And so in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, the name of the sermon is The Evil Days.
And what Ecclesiastes chapter 12 does is it describes the process of aging as we get older,
and then toward the end of the chapter there kind of gives an application of what should
we do about that.
And the application is going to be in the second sermon, okay?
So notice what it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, right at verse number 1, remember now
thy creator in the days of thy youth, okay?
Now obviously we know that God is our creator, okay?
The Bible speaks about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost creating us.
We know that God is our creator, and it tells us to remember our creator in the days of
our youth, when we're a young person, okay?
Now oftentimes people have this attitude that I'm just going to have fun while I'm young,
and then when I'm older, I'll get into church.
When I'm older, I'll start soul winning.
When I'm older, I'm going to start reading the Bible.
So the Bible says to remember God when you're young, okay?
Now before we get into this, I want to kind of explain what does it mean by your youth.
Go to Psalms 127, Psalms 127, so just go back in your Bible from Ecclesiastes to Proverbs,
to the book of Psalms, and I'll show you what it means to be in your youth according to
the Bible.
There's a couple of verses we can look at, and so I think in our modern vernacular when
we think of youth, we think of like 10 years old and 12 years old, and that certainly would
be in your youth, but I believe you can be older than 12 years old.
I believe you can be in your 20s and still be in your youth according to the Bible, okay?
Notice what it says in Psalms 127, verse 4, as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man,
so are children of the youth.
So the Bible speaks about a mighty man having arrows, and the Bible's speaking and linking
it to a man of youth having children, okay?
Now look, 12 year olds don't have children, hopefully they don't have children, okay?
If you're in your 20s and you have a couple of kids, I would still be considered, even
though I'm in my 30s, I believe that would still be considered my youth according to
the Bible, okay?
And so basically you can be in your 20s, probably even your 30s, and have children, and that's
linked to being in your youth, so you have children when you are in your youth.
That's not a 10 year old, okay?
That's not a 9 year old, that could be somebody who's older, okay?
Go to Lamentations 3, Lamentations 3.
Because truthfully, as we're talking about the evil days, which is basically talking
about how your body over time gets weakened and gets less, the truth is that when I'm
looking at everybody in this room, quite honestly, your body really doesn't start to deteriorate
until you're older.
Now I've been past my physical prime in terms of speed and strength and things such as that,
and your mental capacity, it hits a peak, and I'm on the downward hill myself, okay?
But I don't think I'm at the point where it's like, oh man, I'm an old man, I can't serve
God, okay?
I believe you can still be in your youth when you're in your 20s or even your 30s.
Part of that depends on, are you taking care of your body?
I don't believe your youth is just, here's the age no matter what, because there are
people that are in their 30s that don't take care of their body.
They're drunks and drug addicts, and quite honestly, the evil days are already upon them
because of how they live their life.
But depending on how you live your life, you can still be in your youth when you get older,
okay?
Notice what it says in Lamentations 3 verse 27, it is good for a man that he bear the
yoke in his youth, okay?
Now notice it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
So a man, a grown man's considered in their youth.
So look, that's not a 10 year old in this verse, right?
It's good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
So in your 20s, that applies to you, right?
Because you're a man, but you're in your youth still.
So in our modern vernacular, when we say youth, we think of eight years old, right?
And truly this applies to someone who when they're eight years old, learn to work hard,
you know, remember your creator, but you can be older than eight.
You can be older than 18 and still in your youth according to the Bible, because the
Bible says it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
You can be a man and still be in your youth according to the Bible, okay?
Now go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
And so the Bible told us to remember our creator in the days of our youth, okay?
Now that would include obviously kids that are young, but also people that are older.
And you know, there's many reasons for this.
One of the big reasons is, quite honestly, you have a lot more free time when you're
young, okay?
As you get older, you will have less free time.
You have responsibilities you need to do.
When you have a family, you have kids, you have a job, look, you have things that you
need to get done and you honestly just don't have as much time to basically serve God.
Now when somebody's 12 years old, my son, when he's 12 years old, he's going to have
responsibilities at our house, he's going to be expected to do stuff, but he's also
going to have free time where he can run around and play outside, right?
And if he has hours free every day, boy, wouldn't it be great to have a young child that reads
the Bible through just one time per year for like 10 years before they're even at the point
where they're like in the workforce?
And they've already read the Bible.
They already meet the qualifications for a pastor there, right?
10 times reading through the Bible.
It's like, man, I didn't start reading the Bible until I was 19 years old.
It's like, man, a child that could just read it and look, they might not understand everything
when they're six years old.
They won't understand the purpose of all those verses because life experience must come to
understand all the parts of the Bible.
I'm not old enough to understand all the Bible fully because of the fact you need to get
older to experience things.
But you know, I'm glad for all the times I read through the Bible before I was married,
before I had kids, because you learn principles that you might not fully grasp, but then all
of a sudden it clicks, okay?
And so it's good when you're young, when you have the time to read the Bible.
Not only that, your mental capacity is at its peak when you're young.
And so quite honestly, you can learn things in the Bible and understand things at a young
age.
It's going to be more difficult as you get older, okay?
At all ages we should serve God, but especially when you're young in a wicked world that we
live in, people need to know the word of God at a young age, okay?
The Bible says, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days
come not.
The evil days.
The evil days is referring to the process of aging, which we're going to see.
Your body is like a machine that breaks down a little bit over time.
It doesn't matter if something's the most well put together machine in the world, it
will slowly break down and need to be repaired.
Is that not true?
No machine is going to last forever no matter how perfect it is, okay?
Now turn to Ephesians five, Ephesians five.
And so look, before your body starts to break down, remember the Lord.
Serve God when you're young, before those evil days come, okay?
In Ephesians chapter five, what it says in verse 16 is this, redeeming the time because
the days are evil.
What are these evil days?
Basically as you get older, okay?
It compares in your youth versus the evil days because as you get older, you're just
going to have pains and difficulties that you didn't have when you're young.
It's part of life.
The evil days will come upon us, okay?
There's a phrase in professional sports, and I don't fully like this phrase because I think
it's...
But they say the only thing that's undefeated is father time.
That's the expression, okay?
What that means is you could have the greatest boxer in the world, you could have Manny Pacquiao
when he's 30 years old, but look, when he's 50 years old, he's not going to be the best
in the world.
Why?
Because as you get older, your body breaks down.
That's just the way...
It doesn't matter how great of an athlete you are, it happens to you.
Doesn't matter how fast you are, eventually you slow down.
Look, Michael Jordan was like the greatest basketball player, but I don't know how old
he is now, but he wouldn't be now because you reach a point and the evil days come upon
you.
Okay?
And the Bible says, you know what?
Before those days come upon you, redeem the time.
Don't waste your time, the Bible is saying.
Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
The problem is in the back of our minds, we kind of feel like we're going to live forever
here on earth.
Like we have all the time in the world, it's like, oh, I'll read through the Bible a hundred
times before I'm dead.
I'm just going to start in like five years.
It's like, look, you only have so much time to serve God.
And what you don't realize is that time accelerates as you get older.
I don't know why that is, but that's the way it works.
It doesn't logically make sense.
But look, once you have a family and you have kids, time starts to accelerate.
I've been married for five years.
It's like, man, that really went by quickly.
Time accelerates as you go to new stages in your life.
And so look, you feel like you're going to live forever and just have all the time in
the world to serve God.
No, go to now, it says in the book of James.
Go to now and serve God now.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, remember now, verse one, remember now thy creator in the days
of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh.
The years are drawing close when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
The Bible says that as people get older, they can reach a point where they say, I don't
enjoy life.
I have no pleasure in them, okay?
It's like, I wish I was in my 20s again.
I wish I was in my 30s again.
I wish I was in my 40s again.
The Bible says, you know, people are going to say I have no pleasure in them.
It's funny because young people always want to grow older, right?
It's like, man, once I'm 16, I can do this.
Or once I'm 18, I can drive or whatever.
I get to do this.
And then all of a sudden, once people reach that point, it's like, oh, man, I wish I had
time to play.
I don't have time to play basketball anymore.
I never get to go to the gym.
And it's just like, you know what, honestly, what the Bible shows us, though, is when people
get older, they will develop that attitude, I wish I was younger, okay?
Now here's the good news for us as Christians.
We never have to say there's no pleasure in our years because we still can serve God and
accomplish something.
And look, if we weren't serving God, then quite honestly, when you get to be your 60s,
70s, 80s, that can be pretty depressing.
But see, you can go soul winning, and you can be as powerful as a soul winner when you're
80 years old as when you're 20 years old.
Now you can't play sports as well when you're 20.
Now you might not be able to go soul winning for as long, and you might have to basically
take more of a rest, which is fine.
Obviously, that's understandable.
But you can still serve God when you're 70, 80, 90 years old.
I hope if I reach an age where I don't have the capacity to preach several times a week,
that I can basically just be a great church member and just go soul winning every week
and be a blessing to that church.
Because I want to serve God until the day I die.
And look, even though your body's going to break down, and there's going to be pain,
there's going to be illnesses, there's going to be difficulties, as a Christian, you never
have to say, I have no pleasure in my life.
Why?
Because you can still lead people to the Lord.
Okay?
Now, notice what it says in verse number one.
What it says is, remember now thy creator.
Okay?
Basically remember saying, you know what, don't forget about, don't kind of push to
the side.
See, young people, oftentimes they might come to a church like this, and they're in a great
church, and they don't actually understand how great of a church it is.
And I'm not trying to boast or to say like I'm someone special.
I'm just saying there aren't a lot of good churches.
And I'll be honest with you, many of us, we really searched hard to find a good church,
and I was like that myself as well.
And young kids, they could be in a church like this and they could take it for granted,
and just feel like, oh, I mean, there's plenty of churches I can go to, and they don't take
it seriously, reading the Bible and memorizing the Bible.
But you know, these Bible memorization challenges, what I found is the younger you are, you're
more likely to be successful because you have more time.
I mean, someone who's in there, I mean, there's so many kids at Verity Baptist, and I don't
know if they're all teens now, a lot of them are no longer teens, but as teens, they were
just memorizing large portions of the Bible.
The New Testament Bible reading challenge is like, oh, I finished after three days.
It's like, what?
You read the New Testament in three days?
It's like, how did you do that?
Well, I mean, they have more time, right?
Now they're serving God with that time.
I'm not criticizing them, absolutely, amen.
Serving God.
But look, I'm not going to read through the New Testament in three days.
I just don't have the ability to have six hours to just read the Bible.
There's stuff we got to get done.
But when you're young, you have a lot of time.
The Bible says, remember now thy creator, don't forget about your creator when you're
young.
Now notice what it says in verse two.
It says in verse two, while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened,
nor the clouds return after the rain.
The Bible speaks about the sun, the light, the moon and the stars being darkened.
And what it's symbolizing is as you get older, basically you're darkened.
That can mean a lot of things.
We're going to look at our eyesight, our hands, our strength and all these things.
But basically just like, you know, it's kind of depressing when you look outside and there's
clouds and it's gloomy, right?
You wake up in the morning, you look outside, you're like, oh, it's going to rain today.
It's a little bit depressing, right?
You don't like to see that.
You don't like it to be dark because the sun is actually very good for us.
Quite honestly, the best thing when there's a deadly virus is that you're out in the sun
and it helps kill that.
My opinion, but I'm just saying the sun is actually very healthy for your body.
It's needful.
You might not realize it here in the Philippines, but in the US we have what's called four seasons.
Now here, rainy and non-rainy season, right?
Two seasons.
In America, we have four seasons.
We have something called winter where there's snow, okay?
But here's the thing, during the winter time when it's very cold, it's also dark for longer
times during the day and it's a time you're going to see skyrockets in suicide because
people are depressed when it's cold and it's dark.
It is just depressing when it's dark.
Mentally, it depresses you.
That's just the way it works.
There's more suicide committed in cold temperatures than in warm temperatures.
That time of year.
Look, when I'd go to work in the morning, it would be, let me convert to Celsius, negative
15 degrees Celsius, okay, I'd go to work in the morning, snow on the ground and it's dark
outside.
I get off work at 4 p.m. because I'd work an early shift to get done and it's already
dark and it's negative 15 degrees.
It got up to negative 10 degrees, okay?
Negative 10 degrees Celsius.
Look, that's depressing.
You drive to work, it's cold, it's dark, you come home, it's dark.
That's why the Bible's saying the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened
because darkness is actually a little bit depressing.
That's just kind of, that's the way it works psychologically.
But not only does it say it's dark and then it says, nor the clouds return after the rain.
See here's the thing, when it gets dark outside or you have a thunderstorm, eventually that
thunderstorm passes.
But look, when you hit 70 years old, you're never going to be 65 again.
The clouds will not return after the rain.
Look, when you start to lose your strength or you start to lose your eyesight, look,
those things will not come back.
The clouds do not return after the rain.
And that's why it's so important to serve God when you're young because once you reach
that point, it's the point of no return, my friend.
You're not going to go back 10 years in time.
The clouds do not return after the rain.
And so look, those evil days will permanently be upon you.
That's why it's so important to take care of your body when you're young.
You don't want these evil days to come upon you because you're going to start saying,
I have no pleasure in them, when it's just difficult doing your daily things.
Then in verse three, it's going to start to describe just the various things that will
break down in your body as you get older.
And let me say this as we're going through all these things.
This chapter is highly symbolic.
It's a very interesting chapter.
But I'll say that I'm explaining all these things.
I'm going to give you my opinion and on some of these things, I've heard different opinions
before, and I'll kind of give you the main things I've heard preached in sermons before,
and I'll kind of tell you the arguments because I can't guarantee that everything I'm telling
you is correct for all of the symbolism because when the Bible is being symbolic, you do your
best to understand it, but you might not be perfect on everything.
Now I'd recommend you actually take notes during this time period, though, as I'm describing
all these things, because this is a bit more of a Bible study here this morning as I'm
going through all these different phrases.
So I'd suggest if you have a paper you can do that, you can take notes for this.
But the first thing it says is this.
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, the keepers of the house shall tremble.
You say, what is that talking about?
Well, I am fully persuaded this is talking about your hands.
There are a couple reasons why.
When people are older, their hands tremble.
Now you might not realize that, but look, you know, if you're around people that are
older, like my grandmother's in her 90s.
When you reach that age, your hands aren't very steady.
When you sign, guess what?
There's a lot of squiggly lines in it.
Why?
Your hands tremble as you get older.
There's going to be a day as long as you live long enough, as long as the end times doesn't
come upon us.
That's correct, my friend.
Then you know what?
Your hands are going to tremble one day, and that's part of life.
And if you actually pay attention to people that are older, you're going to kind of see
that in them.
Now they might try to hide that because they might be a little bit shy or embarrassed.
But look, when you're young, and let's say you drink a lot of caffeine, that can kind
of make your hands shake like that.
That's what happens, though, when you're older, just in your daily life.
Your hands will tremble.
Not only is it because it says it trembles, am I saying it's the hands, but it says the
keepers of the house, okay?
How do you get inside a house?
You open a door.
What do you open a door with?
Your hands.
Your hands are what keep the house, okay?
And so basically when it says the keepers of the house, it's referring to what would
open a door, and eventually these are going to tremble as you get older.
The keepers of the house shall tremble.
That's what the Bible says.
Then it says, and the strong men shall bow themselves, okay?
Now I've heard multiple different things about this, so I'm going to kind of give you the
two main interpretations I've heard, and then I'm going to tell you what I believe
it's actually referring to.
I think it's kind of a combination, and I'll explain this here.
Number one, I've heard that the strong men shall bow themselves is referring to your
back, and as you get older, I mean, when you bow, you go like this, right?
That's what bowing is.
So basically when people get older, if you notice people that are older, they usually
don't have the best posture, right?
Their body starts to kind of bow as they get older.
Their back basically just doesn't have the same strength in it, and oftentimes you'll
see people that are older, they're kind of curled up in the way their posture is.
That's just the way it is, and I want to say this.
I'm just explaining these verses.
I'm not trying to be insulting to people that are older.
I'm just explaining all of these phrases.
This is just what's going to happen to all of us as we get older, okay?
This is part of life that basically your body will start to have this bowing posture naturally,
okay?
It just is what it is.
That's one main interpretation, and the other main interpretation would be that it's referring
to your legs.
The reason why your legs is because the strongest part of your body are your legs, okay?
When I used to go to the gym when I was in college, I was always more of a lower body
workout sort of person because I played soccer, and I've never benched 300 pounds before with
my chest, but you can leg press a lot of weight.
I mean, at our gym, they'd be 45-pound plates, and you could put eight plates on each side,
which is 720 pounds, and so I put eight plates on each side, and I did sets at 720 pounds.
Look, if I was benching 720 pounds, that's like near a world record, my friend, but leg
pressing 720 pounds, it sounds like a lot, but quite honestly, your legs are very strong,
okay?
There are plenty of people at the gym that did the same thing, okay?
But I've never been a huge person, but your legs are very strong.
They're the strongest part of your body, but as you get older, your legs will start to
lose their strength, and they don't have as much ability to basically hold up the rest
of your body, okay?
Now, here's the thing about this.
What the Bible said here, though, was the strong men, okay?
Now, I don't believe strong men is saying a man that is strong.
I believe men is referring to the body part.
The strong men, the strong body part, okay, is what I believe that's saying, but men is
plural, okay?
So if that is referring to the body part, which I could be wrong, but if that's referring
to, because here's the thing, women also bow as they get older also.
It's not just men.
So I believe that it's referring to basically your body part there, but it's plural.
So I think it's referring to both of those things.
You say why?
Because both your upper body and your lower body will lose their strength as you get older.
The strongest part of your body, and also your back's very strong, and you're going
to start to basically having that posture.
Both your lower body and upper body will kind of start to slouch.
That's just kind of the way it works, okay?
So the Bible says the strong men shall bow themselves.
Then it says, and the grinders cease because they are few, okay?
Now the grinders cease because they are few is referring to your teeth.
When people get older, don't they often lose their teeth, or they lose, you know, strength
in their teeth?
You know, they have to get replacements.
A lot of people get replacements, but they don't have their actual teeth.
The grinders cease because they are few.
Your teeth are what's grinding.
That makes that noise, right?
When you get older, though, you often lose your teeth, okay?
And look, if you lose your teeth when you're 70 years old, it's not going to come back
after that point, okay?
When these things happen, that's the way it's going to be.
Then it says, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.
You say, what is that referring to?
That's referring to your eyes.
It's referring to your vision.
Those that look out of the windows be darkened.
And as people get older, they are going to lose their eyesight to a large degree.
My grandmother, when she was around 90 years old, she was basically, you know, walking
down steps and she was holding onto the rail.
But quite honestly, as you get older, that can be dangerous, right?
Because you can easily lose your balance.
And she kind of lost her strength, lost her balance.
She fell five feet and crashed into the concrete below.
And we didn't really think she was going to survive.
She's still alive.
She's 95 years old now.
But when that happened, she lost a lot of eyesight.
And if she looks at you, she can't see you.
She has to look to the side to see you.
So if she looks over here, she can actually see you just because she's only got very partial
vision.
You say, why?
Because, you know, your eyesight will start to go as you get older.
And your body works together like a machine.
So if you have a fall, you say, how does that relate to your eyes?
I'm not fully sure.
But ever since then, you know, she only has like 25% vision.
This is part of life as you get older, okay?
And I know plenty of people that have gotten older that have passed away.
Maybe some of you don't.
But this is part of life.
Those that look out of the windows shall be, those that look out of the windows be darkened.
Now here's the thing.
When you're young, like me, and you have to wear glasses when you're like nine years
old, the difference is the glasses fully correct that eyesight.
Okay?
I mean, my eyesight is perfectly fine.
I kind of made a joke on that thread the other day.
I actually got seven out of eight right on that quiz.
I missed one.
Okay?
So that's not that bad.
Okay?
But glasses or contacts, which I'm wearing, it corrects your vision.
But when you get older and you lose your vision, it's not correctable.
It's different.
People that get older and they have big vision problems.
Basically they cannot correct it or oftentimes they can't correct it.
It's the point of no return.
Okay?
You can't just wear glasses or something like that to fix the problem.
It's going to probably permanently be a problem.
Those that look out of the windows be darkened.
Then it says, and the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding
is low.
Now remember the Bible talked about the grinders being few.
So when the sound of the grinding is low is referring to when you have less teeth when
you're older.
So the sound of the grinding is low and when the sound of the grinding is low, the doors
shall be shut in the streets.
You say, what does that mean?
What it means is you're happy to stay at home and have your door shut.
It's saying you don't go in and out of your house.
Okay?
The door shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low.
Obviously, people that get older, they stay at home most of the time, isn't that true?
They're perfectly happy just having family visit them from time to time, but they don't
want to go out and about all the time.
When you get older, look, you just lose that desire to basically just be out and about
all the time.
Okay?
The door shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low.
Then it says this, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird.
You say, what does that mean?
Well, birds basically will start to sing their music really early in the morning.
It means they rise up out of bed early in the morning.
So basically at 5 30 a.m., people that are older oftentimes awake.
They don't stay up late and then wake up at noon.
People that are in their 70s or 80s, they go to bed early and they wake up early.
That's the way it works.
They rise up at the voice of the bird.
Then it says, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
Okay?
I'll be honest.
I'm not 100% for sure what this is talking about.
This one along with the strong men shall bow themselves are kind of the two I'm not 100%
confident.
I might not fully grasp.
I have two different theories with the daughters of music being brought low.
Okay?
When you hear music, you're thinking of songs, and that kind of implies two things.
It implies ears to hear the song, and it implies the voice.
The daughters of music shall be brought low.
I'm not sure if that's saying that when people get older, they kind of lose their voice and
they can't sing as loud or that they kind of lose their hearing to be able to hear music.
Both those things happen when you get old though.
I'm not sure if it's a dual meaning or if it's referring to your hearing.
I'm not sure, but both those things are true.
The daughters of music are brought low, the Bible says.
So probably people that are old, they probably don't listen to as much music because they
have more trouble hearing it, I would say as well.
But then it says also when they shall be afraid of that which is high.
Okay?
You say, what does that mean?
Well, it's not referring to the high places where they basically worship Baal.
When they shall be afraid of that which is high, it means they're afraid of heights.
Why are they afraid of heights?
Because they're more likely to fall and because of the fact it's more dangerous if they do
fall.
When you're 20 years old and you're like 12 feet in the air, you're like, I'm fine.
You're just like jumping from rock to rock.
That's what I did when I was in college.
You know, you're hiking, just jumping down six feet.
Look, I wouldn't do that now because when you land, it hurts.
You're more likely to get hurt.
And people that are older, the Bible says they're actually afraid of that which is high.
They don't like to be in high places.
Why?
Because they might be like my grandmother who slipped and fell five feet into the concrete.
That is very unlikely to happen when you're young unless you're being really careless.
I mean it could, but it's very unlikely.
But people that are older fall all the time.
They don't have as strong of balance.
They don't have as much strength.
And so it makes sense that, you know what, they're afraid of that which is high as they
get older.
Then it says, and fears shall be in the way.
So basically just in general, they're more afraid of things going wrong.
When people are older, they kind of take more stock for their life.
Look, when you're young and you're like 17 years old, you don't take your life seriously
at all.
People think they're going to live forever.
They do stupid things.
People don't do that when they're 70 years old.
They do that when they're 17 years old.
Now it's foolish to basically live your life like, oh, I'm going to be fine because you
know what, you can crash and have a disaster if you're driving like a maniac.
But that is how people act when they're young.
I know a lot of people that are my age in the town I lived in that died as teenagers
either from drunken driving or they were driving like 120 miles per hour on the freeway.
They lost balance and crashed into the wall because young people are stupid.
No offense if you're young, but that's just reality.
Young people, they just don't understand how dangerous things can be.
But look, when you're older and you know people that have died from doing things like that,
it makes you kind of think for a little while about doing something stupid.
Fear shall be in the way.
When people are older, they're more afraid of things and things can be more dangerous
for them.
Now the next thing says and the almond tree shall flourish.
Now I'll be honest with you because a lot of these things I've never really heard people's
opinions on.
I couldn't really find reliable source that really talked about these things.
For the most part, everything I saw about the almond tree shall flourish was basically
if you take your bulletin out, on the front is a picture of an almond tree.
People have looked at this because when an almond tree buds, it gets very white.
What I've heard said online, people said the almond tree flourishing is talking about when
you get older, you get white hair.
I don't agree with that though.
It is true that an almond tree gets white when it buds, and it's true that your hair
is going to get gray or white as you get older, but I don't think this is actually what it's
referring to.
I'll give you a couple reasons why.
I could be wrong.
This is my opinion, but I want you to understand something.
First off, when it talked about body parts, that was in verse three.
The hands, the eyes, that was verse three.
Verse four is not talking about body parts, is it?
Verse five is not talking about body parts.
It'd be weird to me to talk about body parts, body parts, body parts, body parts, and then
just go away from that and go back to a body part.
That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.
The Bible's written in a logical way.
The other problem I see with this is this.
Your hands shaking, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
It's a bad thing.
The evil days.
Losing your eyesight, the windows being darkened, is that good or bad?
It's bad.
Your strong men bowing themselves, is that good or bad?
It's bad.
It's the evil days.
It's going through a list of things that are bad.
Is having white hair a bad thing?
No, it's not.
Right?
I mean, is there anything wrong with having white hair?
Doesn't the Bible say that the person with the hoary head is a crown of glory for them?
There's nothing sinful or bad about having white hair.
That's just part of life, but there's nothing bad about it.
Now, your hands shaking, that can be a bad thing.
You're not going to have as much strength.
Bowing yourself, that's a bad thing.
In verse three, it lists the body parts and it goes through a lot of things that are the
evil days.
Having white hair is not bad or inherently sinful.
Actually, the Bible says if it's found in righteousness, it's a crown of glory, does
it not?
The Bible actually says it's a good thing.
So look, I do have a few gray hairs here and there.
I'm not ashamed about them, not embarrassed about them, because there's nothing wrong
with having gray or white hair.
Okay, there's nothing wrong with that at all.
So I don't believe this is referring to your hair getting white.
It's true your hair does get white, but I don't think this is what it's referring to
because there's nothing bad about having white hair and it's not talking about body parts.
You say, well, what is it talking about then?
Well, to understand this, let's look at the next phrase, and the grasshopper shall be
a burden.
Now, what does it mean by the grasshopper?
Okay, well, let me just change the word grasshopper for a second to cockroach.
Okay, the cockroach shall be a burden.
You say why?
Because in the Philippines, you're going to have more cockroaches and grasshoppers.
Now, cockroaches, are they slow or fast?
They're pretty quick, aren't they?
They're pretty fast if you try to kill them.
Isn't it true that they usually don't just kind of place themselves in a position where
it's easy to kill?
They're usually at the edge of something where you're trying to get them, and sometimes they
get away.
Is that not true?
You go for them, and then all of a sudden you're like, ah, I didn't get it, right?
And so here's what I want you to understand.
It's a pain to try to kill a cockroach at a young age, but do you realize that's harder
as you get older?
It's a burden.
It's difficult, right?
It's a burden.
Grasshopper or cockroach can be a burden, and look, those are usually indoors where
you're trying to kill them.
So I believe the grasshopper being a burden is basically representing the indoor work
is just more difficult to do.
Why?
You don't have as much energy.
You don't have as much balance.
You might not be able to reach various places, like if you're trying to clean or sweep or
whatever as when you were young.
It becomes more of a burden to do the indoor work.
Is that not true?
Here's the thing.
Basically the almond tree flourishing is referring to the outdoor work.
So I think what's being said in this verse is both the work inside and outside is more
difficult.
At my house in Sacramento, we had a tree in our outdoor, okay, outside.
Obviously a tree outside, not inside, okay?
We had a tree outside of our house, and look, the branches grew very quickly.
And so it would be very annoying because I had to basically chop down the branches, and
this was a tall tree, okay?
This was there when we got the place.
And so some of the branches you really cannot reach, and you're chopping them down, and
then they'll fall, and you hope they don't hit the neighbor's fence.
And then you've got to drag them around to basically the place to get rid of them, and
they're very heavy, okay?
They're not very light.
And so it's very hard to do that.
It took a lot of time.
But realize, when I'm 32 years old as I was there, it wasn't as hard as if I was 52.
I would climb the tree and chop down the branches and go from branch to branch, look, but it's
more of a burden when you get older.
And so when the almond tree flourishes, what I think it's saying is basically you kind
of just don't get around to doing your outdoor work.
It's just not worth the effort.
Because when you're young, you mow the grass, you do whatever, get it done really quickly.
When you're older, though, everything just kind of flourishes outside.
The plants are tall, the trees are tall, and you know what?
You start paying someone to do it for you, or you get your son to do it, or a cousin
or whatever.
Why?
It's just more of a burden.
It's more difficult.
So I believe the almond tree is going to flourish as you get older, so basically it's harder
to get things done.
At my grandmother's house, she's in her 90s, and my dad is the one who does all of the
stuff outdoors as much as he can, but at the same time, my dad's in his 70s now.
So it's not as easy for my dad either, because as you get older, you just don't have that
ability and strength.
It's more of a burden.
It's a hard thing to do.
And the Bible says the almond tree shall flourish and desire shall fail.
What does desire mean?
I believe it's just kind of desire in general.
When you get older, you just have less desire for things, pretty much on all fronts.
As we talked about earlier, when the sound of the grinding is low, the doors shall be
shut in the streets.
You're perfectly content with just being at home and having a nice, quiet night.
And basically your desire just kind of fails as you get older.
You just don't have as much desire to do things.
You can even think about during the missions trip, when basically people hung out afterwards
and everything, my wife and I, we just kind of stayed at home.
Now a large part of that is because we have kids, so it's difficult having young kids
and basically go into a restaurant or whatever.
But quite honestly, I'm very content with my family.
We just kind of go home.
We just relax.
And it might not seem that as exciting to people, but you know what?
Desire shall fail as you get older.
You're perfectly happy just having a quiet day.
And look, when I was in my 20s, I like to do a lot of exciting things, but quite honestly,
I'm perfectly happy just going home.
When you get older, you have a family and things such as that.
That's just kind of how it is in life.
Desire shall fail, the Bible says.
Then it says, because man goeth to his long home.
Basically our home in heaven as a saved person, basically we're going to our long home.
This is where we're going.
It's already going to happen.
The evil days are upon us.
The clouds are not going to return after the rain.
And because of that, you kind of just can lose your desire to do sorts of things.
Then the Bible says, and the mourners go about the streets.
What does that mean?
The mourners go about the streets.
Well, what that's saying is man goeth to his long home, which means he dies.
And when people die, people mourn for their death.
They're sad.
Mourners go about the streets.
They're going to be sad.
Hopefully they're sad when you die.
Hopefully you know you're a nice person and people like you.
And if you were to die, people would be crying.
People would be sad.
Mourners go about the streets.
And look, death is like one of the most painful things for people.
Now as a saved person, when you know somebody else is saved, you have that comfort that
they're in heaven.
I had a friend of mine in college who died when he was 20 years old, but I know I'm going
to see him again one day.
For the unsaved world though, you know what, death is a very painful experience because
they have no idea where their lost loved ones are.
The Bible says the mourners go about the streets.
And then it says this, wherever the silver cord be loosed, you say, what is that referring
to?
Well, take out your hymnal real quickly, your soul-stirring songs and hymns, the red hymnal.
And we actually sung this song here today and I'm going to kind of show you, it mentions
the silver cord here in song number 62, saved by grace, song number 62.
And look, I'm not going to sing the song because that's why we have song leaders.
So I don't have to do it anymore.
Okay.
I'm a pastor now.
No, I'm just kidding.
Inside joke for those listening online, I'm not declaring myself a pastor.
But song number 62, notice the beginning of the song, someday the silver cord will break.
What is that referring to?
Well, notice what it says, and I know more is now shall sing, but oh, the joy when I
shall wake within the palace of the King.
What that's referring to is dying in the first verse.
It's using very symbolic language, but it's referring to seeing the savior again, I'm
going to wake one day.
And so the Bible says someday the silver cord will break and that is being linked with dying,
which is what Ecclesiastes chapter 12 was talking about.
You say, well, what is the silver cord?
Well, let me just read to you what the Bible, not what the Bible says, what Wikipedia says
about the silver cord.
Okay.
Quite honestly, this is not really a phrase you hear mentioned very much.
Okay, but the silver cord, the silver cord in metaphysical studies and literature, also
known as the sutratma or life thread of the antakarana, refers to a life giving linkage
from the higher self, atma, down to the physical body.
It also refers to an extended synthesis of this thread and a second, the consciousness
thread passing from the soul to the physical body that connects the physical body to the
etheric body onwards to the astral body and finally to the mental body.
Okay.
Now you say, what in the world is that saying?
Okay, let me just mention in layman terms.
It's basically saying the connection between your body and soul.
Okay, that's what it's saying.
If you break down with it, I don't know what all those words are, but basically the connection
and what I read on other things is it's the metaphysical link between your body, the physical
and the spiritual.
Doesn't the Bible say for us, the body without the spirit is dead.
When the body and spirit separate, you're dead.
Now you can be pronounced dead in a hospital, but not be biblically dead because there's
miracles that take place where someone's dead and they come back to life, but was their
spirit actually separated from their body?
A medical test might say they're dead, but are they actually dead?
And so, biblically, unless the body and spirit separate, they're not actually dead.
And so the metaphysical link between the spiritual and the physical realm, what I believe this
is kind of linking to in a physical sense is the umbilical cord for a baby.
An umbilical cord is often referred to as the baby's supply line, basically the supply
line to life.
When our daughter was born in America, when our son was born, they immediately cut the
cord.
But actually there's a lot of nutrients that are still going to the baby.
You're not supposed to cut the cord immediately.
Now I'm not an expert at pregnancy or childbirth or nursing or whatever.
So if I say something wrong, then my wife will correct me after the service.
She was a nurse.
But basically it's called the baby supply line, the umbilical cord.
And you're actually supposed to keep the umbilical cord for a little while, a few hours, because
there's still nutrients going to the baby.
Now the reason why they cut it immediately in the US is because they want money.
They want to get you out of there.
So basically let's cut the cord.
You're good to go and just send you home because they got their money.
Now I'm not saying all the nurses are like that, or I'm just saying that's the system
built into hospitals.
That's the reality.
But you're actually supposed to keep the umbilical cord for a little while.
Now with our daughter, I actually posted this morning, like you might not know this, there
was a knot in her umbilical cord.
Now what that means is she basically looped herself.
She tied herself.
It's a very, very rare thing to happen.
And from what I understand, that usually results in death, because basically if the cord is
basically a big, tight knot, you're not going to be able to get that supply line to the
baby.
So we're very fortunate, very blessed that our daughter was fine.
It wasn't a big enough knot.
It was a knot, but it wasn't tight enough to prevent the supply line.
So what I believe this is referring to is basically, just as the umbilical cord is a
supply line for babies, I believe basically we have our supply line, so to speak, between
the physical and the spiritual, for as the body without the spirit is dead.
So I think the silver cord is somehow this cord that connects our body and our spirit
together.
Now I'm not saying this is something we can see, I don't know if it's right here at your
belly button, I'm not really sure, but I think it's kind of the connection between the body
and the spirit.
And once that's broken, you're dead.
Or ever the silver cord be loose is a nice way to say the silver cord is broken or gone,
then you're going to be dead.
Then it says, after the silver cord be loose, then it says, or the golden bowl be broken.
You say, what's the golden bowl?
I believe it's referring to either your head or your brain.
And if your brain breaks, your head breaks, you smash your head into the ground really
hard, you could easily die.
Is that not true?
When I was in high school, I was either 14 or 15 at the time, I was playing in a soccer
game and basically I don't remember this because I've got a period of my life where
I don't remember a single thing because my mind blocked it out.
But I went up for a header and I fell because somebody cut under me and I landed on the
back of my head and I was knocked unconscious for like 15 minutes.
I don't remember part of my life from that time period, not a whole lot, but there's
a couple of hours there where I don't know anything.
I don't remember.
You know, my mind never brought it back.
So I was unconscious.
I woke up and it was really weird because I can't really describe it, but literally
I forgot everything for a little while because they're asking me questions, you know, the
doctors and everything.
And I was missing all the questions.
But then all of a sudden it's like all these memories were flooding back into my head and
I started answering the questions right.
It's like, no, no.
It's like, no, my name's Matt.
You know, I forgot everything instantaneously.
And then most all of it came back, which I'm very feel very fortunate about.
Okay.
But I completely missed all the questions at first.
But what I'm trying to tell you is this, your head is very delicate.
When I landed on the back of my head on, it was an astroturf field, which is pretty
hard compared to grass.
I was knocked unconscious.
Okay.
And I was out for 15 minutes.
In the ultimate fighting championship in the UFC, did you know it's illegal to punch the
back of the head?
You say why?
Because someone can die if they get the back of their head punched.
Even I mean, when fights happen, people get drunk and they die during a fight.
What that usually means is they landed on the back of their head and they die.
Because if your head lands on concrete, you could easily die, get paralyzed.
You know, that easily happens, go into a coma, because it's actually very delicate.
The golden bowl being broken, I believe it's referring to either your head or your brain.
It's a very delicate part to your body, and it's shaped sort of like a bowl, right?
And so I believe the golden bowl being broken is referring to your head, because look, your
head is very delicate.
Okay.
And if it's broken, you're going to die.
Then it says, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain.
Now I'll be honest with you, the last two ones here, I really had to look online because
I'm not an expert at, you know, I don't know, body parts, whatever science it is, anatomy
or whatever.
I'm not an expert, so I kind of had to look online at how things work.
But it says the pitcher be broken at the fountain.
Now what you're going to notice with the pitcher being broken at the fountain and the wheel
broken at the cistern, that's referring to water, which I believe is symbolizing your
blood.
So I believe these last two are tying into your blood.
The pitcher being broken at the fountain, based on what I read, I believe the pitcher
is the vena cava, I might be mispronouncing this, or basically your veins in general,
which is the large vein that returns blood to the heart from the head, neck, and both
upper limbs.
And the fountain, I believe, is the right ventricle of the heart.
Eventually the pitcher's broken and the veins can no longer carry that blood.
Okay, now look, I don't really understand what I just read, but there's a lot of people
that are nurses in the medical community, so they can either say yea or nay at the end
of the sermon.
I'm not really sure.
Okay, but it sounded believable to me when I read that.
Okay, so I think that's what the pitcher broken at the fountain.
I do believe it's definitely referring to your blood, though.
So some process of the blood.
And then the Bible says, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
So a cistern stores water and a wheel receives that water and runs that water through.
I think the cistern's referring to the left ventricle of your heart that stores blood
and your great artery that receives the blood.
And if you have no blood supply, then you will die, because the Bible says, for the
life of the flesh is in the blood.
Now look, when you're reading all these things, you know what that kind of drives home the
point to me?
That basically all it takes is one thing wrong to go in your body, and you could literally
die.
I mean, it's really just one thing that has to go wrong.
Look, a machine that has one part broken, the whole thing's broken, right?
That really kind of drives home the point that safety's of the Lord.
And the best safety you have in life is just the fact that you're living godly.
And God will basically give you life and let you serve Him.
Because our bodies are like a machine.
And I'm not an expert.
Look, I was a math guy that has nothing to do with body parts, you know.
I don't know all this stuff, but I want you to understand our bodies operate like a machine
with lots of different parts, and it only takes one part to go wrong, and you will die.
Okay, that's what it's saying in Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
So that kind of drives home the point, I better live my life serving God, because my life
is in God's hands, okay?
Then it says this, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was.
You say, what's that referring to?
Well, go back to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2 in your Bible.
And look, like I said, there's so much information in this chapter.
This sermon's not really like a practical sort of sermon.
I'm kind of just explaining like a Bible study.
The next sermon will have a practical understanding, because that's how this chapter's broken up.
It's like a really deep Bible study, and then there's basically an application in the last
half of Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Now the dust returned to the earth as it was is referring to dying, because in Genesis
2 verse 7, what the Bible says is this, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
The Bible says that man was formed from the dust of the ground.
Go to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3.
And in Genesis chapter 3, what the Bible says in verse 19, and the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat blood, not eat blood, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou
return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return.
Sounds pretty similar.
Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, where it said, then shall the dust return to the
earth as it was.
It's basically being symbolic to say when you die.
If the silver cord is loosed, you're dead.
If the golden bowl is broken, you're dead.
If the pitcher's broken, you're dead.
If the wheel's broken, you're dead.
And look, those are only four things that mention, there are like a million things in
your body.
And I don't even think science knows all those things.
I'm sure they don't understand all the machinery that's in our body in terms of how we operate
like a machine.
Like if one thing goes bad in our body, we're dead.
That's the way it works.
I mean, the Bible even says like if one part of the body suffers, doesn't the whole body
suffer?
Isn't that what it says?
I mean, even if just in my finger, let's say for example, I accidentally smashed my finger
with a hammer.
That will affect your whole body.
You'll start probably getting a headache.
I mean, everything is just going to be affected by that by one body part.
It only takes one thing to go wrong and you could die.
That's what it's saying.
Okay.
It says, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return
on to God who gave it.
Now why does the spirit return on to God?
We'll go to James 2.
And I quoted this verse earlier, but James chapter two.
So when you die, the silver court is loosed, basically the body and the spirit they separate,
the body is going to eventually be buried, hopefully, okay?
And you're buried in the ground, and the spirit returns on to God who gave it, okay?
And what it says in James chapter two verse 26, for as the body without the spirit is
dead.
When the body no longer has the spirit, the body is dead, okay?
Now let me ask you a question.
Does the body exist?
Like if I died right now, would my body be gone or would it still be here?
It would still be here, right?
Because the body exists, okay?
It's dead without the spirit.
Well, because then it says right after that, and this has nothing to do with the sermon,
but so faith without works is dead also.
Now, wait a minute, the body exists whether the spirit's there or not.
The body's dead, but the body exists.
Look, the faith exists whether there's works or not.
That doesn't negate the fact that faith exists.
And even in that verse, it's saying you can have faith without works.
That's what it says in James two, you can have faith without works.
Look, the faith exists without the works, just as the body exists without the spirit,
but it's a dead body.
It's a dead faith, meaning my body is useless.
If I die right now and my wife says, honey, you know, can you give me a cup of water?
It's like, no, I can't.
It's like I'm dead because the body's useless.
And the Bible's saying that basically a Christian that doesn't produce any good works, they're
useless.
That's what it's saying.
The body without the spirit is dead.
And look, most Christians, they have a dead faith.
Not most Christians at our church, but most Christians do have a dead faith.
It's useless.
It produces nothing, but the faith still exists just as the body exists without the spirit.
Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, we'll wrap up here, Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
The Bible is really interesting.
I mean, this chapter, I mean, there's no way this was written by a man.
You know what I mean?
When you read chapters like this, it's like this was not written by a man.
This was written by God.
Obviously, he used a man to pin it down, but no man could come up with poetry that was
so amazing as this.
Okay?
Because I'm not for sure I have every phrase fully understood, but most of these, I think
it's pretty clear, like the hands trembling and things such as that, this was written
by God.
There's no doubt about it.
That's what kind of drives home in Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
And so it mentions all of these things and how our bodies, we can easily die.
And then it says in verse eight, vanity of vanity, saith the preacher.
All is vanity.
See, the book of Ecclesiastes is written by a man who was once a great man of God.
Now, I personally, I've thought about this a lot, and I'm not fully sure, and I'll give
you my opinion.
When did Solomon write this book?
Because Solomon was once a great man for God, and then he became very backslidden, and you
kind of ask yourself the question, did he ever get right with God again?
I don't think he did.
I think he basically had moments of clarity.
And when he's writing Ecclesiastes, I think he has a moment of clarity.
I could change my mind in the future because I'm not dogmatic.
I could be wrong, but I've thought about this a lot.
And I believe basically he's writing about the vanity of life as he kind of has a clarity
of mind.
But the problem is when you start living a worldly and sinful life, it's kind of hard
to separate from that.
It's almost like the point of no return, and I think that's what happened to Solomon.
I think he wrote this in moments of clarity, but basically he came towards the end of his
life or while he's down the spell, and he basically talked about life and how he had
wasted his entire life.
He spent his life trying to gratify the flesh, and we'll look at it in the next sermon, verses
where it talks about how basically he set his heart for the things of God and the things
of the world at the same time.
He decided, I'm going to try doing living for God and living for the world, and he ends
up being miserable and all his vanity.
You say, why?
Because of the fact everything you do in this life that has no eternal value is going to
be gone.
It's done.
You could become the greatest in the world at being whatever.
You could become the greatest basketball player in the world, and everybody's going
to know who you are.
You're going to be famous.
You're going to be the Michael Jordan and whatever.
Everybody worships you, but it's vain.
It's useless.
It literally does nothing for you.
Now, I'm not saying everything we do in this life is useless because God commands you to
provide for your family, to work hard.
Hey, raising my son has purpose because even though that's not winning a soul, that's teaching
someone to live for God and things such as that, spending time with family.
I'm not saying all that stuff's meaningless, but Solomon lived his life where he said,
I'm going to gratify the flesh.
I'm going to try to just make my flesh happy.
Whatever my flesh wants, I'm going to dive into that.
And you know what the end of that's going to be for someone?
Vanity of vanities.
It's a waste of life.
And here's the sad thing about this.
If Solomon wrote this when he's 70 years old, the problem is the clouds don't return after
the rain.
He can't say, let me just rewind this DVD and go back and retell my story and rechange
it and not end up marrying all these women and living a sinful life.
It's the point of no return.
And unfortunately, most Christians, they reach toward the end of their life.
And I don't know.
I've never reached the end of my life.
I guess this is my opinion, but I believe most Christians kind of reached the end of
their life and they know they're going to heaven, but they're just kind of thinking,
you know, what was the purpose of this life?
It's like they never figured it out because they never actually dove into serving God.
And I hope that none of us would go down that road, but let me just say this.
The book of Ecclesiastes is written by a man who was once a great soul winner and ended
up wasting his life.
So Ecclesiastes, that could be the story of my life one day.
That could be the story of your life one day.
And if you do that, it's going to be vanity in a wasted life.
Let's go to a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to read
this wonderful chapter in the word of God.
Just so much interesting information and help us along with the second sermon here today,
to learn the applications from this and live our lives with a purpose and not just waste
our lives on things that don't matter.
God, we pray these things in Jesus name.
Amen.