application of something that was created, it already existed. Methods are many. Principles are few. Methods always change. Principles never what? Do. Methods are many. Principles are few. Methods always change. Principles never do. Answers aren't found in wisdom and philosophy, finally, he says. I, the teacher, have been king over Israel and Jerusalem. I applied my mind to seek and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied. I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened. What is lacking cannot be counted. I said to myself, look, I've amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge. I applied my hand to the wisdom and knowledge, madness, and folly. I've learned this, too, is to pursue the wind. But with much wisdom, as much sorrow, as knowledge increases, grief increases. I want you to see something in this. Here's a pattern. What do you see repeated in every verse? It's a simple pronoun. Myself. Myself. Yeah, it's a one letter. I. I. I, I, I, I, I, I. When you, you, you, begin to try to answer life's questions by your own exploration under the sun, then you're not going to discover much. You're going to get frustrated. And that's what he's saying. All right. Answers aren't found in wisdom and philosophy. Solomon decided to use the wisdom God gave him to pursue the answers to life's questions. He declared the following possible conclusions. Number one, God has given us miserable tasks. He looked at his misery, right, to keep him occupied. How do you describe experiences of life? Well, they bring misery and they're constantly present. Some people are weary of life because it's miserable for them. The people that are miserable in life, the misery never goes away. I mean, I look at Job and I think of the circumstances he was in. And I, every time I read Job, which is what I'm right in the middle of doing in my yearly reading right now. Every time I read it, I get depressed. You know, because I'm thinking, I'm looking at this guy knowing that he didn't do anything. He did nothing. Yet all this calamity comes upon him because God allows it. But he's doing it, why? To test him, right? And to reveal to Job that he's not quite as righteous as he thinks he is. That he doesn't know everything he thinks he knows. I love the twerking of the book. He says, God says to Job, he says, excuse me, just a second, where were you? He says, where were you when I did this? God says to Job, where were you? Were you there giving me counsel? Whoa, when you hear that, you go, I'm out. Far too often, we inflate our ego and our thoughts about ourselves. And Job gets himself put in the right spot by God. But look at that misery. He was miserable. It seemed like it would never end, but it did. Miserable. Why is it this way, though? We've got to remember this. It all started in Genesis chapter 3. So what happened in Genesis chapter 3? Who knows what I'm reading? Sin entered the world. Sin entered the world. Sin entered the world. And because of sin, there was what? Death. The curse. The curse. I've seen all the things that are done under the sun and I found everything to be futile, he says. What did he discover about man's endeavors to solve the problems of life apart from God? He says it's futile. You can't. What does modern man rely upon today? Now, this is where we're going to have a little discussion. And we've got a few minutes left. What does man rely on today to try to explain or to solve the problems we face? Science. Science. Science and? Technology, man. Is it technology? Science, technology? Man. Man's wisdom. They think that they can educate. They think education should result in a solution. Man, but what they're teaching now is baffling. It's baffling. Yeah, true. True. You rely on. Hey, y'all be careful what you Google. Yeah, it's true. Education. All these things you said. Why doesn't it work? It doesn't work because man's lost. He's lost. He's apart from God. He's looking on the horizontal. He's under the sun, and he isn't looking above the sun, right? He's lost. So education, philosophy, psychology, that can't save him. It can't change human nature. That's one thing that people don't understand. Apart from God, human nature is going to do what? Destroy. Destroy. It's always going to be. Look, one of Darwin's principles was called the survival of the what? Fittest. What does that mean? And there you go. There's going to be a battle going on. That's assuming that his theory is correct, which is not. But man, apart from God, has those battles, right? So and the main thing that those solutions of man cannot do is they can't fix this in nature of man. They cannot fix it. And so then Solomon says, so what's crooked cannot be straightened, and what's lacking cannot be counted. So what's crooked about a man? He is what? I just said it. He is sin nature, right? And what can man do about it? Under the sun? Not a thing. And what can God do about it? Hey, John 3, 3 through 6 and 16. Now we're going to read this. When is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. For God so loved the world, that he gave him a begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Amen. Right? Amen. Well, you can put another one in there. While we were getting dinner, Christ died for us. That's right. Amen. Thank you, Gene. So what can God do about it? He can give us a new spiritual nature. And what did Jesus do during his ministry while on earth? One thing that I mean, I can think of several examples, but I came up with the one where the woman has been over for 18 years. And what does he do? He straightens her out. But the other one I came up with, you remember the man with the wizard hand? What does he do? He says, he says, stick out your hand. That's what he did. He said, stick out your hand. The man sticks out his hand for the first time in forever. God can straighten out that which is crooked. He did it with me. Isn't that good? So I said to myself, look, I've amassed all this wisdom. Again, I've amassed all this wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me. And my mind is thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge. I've applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge. And finally, I've learned that this too is a pursuit of the wind. With much wisdom is much sorrow. As knowledge increases, grief increases. Can wisdom and experience explain and solve every problem in life? It starts from the end. No. Okay. Why or why not? Because there's some things that can't be explained. No, thank you, Kat. There's a lot of things that can't be explained. What about? That's right. Yeah. But some things can't be explained. Some things can't be. And by the way, God's not obligated to explain them to us. Like why the ocean stays where it is. Why doesn't it overflow? I believe there's a verse that talks about that. I don't think there's a verse that talks about that. It's not so simple as how come the ocean stays in it. What conclusion does Solomon declare about wisdom and knowledge? Now it's not worth the effort. It says not worth the effort. He's looking at the sun. It's not worth the effort. Because much wisdom gives much sorrow. And increasing knowledge gives increasing grief. So in Genesis 3, 1 through 7, Adam and Eve got an experiential knowledge of good and evil. Oh, man, can you imagine that? They were in paradise. And this rascal comes along and feeds them a lie. And they bite into it and believe it. They were in paradise. Adam and Eve got experiential knowledge of good and evil. Hey, they figured it out. They knew what was good and what was evil. They didn't know, but in the disobedience of God, they alienated themselves from God. And they gave us a nature that's bent that same way. So until God does something about that in you, then you're bent. But boy, the moment you say, save me, just like those guys did on that boat. We're perishing. Master, save us. He saves you. And what was bent has made you whole and straight. Isn't that good? For the Christian, instead of explanations on what is life built, God's what? Promises. How? By. Next week, I will be in Orlando. And I won't be where I can zoom in. I'm sorry. But I will help get this guy ready for Ecclesiastes 2. Oh, no, you won't. Well, I'll tell you what. Isn't this exciting, though? Because we're looking at life in the rock. You know, the point is that what Solomon wants us to do. He wants to take a deep look into our hearts. And as we look into our hearts, what do we find? Sin. Yeah. Because we all have a sin nature, don't we? The good thing is that we have promises of God to bail us out. See? And the bailer outer is Jesus Christ. So there's where, see, there's where we're headed. And that's why, as we go along in our study, in Ecclesiastes 3.11, he says, he says, God has made everything beautiful in its time. And he's placed eternity in the hearts of all men. Pascal says it best. God has placed a God-shaped vacuum in every heart. And only God can fill it. That's why life is futile without God. So, you know, if we look at Paul's writings in John 15.5, you know, Paul says, you know, that I'm the vine, you're the branches. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall bear much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. And the fruit that he's talking about, you know, is from Galatians 5.22. I can't remember. There are nine things, but what are they? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It comes in a package. And that package comes with Jesus Christ. For by grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast, because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. It's new. We're going to be talking about science a little bit more, okay? That the thing about science, and I'm supposed to supposedly be a scientist, okay, as a physician. But there is a thing called the recapitulation theory, okay? It's a long word. But what it means is, there's an old saying by, it was started by a guy named Heichel. And Heichel said, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. What that means in English is the fact that in the embryonic growth cycles, there's a similarity as we go through the development of embryonic form into the adult form. And so the thing is that the developing embryo recapitulates the fact that we and in our species can look very similar in our development. Now, the guy named Heichel developed this theory. And this is the whole idea of the biogenetic law of what we call the embryologic parallelism. In other words, it's parallel in regards to the development of, as we go into the cyclical aspect of growth. Now, the problem with that is that Darwin took Heichel at his word. Heichel made the drawings to make those different embryologic cycles the same. That's where Darwinian, the Darwin origin of species made it look like it was a development that was caused because of chance rather than being created. So now we have the Darwinian cycle that's been produced. And what Darwin knew was that Heichel fabricated the drawings and he published it anyway. So today in science, we believe that the development of humanity came from a triple light or something, you know, which is not true. So we have been duped by science into thinking that that is true. And they are still in the textbooks today. So that's the problem. Fabrication of data. In my college career, I took comparative anatomy. And one of the most interesting professors I ever had. It was very enjoyable because of him. One day in the lecture hall, he's in science building. So he had the big table down front, you know. He climbs up on the table, lays down his back, and he takes one arm and he goes like this. He says, pretend I'm a shark. He says, these are my gills and these are my gills on this other side. And inside those gills are some cartilages that we've identified. And three cartilages on each side is what ultimately evolved into the three inner ear bones in your human ear. I sat there and heard that. And I thought, what in this world? But I had to answer a test question on that. That's what he's talking about. Yeah. And we're going to get into that more. Yeah. See, because there are four guys that are responsible for doing science altogether. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. And Newton is the guy that said science is simply thinking God's thoughts after him. He had it right. These were deists. But you see, unless we were willing to do the experiments, we would not have science as we know it today. See, the inductive, deductive theories have all been presented for us. That's why we have all this information. Now, there are a million bits of new information, medically speaking, every day crossing the library desks. Now, you think, you know, I get to work with medical students and you think they're keeping up. They're always behind because there's too much information. You see, what we get done is more and more faster and faster. And we're going to talk about that in regard to how that affects our life today. More and more faster and faster. Progress. And there's no way to keep up. So we'll never know everything there is to know. So, David, you need to close this in prayer. And what won't change, right? What won't change is man's sin nature. Yes. And God. Yes. Amen. Amen. A plus. Now, you all get an A plus. Because with your stories involved, you see, you're realizing that there's a story to tell because God and his word has impacted each of us in a very special way. So, Father, thank you for this study tonight. And thank you. You know, when you look at Solomon, you go, why in the world did he do what he did? You know, so we don't know. But we know he went down a path where more than capable of going down. And, you know, but for the grace of God, there go I. And we also know that when we look under the sun and try to solve our questions and issues and problems of our lives with our own wit and wisdom or man's wit and wisdom, anything apart from you, it's going to result in frustration and misery and unfulfillment. So, Lord, help us to look up and keep our eyes focused on you. And as Joyce said, Matthew 6, 33, our last verse, seek first your kingdom, your righteousness, and you'll take care of everything we need. And we'll give you the glory we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. To be continued. Thank you so much, y'all.