pray amen amen okay we're continuing this evening with
the book of ecclesiastes and tonight is actually a part two
of chapter seven last week we we covered the first
couple of verses verses one through ten or verses one through fourteen actually
of uh chapter seven and so there's enough content that i believe that i
should have just i should just cut it into two parts and last week we
basically went over why or the better way to live and
talked about why is it better to go to the house of
mourning than the house of feasting why is it that the day of one's death
is better than the day of one's birth and it went over these negative aspects
that said this is far more a superior way of living
than the positive way to live right which is feasting
joy uh birth and all these things but the the the principle that psalm is
trying to get across is the fact that we learn more in adversity we learn more
in trial and tribulation we learn more through failure than we do through
success feasting and joyful times and so he's
basically saying look this is a better way to live don't seek to live
in pleasure and in joy and in feasting all the days of your life because then
you're not going to learn anything you're not going to learn how to
overcome adversity you're not going to learn how to withstand
in the evil day having done all to stand adversity is good for your life
having difficulty in trial is good for your life it makes you a stronger person
and if you're a christian it makes you just a stronger christian right draws
you closer to the lord helps you to depend on god to read the
bible more to pray more this is a better way to live now the
second half is really him talking about a more
balanced way to live so the first part is a better way to live
the second aspect of the chapter is we're talking about a more balanced way
to live look at verse number 16 if you would of ecclesiastes chapter number 7
it says be not righteous over much neither make thyself over wise
why shouldest thou destroy thyself be not over much wicked
neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time
it is good that thou shouldest take hold of this yea also from this withdrawal
not thine hand for he that feareth god shall come
forth of them all so the first thing that
we're going to talk about this evening uh regarding these three verses is the
value in moderation okay the value in moderation so again
it's talking about a more balanced way to live and a good way to live when it
comes to balance is having moderation in your spiritual
life and this is basically giving us a warning
against being too extreme okay now the bible
is an extreme book right to the world it's an extreme book okay and maybe you
know before you got saved or maybe right when you got saved
you know there's some things in the bible that seemed a little extreme to
you but you know at the end of the day it
was it's normal to god and the more you read it the more you
recognize what the bible actually says the more you conform your mind to the
bible itself the more you had a renewing of your
mind the more you close the gap between what you
your preconceived ideas to what god actually says you recognize
actually this is very normal now to the world
we're extremist right they'll look at our beliefs and you know our views and
what we preach and what we teach and how we live and they'll say that's extreme
you know yeah are you trying to have all those kids that's extreme
you know no that's normal okay uh oh man your your wife
dresses and long dresses that's a little extreme no that's actually normal it's
modest and it's normal it's not it's it's not
normal for women to wear pants actually okay oh man you guys are clean cut and
you guys uh you know uh live holy lives you don't party on Fridays you don't
party on Saturdays that's a strange thing you know doesn't
the bible tell us that that people think it's strange that we run
out with them you know to the same excess of riot
right no that's actually weird that's actually wrong
what's normal is to live a life that's pleasing unto the lord
not involved in alcohol not involved in fornication not involved
in the in the rioting and the revelings of this world
that's actually normal but when the world looks at us it looks at us as though
we're extreme we're weirdos and we don't really care you know a lot
of christians do care though right they care what the world thinks and they
think you know oh we need to make sure we compromise and we need to make sure
that we are uh you know not looking too weird or
extreme well obviously we don't want to be weirdos
you know um in the world's eyes if it's not a
biblical thing but if it if it has to do with bible doctrines
standards you know we need to obey the word of god and if they think they think
we're weird then they could go jump in the lake
who cares what they think okay but what the world would call
extreme is actually normal now the thing is is that you know there's
people that will take normal biblical teachings
and they'll make them extreme okay now what do i mean by that well you
know they kind of go outside of the extremities of the bible and they start
getting into other weird stuff this is what the world would refer to as
or a secular term would be you know going down the rabbit hole okay
haven't you ever heard that term before oh you're going down the rabbit
hole and just you know red flags should go up
when you hear that term okay i don't want to go into any hole
right no bro you gotta get into you gotta go down the rap no i want to go
down into the bible i want to get the deep things of god
from the bible you know if you really want to be red
pilled and based you need to get into the word of god
okay this is to be you know forget red pilled this is
bread pilled and based right okay because typically people who are
red pilled and base are typically people who have gone down the rabbit hole
and they run into all sorts of weird teachings out there
and extreme teachings and unfortunately they use the bible to try to back that
up okay they think that because evil exists
that automatically means that every conspiracy is true
you know this is where you find you know the flat earthers right
flat earthers and vaccines are the mark of the beast
and qanon is real trust the plan and you know
all this nonsense you know them i know them
this is a this is a reality to them okay and unfortunately they come under the
cloak of christianity i mean how many people have you met that
try to use the bible to say that the earth is flat
you know and then when you when you pull up the verses and you show them they
just completely ignore it and they think that we're just
completely blind to the truth and all these things
they're blind okay they they have a blind spirit
to the actual truth you know they think that vaccines are the mark of the beast
and here's the thing is vaccines are wicked the the coronavirus
covid 19 vaccine is is wicked obviously it's it's killing people it's
stupid that people that christians would even think to
take such a thing obviously we understand that that's not good to put
that into your body but then people take it to an extreme
and say well but it's also the mark of the peace
you know oh and to that i want to say well you know do you see that
these people who are taking the vaccine worshiping the antichrist
no uh does anybody who had the covid 19 vaccine in their body
are they able to buy and sell with that thing no
as far as i know i haven't taken the covid 19 vaccine i'm still able to go to
raising canes and purchase a meal if i want
i can still you know purchase and i can do everything i just live my life as
normal as possible i'll tell you why because it's not the
mark of the beast well that's symbolically representing
because zero six zero six zero six is the new
like what you know leave the bible to the professionals folks
okay you know all these red pilled and base people you know and by the way
some of them are very sincere and some of them know a lot about
vaccines but when they start trying to delve
trying to use the bible to teach end times bible prophecy and mix it with
vaccines and say that the vaccine is the mark of
the beast at that point at that point you just it sounds stupid
okay that's why kids you don't go down the rabbit hole
you don't go down the right oh are you trying to keep people from getting
information yeah i'm trying to keep you know get
people from from listening to the stupid information
because it's that crowd that makes christianity look stupid
okay you know alex jones becomes a point of reference
of truth instead of the bible it's funny but it's true is it not
you know people who want to talk about what's going on in the world today
they'll reference alex jones but they won't necessarily reference the bible
okay you know q anon trust the plan well
yeah it looks like that plan fell through at the beginning of the year
right oh no biden trump is actually biden and it's a it's a hologram or
something you know
youtube conspiracy videos replacing bible reasoning this is what happens
when christians take things to an extreme
okay and we never want to be extreme outside of the bible's extremes okay
so i'm not saying hey don't be an extremist because all you have to do is
be a biblical christian and the world will see you as an extremist
okay but then you have people who want to go beyond that and get in you know
believe in reptilians and all this nonsense believe that the earth
is flat it's nonsense okay so christians begin to think that they
can figure out information that god hasn't divulged yet
you know god this is the source of all truth this is
our epicenter of the truth and of wisdom and discernment
it has everything that pertains to life and godliness the bible says
but yet people think that there's sources out there outside of the bible
that can tell you the truth about the bible you're just as bad as the
bible college professor who thinks they can go to the
commentary to get teachings on the bible
but what why is this well it's a result of being extreme and not exercising what
moderation okay you know the bible tells us that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craft in this
whereby they lie in wait to deceive and there's far more
men of this caliber doing this the sleight of men
because of the internet okay because of youtube and the internet
and all these resources that are out there you know the
false doctrine and and foolish extremism can has it has avenues and different
ways to get to people the information to people because of that
and that's why you have all these people believe in these things okay the bible
tells us let your moderation be known unto all men the lord is at hand so what
is he telling us to be moderate in according to this chapter well
be moderate and by the way look let me just say this is that you know some
conspiracies are true they're true and you know
we're not saying that they're not true because they are you know jews are
wicked the nation is wicked they do run the banking system
they are running hollywood and all the pedophile rings
duh but you don't need to go to the rabbit hole to find that out
it's like on the surface they're not hiding it you don't have to stick your
hand into the rabbit hole to find that out it's pretty simple to find out
you don't you know you would have to have blinders on not to see that
okay you'd have to be in complete denial to see that okay you know the
conspiracy of the pre-tribulation rapture
or the fact that you know that jesus might come at any moment that's that's a
conspiracy that's not true okay he's not going to come at any
moment the antichrist is coming that's imminent
not jesus christ there's plenty of things that vaccines do kill people
oh you guys are conspiracy theorists well that conspiracy is true it's proven
by the data that it destroys people's lives there's
plenty of people who can attest to that and there's plenty of people just in 2021
that have died already from covid 19 vaccine
okay so obviously i'm not saying that all conspiracies are not true obviously
some of them are but when you start delving into
conspiracies that are just completely unfounded
have no information whatsoever they're just based off of instagram and
facebook posts and in mark it down there's people that
literally learn everything that they know about conspiracies and biblical
information or whatever from posts from youtube from facebook
from instagram that's literally where they get it
and they don't they're not doing their own research
let me give you proof of this you know i saw one time on instagram
uh there's this post about these this these group of men i think it was like
five different individuals that were killed for some information that they
knew right and they posted these pictures of
these men who died they were killed and it was a QAnon of
course post Q post they had the Q on there and
everything and i looked and i said that's pastor
anderson
so i messaged the guy i said you're a liar
this is my friend i was like this pastor the third one you have on here is a
pastor his name is pastor stephen l anderson
that's not his name the one you have on there you use this picture
i said you just lied didn't message me back
and i said hey i'm talking to you you need to change your poster take it down
because this person is not dead he's a pastor he's my friend
and you're you're you're lying about this they didn't respond at all
okay you think and by the way you think that's an isolated incident i'm sure
that happens all the time but the reality is people
don't fact check these you know so-called conspiracy
theorists and they have hundreds of thousands of
followers and hundreds of thousands of likes
and that is their you know that's their resume oh how could this person lie they
got hundreds of thousand followers yeah hundreds of thousand idiots
who don't who don't actually fact check the thing how many
i would guarantee you there's hundreds of people who like that post
not even knowing that the person who he used was a was a pastor who had nothing
to do with that situation who's still alive
it's nonsense be moderate in knowledge look what it says in verse 16
be not righteous over much neither make thyself over wise
why shouldest thou destroy thyself now this doesn't mean don't obtain wisdom
okay or don't get a lot of wisdom what it's really
basically what it's saying when it comes to moderation is that you need to be
you need to obtain wisdom in moderation why because sometimes you can only handle
so much okay a babe in christ is only able to
handle so much wisdom and righteousness obviously we
understand that we're to follow after righteousness
we're to seek the kingdom of god and his righteousness and these things shall be
added unto us but here's the thing you can only handle
so much though as a baby in christ now what happens if
they start obtaining or let me let me let me backtrack a
little bit how do they obtain so much wisdom today
well the internet right so what happens is you know they get the
word of god but then they have the internet
they have all these things feeding them all these resources and information
and they get it before they can really handle that information
and then they become proud okay and that's why it says
why shouldest thou destroy thyself why because something that precedes
destruction is pride a haughty spirit and you get all this
information you're not spiritually mature
you don't even know your biblical role in life you don't have spiritual
disciplines now you don't even discipline yourself to read the bible
every day to pray every day to do the basics of the christian life
but yet you have all this extra knowledge right
you can destroy yourself by doing that that's why it says be not righteous over
much neither make thyself over wise
okay this reminds me of james chapter 3 verse 1 where it says
my brethren be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation so a good incentive to make sure you
pace yourself with knowledge pace yourself with wisdom pace yourself
with righteousness is the fact that god is saying you're
going to be held accountable for those things
because to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required oh yeah
it's big stuff when you know those things and you could regurgitate that
information but what what when god actually holds you
accountable to what you actually believe right
he says you're going to be you're going to receive the greater condemnation
because of it for in many things we offend all
if any man offend not in word the same as a perfect man and able also to bridle
the whole body there's actually a danger
in avoiding moderation especially when it comes to knowledge
now this is common like i mentioned amongst new believers
growing up in a world where information is at our fingertips
you know through the internet it can produce a prideful arrogant individual
and you know what's important is that when you
first get saved that you just learn the basics
yeah but i want to learn all these other things too yeah but those things could
wait i want to learn about the deep
intricacies of end times bible prophecy well great
but can you explain salvation first do you know what the trinity is
do you know what it is to work hard and not be lazy
do you know how to overcome sin do you know
what your biblical role is as a son as a daughter as a husband as a wife
you know those are things that you should probably master first okay
how to keep under your body how to cast down imaginations
how to live a life that's pleasing unto the lord how to soul win how to preach
the gospel these are actually things that are far
more important than the latter okay and that's to say that the other things are
not important it's just that these are more important for you to master first
okay and so moderation and learning these things is great
because as you learn spiritual disciplines you can with moderation
learn the new information of the things of this world or
righteousness or anything for that matter okay
the bible says in hebrew chapter 5 verse 12 for when for the time you ought
to be teachers you have need that won't teach you
again which be the first principles of the oracles of god
and are become such as needed have need of milk and not of strong me
for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness
for he is a babe but strong me belong to them that are
full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil look not saying don't be
knowledgeable about secular things i'm just saying if
you're a christian you should probably know these things
more and you know i experienced this actually today with someone
uh i made a post about vaccines and just people
messaging me and typically when i put a post on instagram about vaccines
i get all kinds of different individuals that contact me
that are not new ife at all it's just like all right here it's like it's like
risky you know what i mean to post because i already know what's going to
happen it's like i'm going to get a lot of good people i'm going to get a lot of
weirdos too i'll say and in sprinkle there's going to
be some flat earthers around here too you know because unfortunately they're
kind of mixed in there but we were like this is the mark of the
beast the fraction is the mark of the beast i'm like no it's not
like how do you know that because i read the bible
i said do you even know where the mark of the beast and i wasn't trying to be
argumentative with them i'm just actually initially i was just like no
the mark i said and they said this well the vaccine
you know the patent zero six zero six zero six and
you know that it's going into your body and all these things and and i was like
yeah that's that's definitely evil obviously it's super wicked but it's
just not the mark of the beast i get what you're saying i get it
it's just that it's not the mark of the beast
they're like how do you know that
and it's just like come on they're like it's unclean and you know it could damn
you and i'm like the vaccine is bad but it's
not that bad
it's not able to damn anybody okay and i said look the vaccine the mark
of the beast uh is rolled out towards the latter end
of three and a half years known as the tribulation in the bible
okay and that's towards the latter end of those three and a half years
i mean let's if we're to be specific the last 75 days
of great tribulation okay and so uh that hasn't happened yet
okay and they're like um they're like yeah but you know
it's just it has all the elements of what the mark of the beast could be i'm
like no it doesn't because i can still buy and sell
and i said the mark of the beast is for people i was like it hasn't even
nothing to do with your with your physical body necessarily
it's more of a spiritual thing because it's given to people who worship the
antichrist and there's christians today that have
taken the vaccine they're not damned and they're not worshiping the antichrist
and they're like well you know i think you're wrong about that i'm just like
well do you know where the mark of the beast is in the bible
like well yeah well it's obviously you know somewhere in the book of
revelation or something like that i'm like it doesn't sound like you know
very much of the mark of the beast i said i agree with you on the vaccine
it's really bad it'll destroy your body and and you know it's wicked and
obviously there's a there's a financial agenda behind that and you know i'm sure
it's being used to depopulate the the earth and all these things and
those things are true but don't become so extreme about it
that you try to use the bible to fit in your little agenda
against vaccines because i told them look the mark of the beast
is far worse far worse it will damn a soul to hell
and then i just made them even more mad i said in fact no christians will ever
take the mark of the beast no it's impossible how can that be
impossible they're like i know christians who took
the vaccine you're doing you're mixing them up again
it's not the same thing
but here's the thing those individuals they know a lot about vaccines
i'm sure if if if you know i personally talked to one
and i said tell me everything you know about vaccines they would be able to ak
47 all that information to me like nothing
and i guarantee you they call themselves christians they believe in god they
believe in the bible and they believe in yahweh
yeshua you know because that's typically the crowd that you know is often in that
crowd okay as soon as they tell me yeshua
here we go again
and they'll tell you look if you tell them to divulge all the information
about vaccines i'm sure they have they're extremely knowledgeable about
that but you tell them book chapter and verse
of where the mark of the beast is they won't be able to tell you
when is it rolled out at what day at what time at what time period during
daniel's 70th week is the mark of the beast rolled out and
why is it rolled out how long does it last what does it do
for you what is it about who is the antichrist
they won't be able to answer those questions
and i know a lot of that stuff is sort of deep but i mean
all you got to do is go to revelation chapter 13 it's all right there
right you know but they don't know the basics of those things yet they want to
school people who know what the bible says about that what are
these these are extremists who try to use the bible
to prove their point okay same thing with flat earthers
i don't know flat earthers know anything but you know i'm sure i'm sure they're
out there i'm sure they know some stuff okay but
they'll try to use the bible to try to school you
that the earth is flat it's like come on man
i don't do you really want to do this right now
but the saying is true that if any man think that he knows anything he
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know okay
i like david's attitude king david's attitude when it came to
moderation he said in psalm 131 verse 1 lord my heart is not haughty nor my eyes
lofty neither do i exercise myself in great
matters or in things too high for me now i would
say david knew a lot i mean he's the man after god's own
heart he was used to pen down a large portion of the book of psalms
i mean he's a picture of jesus christ i'm sure he knew the word of god
in and out that's why he loved the lord right but even
even he said himself i'm not going to exercise myself in matters that i just
don't understand things that are too lofty for me i'm not
going to talk about things that i don't know
and act like i know about those subjects what is he saying i'm just going to be
moderate not to be in excess just whatever i know
and you know that's it you know don't try to act like you just know everything
i'm sure the individuals who are around david respected him for that
because they said well you know he's the king he's the leader
yet he himself knows that he doesn't know everything
there is to know he says it right there i'm not going to exercise
myself in matters that are too high for me like things that i
things that i just can't understand i'm not going to act like i know them
okay moderation the solution is to be moderate and know your limitations
okay and again i'm not saying be stupid be ignorant
don't research do all that do all the research
get information i hear a little ringing brother adam on the mic for some do you
guys hear a ringing maybe i'm getting old um no okay i'm
getting old um the solution is is to be moderate to
know your limitations think about this what about you know a good example of
this is is aside you know we talked about
david but how about when david was going up against goliath
okay he's going up against goliath and what is what does saul do he gives him
his armor he puts on the armor he assays to go and
then he says i have not proved it you know i can't go
with these for i have not proved them and and he put them off from himself
okay so saul gives him his armor to go to battle with goliath and he and look
the armor is great that's what you need to go to war but
but but david's so young that he knows he can't handle that weight
on him at that moment and obviously we understand that later on he becomes a
man of war a grown man of war i'm sure he's using
armor at that time he has a sword he knows how to wield it but at this time
he said i've not proved it so i'm not going to
use it now this did that hinder him from being effective no because he still had
the stones and the sling and he still conquered
goliath he knew his limitations though right
he was moderate he knew his limitations and he was still
successful okay and so it's important for us as christians to learn
moderation in information in righteousness and in wisdom
and again you know it's being in a church like this you know
we know uh a good amount of things not only in the bible but just the world in
general and so there could be a danger to
becoming like a know-it-all and thinking that because you have a corner of a
truth of some secular subject or whatever it
may be that all of a sudden you just know everything
okay and there's no room in the christian life for that attitude
be humble don't be haughty be moderate and just recognize this is that
when you please god he actually gives you more light
right the more you are a good steward of the knowledge he's
already given to you the more likely it is that he's going to
give you more knowledge that's how god works so if you want to
know more of the bible you want to get the deep things of god
be a good steward of that which is already revealed to you
not through youtube not through facebook not through instagram oh man i got this
deep truth but you you got it from like some social
media platform you know that's using like other
versions of the bible by the way right yeah a lot of these conspiracy
theorists who supposedly have a corner of the truth
you actually go on those posts they're right they're using the niv
the esv they're using some modern perversion of the bible
and you know let me just put king james on this real quick
it's nonsense be a good steward of the knowledge that god gives you
so he says hey be not over much righteous
over much wisdom and then he also says you know be not over much wicked now
that's not saying like hey it's okay you know you could sin a little bit
sin a little bit you know a little wine for their stomach's sake and you know
a little sin never hurt nobody you know just get involved in a little sin just
don't go overboard on it okay be a good old catholic or something
where you drink a little bit of wine and not get drunk that's not what it's
referring to it's saying hey be simple concerning
evil be wise into that which is good and
simple concerning evil the bible says why because if
you're not then you're going to vex your righteous soul from day to day
okay and you actually become more profitable
when you're wise into that which is good and simple concerning
evil he says in verse 18 it is good that thou shouldest take hold of this
he's like hey if you get it's like it's like our version of saying this if you
get anything get this it is good for you to take hold of this
yea also from this withdraw not thine hand for he
that feareth god shall come forth of them all
he says if you fear god you will safeguard yourself from both extremes
so it's like man how do i how can i make sure that i'm moderate in my christian
life well fear god and you will safeguard yourself from
both extremes okay maintain a good fear of god this is a
balanced way to live and again you know i'm not
saying don't be extreme if the if the bible is issuing an extreme view
but just know this once you are already adopted that belief it's no
longer extreme to you it's not extreme to us that sodomites
can't be saved it's just duh it's like you know
it's not extreme to us that jesus said that
jews are of their father the devil and the lust of their father will they do
it's in the bible it's like that's right there you don't even have to go very
far you don't have to go down a rabbit hole to find that out
now i get it you know some people actually they came to the knowledge the
saving knowledge of jesus christ because they went down some sort of rabbit hole
right you know they're researching the jews
they're researching uh you know 9 11 they're researching some sort of
wicked agenda who's running hollywood and then they see that satan is real
and then they realize well satan's real god must be real so i need to find the
truth of what the bible says about god and they
end up getting saved because of that okay i don't know if if everyone's ever
come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ because they're researching the
flat earth i've never heard a testimony like that
um and anybody who actually messages me and says that that's so they're just
lying because because you can't get the truth
from a lie folks okay and so you know the bible says we
have to respond to the light that god gives us
right like when we go when we when we when god gives us lights because we've
responded to the initial light that he gave us
and flat earth is not light
it's not
i feel like i need to talk about the flat earth just a little more okay
and there's a reason for that because it it's like a plague in churches
sometimes okay and you know what people who
believe in the flat earth who go into churches typically keep their mouth shut
because they know they know that it's bad they know that it
causes controversy they know they have a wrong attitude
about it and they know that i hate it
and so we've had people come into our church that believe in the flat earth
i'm talking about full-blown flat earthers
and they just kept shut about it because they know it's wrong
they know it's wrong but they've gone they went down that rabbit hole
and they got stuck in that rabbit hole okay
anyways the value of moderation is the fact that moderation safeguards you from
unbiblical extremes and so if you get anything get this
is make sure you're moderate in your christian life
don't take a unbiblical extreme and look don't
compartmentalize god's word either oh yeah this is true i mean it has
nothing to do with the bible even though you're using biblical
principles and biblical uh um parallels and all these things
folks if the world says this is true and it has anything to do with the bible
and you go with the bible and the bible says something opposite of that you go
with the bible's teaching the way it always works
oh but the data i don't care i care about the data and god's work
now if the data in the secular realm matches up with the bible then i believe
it
verse 19 wisdom strengthened at the wise more than 10 mighty men who
which are in the city for there is not a just man upon earth
that do with good and sin is not and what he's telling us here is that
wisdom is one of the greatest weapons and assets you can attain
it's actually you know its effectiveness is superior to that of 10 men with might
so he's placing the emphasis on wisdom telling you hey telling us
get wisdom okay you need to get wisdom because wisdom will help you
uh not only become successful in life it'll help you with your relationships
it'll help you in your business it'll help you with work it'll help you with
learning it'll help you with everything it's far more effective than 10 men who
are mighty and he says in verse 20 for there's
not a just man upon earth that do with good and sin is not that this is
typically a verse that we use out soul winning i use it a lot
when i go out soul winning i use this to show like you know people who try to
justify themselves i'll say look there's not a just man upon
earth that do with good and sin it's not they do both okay
and what it's in context of verse 19 is basically telling us that wisdom helps
us to deal with imperfect men okay and so
far greater than the knowledge of the conspiracy
far greater than the knowledge of you know
uh the damages of vaccine is just having the wisdom of god
to make the right decisions it's very important
and don't undermine that wisdom because in fact god says it's far more
valuable than rubies any treasure any gold that you can
desire god says wisdom is far more valuable
than that okay and he tells people
he tells us that his people you know get wisdom with all that getting get
he says wisdom is the principal thing with all that getting get wisdom
search for it that's for hit treasure you know if i were to tell you here at
your home at your house there's 10 million dollars hiding
somewhere below the earth but it's in your on your
property you would you'd go home and not even sleep
probably you're like
we're not you'll get a couple pack of red bulls and coffee
you know uh we're gonna find this 10 million dollars or something you would
look for it like for a treasure well god says actually the wisdom is far
more valuable than those 10 million dollars
and you should search for wisdom as though you would search for 10 million
with the same fervor why because you can't even put a price on it
because it's it's an asset that only comes from god
you know if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god who giveth
all men liberally and abraitheth not he says if you lack wisdom
god you just ask god and he'll give it to you the world doesn't have wisdom
the wisdom of god has the wisdom of this world
only by god can you get that godly wisdom where you can become successful
and and please the lord and live a life of
of success live a life that is pleasing unto god
you know become successful in your marriage become successful in your
childhood and successful at your job and have success with the relationships
that you have around you you can't money can't buy that
and so he's telling you hey wisdom is what you need you know
in your daily prayer list you should pray god give me wisdom
lord grant me wisdom as i read the bible give me the wisdom to discern the bible
all right not to just read the bible for information but actually gain wisdom as
i read it learn the deep meanings learn what
you're trying to teach me to be able to quiet my mind and open up the scripture
the scriptures and be able to glean the wisdom of god's
word that you may teach me these unsearchable
riches that are in the word of god that's what
you should pray for amen and if you don't if you don't pray for
wisdom you're gonna learn wisdom one way or
another sometimes you can learn it with wise men right
he that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be
destroyed or you'll learn wisdom through a stupid
thing that you do sometimes you do something stupid and
then you have you you you pay for it and hopefully if you're
smart enough you'll learn from that and now you've gained wisdom what's sad
is that you know something like that happens and you don't learn it
experience is valuable but more so valuable than that
is learned experience because some people experience pain all the time
some people experience failure all the time some people experience
the the consequences of their stupid actions all the time and they still
don't learn from it you understand so it's important that we
learn from those experiences that we ask god for wisdom
that we are around wise men hey that's what's important
young men you get around the right type of people
hang out with your high school buddies hey do you believe the bible or not
the bible says that a companion of fools shall be destroyed
you will be destroyed along with your buddies if that's all you hang out with
if you hang around with a bunch of stupid young teenagers
that's exactly what you're going to be i want to be wise
so therefore i'm going to hang out with wise men to learn
the experiences of life to become successful not to be around my cool
little e-buddies these e-boys
i learned a new word last week these e-boys and you know
all that all right the sheesh boys right
you know you need to be around wise people
you know people wonder why homeschool children are far more superior than the
children who actually go to public school sometimes
it's because the children have no one to talk to but adults
that's why they're so smart sometimes because they have conversations with
their mom with their father and their you know mom
and dad are not like goo goo gaga all day
they're speaking to them normally and therefore they become superior in their
knowledge and you know their understanding you
understand but you want to raise a sheesh boy
then you got to be around foolish people with no knowledge hey i tell you this
for your own good young men say this because i love you okay and i
don't want you to be destroyed i was in high school at one time and you
know i was around a lot of bad people and they talked
there's no good thing that came from those relationships no good thing
whatsoever a lot of bad habits were learned a lot
of bad experiences a lot of bad relationships it was not
good and i guarantee if you talk to those
guys oh yeah there's so many good memories though
no there weren't not at all i guarantee the vast majority of those guys are
losers today it's not doing anything having children
out of wedlock playing xbox while their wife works or
something lazy as the day is long you know
thank god for the bible thank god for salvation that when i got saved i learn
manhood biblical manhood i learned how to work
i learned my biblical role in life and i got around wise men
to be to become wise but don't you want to be cool no i want to be wise
i'm already cool just kidding i'm just kidding
so wisdom helps us to deal with imperfect men
look at verse 21 so he tells us to be moderate in our knowledge but also be
moderate in the information you're gathering from others look what it says
in verse 21 also take no heed unto all the words
that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee
for oftentimes also thine own heart know it that thou thyself likewise
has cursed others now what is he saying don't be an eavesdropper
isn't the bible so relevant
don't be a nosy person that's what he's saying right let's read it
also take no heed unto all the words that are spoken lest thou hear thy
servant curse thee the eavesdropper
is actually the little birdie that carries her voice in chapter 10
remember in chapter 10 or are you going to see in chapter 10 you know
it talks about that bird shall carry the your voice right
and that which that which hath wings shall tell the matter
you know you're you're you're gossiping you're saying something bad about
someone the little birdie is actually the
eavesdropper he's like he's listening and he's like i'm gonna
go tell the matter the eavesdrop okay
so you can call it an eavesdropper you could just call it a nosy person
this is the person who just wants to know what's going on in every
conversation okay whether at work or in church you
know they're just they have their ear to the ground for
everything that's going on
and it's not because you know they're just you know they just want to make
sure everything's in its place you know there's no false doctrines being
taught they're just nosy they're just nosy
people okay and you know you said why is it why
why is solomon saying this to me i mean why is solomon saying this to
eavesdroppers well he's saying it because what's going to happen is the
more you listen to other people's conversations the more
likely is that some you're going to hear something bad about you
what even in church duh yeah it's going to happen all the time you're
like well that's why i want to find out i want to see who's talking smack
yeah but here's the thing then he follows up with this yeah but just
remember you've done that before too you've cursed people you've said wrong
things you've gossiped about others and so before you go on this witch hunt
finding out who's saying what who's talking about
who just know this you have also done the
same you've been a little birdie yourself you've been a little cockatoo yourself
you're a little canary yourself you're a little turkey yourself
little ostrich yourself
you carried that voice at one point point or another
so he's saying look don't don't be like an eavesdropper
don't don't be this type of person now let me just say this and don't get this
please don't get this wrong this doesn't necessarily apply to me
100 of the time here at the church although i have a hard time eavesdropping
i have a hard time just paying attention sometimes when people even tell me
certain things because i'm just kind of like doing my
own thing you know but you know there's times when i have to pay attention to
what's going on i rarely like get into someone's
conversation but i will say this and it may be because
i'm the pastor the god will sometimes providentially
allow me to walk in on a conversation sometimes
sometimes you'll place me at the right place at the right time you know i'm
just like and then someone you know they're
strife taking place or something that's not right is being
said i just you know i walk by i'm like whoa
what was that what'd you say about my mama no i'm just kidding
you know i hear something i'm just like and then i have to address it
he said what about the other times well the other times i just depend on the
birdies to come tell me the birdies to come tell me the you know
the pastor you know someone said this and someone said that
then i have to deal with it or whatever but i don't go looking for that
information i just kind of depend on god just allowing it
me to you know to find out about it or someone will come tell me about it
um but i don't necessarily keep my ear to the ground even for like false
doctrine for example because i just like to think that
everyone in our church is just righteous or doctrinally sound
they're great people and you know there's not a wolf or an infiltrator or
anything like that that's just the way i believe you're
like oh man that's not a good way to think why
you know i'd rather just love my people and be wrong about someone
i prefer to be wrong about an individual than to be right about someone
right i'd rather just be wrong like yeah but then you're wrong
how does that affect me though not nothing at all once i find out the
person's wicked they're teaching false doctrine
i correct that we move on with our lives you understand
but you know don't be the individual where you know
one conversation's over here another conversation you're just kind of like
what's abert saying over there what's what's he saying
why are those mexicans on that corner what do they talk about all the time
why is ulysses marcos who is it uses marcos and uh
gammy oh yeah jose sorry i almost forgot jose
where are all those mexicans are they conspiring together
let me go to the kitchen and act like i'm going to the kitchen just so i can
eavesdrop a little bit of what they're saying over there
you know don't be the kind of person where you just have to find out what's
going on everywhere why don't you just enjoy church
and believe in the providence of god right
believe in god's providence you know so those guys don't feel left out i kind of
join them sometimes too because i'm sort of brown okay
yeah sorta whoever who was that i'm just kidding
i'm just kidding
see how that birdie just carried that over here see how i heard that
the birdie was like he said sorta but what i'm saying is you know just
enjoy church don't go around suspecting everyone that people are gossiping
and you know this may seem like really basically you know churches actually
struggle with this a lot because there's cliques in different
churches and then people are gossiping about each other
that should not be said of our church they were gossiping about each other
that there's strife you know but again there's been times when i providentially
i feel like god providentially led me into
some people who were like in strife where it almost seemed as though
something was going to happen i'm thinking of one particular time
where like an argument was about to break out and i just so happened to walk
by and i just turned i was like what's going
on and they just parted ways i'm like that's what i thought i'm just
kidding no i was just like i don't know what's
happening and someone literally did one of one of the people told me like you
came in like the perfect time because it was getting pretty ugly right
okay and so um you said did things get ugly
sometimes well you know you have a bunch of red-blooded men
who think that they're both right you get a bunch of guys who
both have strong opinions and they think that they're right
you're gonna you're bound to have like an argument pop off or something it's
gonna happen you say what's what what uh advice do
you have for them moderation be moderate
the bible says in proverbs 16 28 forward man so is strife and a whisperer
separated chief friends he that covered the transgression seeketh love
but he that repeated the matter separated the very friends
so typically the person who's eavesdropping is not just eavesdropping
they're also carrying the voice to some to someone else
and if you don't like that advice well just remember this
an ungodly man diggeth up evil and in his lips there is a burning
fire so just know this if you're purposely being an eavesdropper
trying to find evil trying to look for people saying
you know bad stuff the bible calls you a an
ungodly man you're just digging up evil and look
if you go digging somewhere you're bound to find something
the more you dig the more likely it is you're you're you're likely to find
something bad to be said about you understand
or about other people so what's the solution the solution is this
mind your business okay proverbs 26 17 says he that passeth
by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that
taketh the dog by the ears this is something that's very common with
children okay you know i won't say which one of my
children do this
uh but his last his last name is mahia and his first name begins with a b okay
uh you know sometimes i'm talking talking to my wife about something he's
just like
i'm like mind your business i'm talking to talking to mom here you
know and then he just walks over and acts
like he's playing with toys or something he's just like
it's not just my son i'm sure some of yours is due to or used to do it
it's just a common trait okay they're sometimes nosy
don't be nosy mind your business and um all will go well verse 23 all this have
i proved by wisdom i said i will be wise but it was far from me that which is far
off and exceeding deep who can find it out he's basically
saying you know there's never an end to getting wisdom
okay so don't think you ever arrived when you get wisdom
it's deep you can't find it out there's there's
it's it's it's it's unsearchable the bible says you can
continue to look for wisdom and get wisdom and you'll never arrive
the end of that trail okay now here's the interesting thing is that uh
solomon he's like i'm searching for wisdom
i'm trying to get wisdom and it's exceeding deep and all these things
and then he falls over verse 25 i applied my heart to know and to search
and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of
folly even a foolishness and madness so what's
the conclusion you come up with solomon and i find more bitter than death the
woman
i'm like wait hold on a second so as you're searching for wisdom
you're asking god for wisdom you're searching wisdom
well let's let's read that again he says he's applying his heart to know and to
search seek out wisdom the reason of things and
to know wickedness of folly even a foolishness and madness
and i came to this conclusion that i find more bitter than death the
woman man whose heart is snares and nets
and her hands is bands who's so pleased that god
shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken
by her go to promise chapter two you said
solomon
dang bro are you seems a little much i thought you're going to talk about you
know the the wisdom of science and the stars and the moon and
you know all these the creatures no no no
this is the conclusion that i got something that's more bitter than death
is this woman right here
but what about like you know all the creatures of the sea
and you know how the the planets work and the solar system and all these
deep things yeah that's good but i'm just telling you when i searched out
wisdom this is the conclusion that i came to
a lot of the time
and this isn't the only time we said something like this okay because
solomon also wrote the book of proverbs look at proverbs 2 verse 10 when wisdom
enter into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant into thy soul
discretion shall preserve thee understanding shall keep thee
to deliver thee from the way of the evil man and from the man that speaketh
forward things who leave the paths of a brightness to
walk in the ways of darkness who rejoice to do evil and delight in the
forwardness of the wicked whose ways are crooked and they forward in their paths
to deliver thee from the strange woman so he says when you get wisdom you know
one of the first things that it does for you
it delivers you from the whore it delivers you from the strange woman
even from the stranger which flattereth with her words
which forsake at the guide of her youth and forget at the covenant of her god
go to proverbs chapter 6 like hold on a second i thought if i get wisdom i'm
gonna be able to understand end times bible prophecy
i thought i was gonna be able to understand like daniel's 70th week and
all this stuff like yeah you you'll be able to understand
that what he's saying i'm gonna give you this first though
because if you don't get this you might never even get to the point where you
could read the bible and understand revelation and end times bible prophecy
look at chapter 6 verse 23 for the commandment is a lamp and the law is
light and reproofs of instruction of the way of life
to keep thee from the evil woman so it seems as though this is really
important to god right he's like i want to give you wisdom
light instruction you're like bible knowledge and end times bible prophecy
no to keep you from the evil woman
to keep you from that wicked woman over there who's trying to destroy your life
so this tells me that one of the greatest adversaries of a man is the
evil and strange woman if he's if he's saying like this is the
conclusion of wisdom and knowledge that it'll keep you and protect you
from this evil woman it shows you that this is important to
keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery of the tongue of a
strange woman lust not after her beauty in thine heart
neither let her take thee with her eyelids
for by means of a whorish woman oh man that's like a bad word huh
it's not for by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread
and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life
so you know what that tells me first and foremost it tells me that god considers
your life precious so precious in fact that he would give
you so much wisdom that you would be able to discern to
stay away from that evil foreign wicked strange woman
the whorish woman that's what he's saying
so by process of elimination those who have been giving themselves over to
strange women and whores and all these things
according to the bible they're not wise god didn't give them wisdom go to
proverbs 5
so
and in fact in ecclesiastes it says i find more bitter than death the woman
whose heart is snares and nets and her hands is bent whoso pleaseth god
shall escape from her man he's talking about her like she's some sort of like
beast or something like if you please god you'll be able to
escape from her clutches from her bands and look ladies if this offends you're
like i don't know this is kind of like offensive
what do you mean this is protecting your son this is protecting your husband
right these are the kind of things you should be showing to your children
these are the kind of things you want to show to your child and say
this is who you need to stay away from son the evil
adulterous woman who will destroy your life
they're hunting for your life they want to destroy it they want to bring it to
nothing they want to bring it to a morsel of bread
they don't care about you get wisdom so you can stay away from such a woman
he said it doesn't really take that much wisdom to know that
folks have you ever met a teenager who fell in love
or should i say have you ever been that teenager who fell in love
i'm serious right when you're a teenager and
and you're in love i mean it's like
you good luck with that one good luck trying to separate your
teenager from the person that they're in love with
it's it's it's it's it's near impossible sometimes
okay so what's the solution we'll teach him the word of god
teach him about the whorish woman so he's able to discern
and look obviously this is for the men but it's also uh for
yeah for the men but it's also for the women because it says to keep thee from
the evil man keep thee from the e-boy right
because ladies you need to stay away from the e-boy
queer little sissy e-boy you know the tick-tock boy who knows how to
pop lock and has a hundred thousand views on
tick-tock but can't seem to do a hundred thousand
hours of work for years you know they just don't know
how to do anything but do tick-tock and and wear tight clothing and and put
on makeup because you know those guys put on makeup
ladies need wisdom for that girls need wisdom for that
yeah but he's so cute get get first of all
get a puppy if you want something cute right
get yourself a puppy
and and let me say this this is a rabbit trail we're not going down the rabbit
hole but this is a rabbit trail you know mothers and fathers should
should help mold the appetite of their children of
what type of you know spouse they should be
looking for right they should mold that help assist
them to mold that appetite so they're not looking for the tick
talker the e-boy they're not looking for the the the
whore on instagram they're not looking for the the strange
woman they know how to discern and say this is not what god wants from me i
don't want this this is not right you know what i mean i
want a virtuous woman i want a virtuous godly man and help
mold those appetites okay and
obviously i have young children but i've learned from from men who
have raised successfully raised godly children
and one of the ways that they did that to to assure that
um that they would not follow after an evil man
or a strange woman is that you know they they spent time with their children
and not only that but they also uh spoke kindly to their children and the
mom would tell the the the the young man that he's handsome so
he's not looking for that those type of compliments somewhere
else the father tells the daughter you're beautiful you're pretty and takes
them out on dates and whatnot so they're not
looking for that in another place okay and so uh
it's important look at proverbs 5 20 and why will thou my son be ravished with a
strange woman embrace the bosom of a stranger
for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the lord and he ponder with all
his goings his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he
shall be holding with the cords of his sin
he shall die without instruction and the greatness of his folly he shall go
astray go back to ecclesiastes chapter 7 so he says you know i find more bitter
than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets
and her hands as bands whose pleaseth not god shall escape from her
but the sinner shall be taken by her so if you
if you fall for one of these people the strange woman or the evil man
according to this by according to this verse you're not pleasing god
because god wants to keep you from those things but if you reject god's word then
god says all right i'll give you what you want
and you're going to find out death would have been better than this
that's extreme oh trust me i'm sure there's people out there who got married
who in their heart they're saying death would have been better than this
relationship it's true and so give heed to that young
men give heed to that young ladies this is
not a joke this is not me just going on a rant this is a biblical teaching
that god wants to protect you from destruction
and often destruction comes by means of what type of spouse you find
okay you need to make sure you find the right spouse
and look what it says in verse number 27 behold this have i found saith the
preacher counting one by one to find out the account
what yet my soul seeketh but i find not one man among a thousand have i found
but a woman among all those have i not found he's basically saying there's a
scarcity of righteous men and women all right
2021 it's hard to find good young ladies and good young men
but thankfully there's a bunch of them here there's a bunch of good young ladies
and a good young man at this church and you know we just got
to convince them to get married once or another
one day okay
why are you laughing john talking to you son
i wasn't going to say the name but since it's here i'm just kidding
i'm kidding john knows i love him you know um hey he's the one in a thousand
you know there's not many young men like this in this world today
okay you know most young men how old are you john
23 most young men will be on tick tock doing pop locks
and you know lip syncing to a stupid song or something
instead john is just playing this weird instrument in the church
he's not lip-syncing he's putting his lips on this instrument so he can play
you know hey he's a responsible young man
young man and he's doing a great job you know he loves the lord
this is a one of a thousand it's not very common
okay and the same thing with the ladies in our church as well in fact
on sunday um my mother who's in her 70s she she came to me or
what was it i think she came on sunday but i saw her this
week and she said i just want to say that i'm so impressed with the young men
in your church now i know you young men you don't want
to necessarily you know have this said about you about a 75 year
old woman you know like i want to hear like a young lady say
this about me but you know just to let you know she said this she said
they're so respectful they you just don't see this
anymore you know because someone came up to her
and i think it was miss carmen and just basically said you guys ladies need some
coffee did you enjoy the service is there
anything that you need you know and they're just kind of taken
back like wow you know that you don't really see that anymore
and you say why would she make that comment because most
young men that age are little prats they're little punks
they're disrespectful they disrespect their authorities they disrespect the
elderly they they spend their time just mocking
people and not being respectful but we want to
raise young men who you know go to everyone in the church and
say is there anything you need there's servants in the church they love
the lord and and don't don't and by the way don't
think don't have this attitude well don't nice guys finish last well yeah
nice guys do finish last they do so don't be nice just be godly
there you go don't be nice
nice guys finish last because they're pushovers
pushovers sissies they're they're they're they are the uh
the soy boys those people finish last yes don't be like that
be a godly young man be a man of spiritual war be a man who loves the
lord be a man of fortitude okay and of
resolve be a man who knows the bible be a man
who loves the lord loves souls loves the church love his church members
is willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good of god's will
be that type of young man you you will not finish last
god will put you first if you do those things because remember seek the kingdom
of god and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you
and so you know there's a scarcity of righteous men and women
and so we need to make sure that we raise them in our church okay
he says in verse 29 lo this only have i found that god hath made man
upright but they have sought out many inventions he's basically saying there
should be many righteous people out there
people of morality because god made man upright
but they have sought out many inventions and that's why there's a scarcity
of them so if you learn anything from the book of ecclesiastes chapter 7 is
this don't be nosy don't be an eavesdropper
okay uh do things in moderation get
information in moderation um
you know and and and young men young women
make sure that you mature correctly okay and put the things of god first you
want to be blessed of god don't just go for every you know uh e-boy
on the internet or think man i hope i can just develop
this relationship with this person and maybe i can change them or something
you know maybe i can change them to become a fundamental baptist
what you need to do is just develop yourself right
spend time in god's word follow your authority pray
to that end and and be godly and god will provide
a spouse for you one day and just notice this you know before you get all
oh man what's going to happen to me just know this you're the precious life
not them people in this world are not the precious life that god is talking
about you're that precious life if you're a young man young lady in our
church you're the precious life that god is talking about
and so uh don't fall prey to the wolves of this world who see you
as an opportunity to hunt that precious life okay
be godly let's pray lord thank you so much for your word thank you for chapter
seven lord and all the wisdom therein help us to do all things in moderation
lord information in moderation and not to take these unbiblical extremes
lord and to not be no at all help us help us
to to grow at a reasonable pace
that we would learn the bible seek to read the bible and leave that other
stuff for someone else lord at the right appropriate time we
can handle that information i've i've met people
who learned a lot of information but it's almost as if they learned it
prematurely and their mind their spiritual inner man
can't handle all that and so lord help us to gain information
that our inner man would grow far beyond
our physical man's intellect lord so we can handle
the information of this world and and