Go ahead and start streaming.
Don't record yet.
Just stream.
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Sorry about that guys. I was just trying to check if it was live so
Welcome to our Wednesday evening service.
Today is August 6th,
and our service times are right there.
Sunday morning, 10.30 a.m.
Sunday evening, 4.30 p.m.
Wednesday service, 5.30, and our sole winning time is...
2 p.m. on Sunday and then the verse of this week is Philippians 1-1 and it's Paul and
Timothyus the servant of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are in Philippi
with the bishops and deacons. Our year to date soul winning numbers are actually 176
so we went out on Sunday again and we averaged six again so that was wonderful. Our birthdays
there on the right, as well as our anniversaries.
And just a big announcement,
it's Pastor Cobb and Sister Linda's 50th year anniversary.
So it's the year of Jubilee, the golden year.
It's the golden year, right?
Yeah.
And then upcoming events, honey.
I'm on.
The upcoming for spring crest is we have a pastor Stephen Anderson from Faith forward Baptist Church
He'll be coming in August 22nd that Friday evening. It'll be a great turnout. We're looking forward to it
I'm really excited and then August 23rd. We're gonna have a soul-winning marathon the very next day and then of course
August 14th through the 16th with it. I believe it's next week
We have the Mighty Men's Conference or the Men's Retreat August 14th through the 16th.
So if any men are interested, just see me after it just texts me directly, we'll work that out.
And then we have for the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship August 27th through the 31st.
I will be in Fort Worth preaching the Spanish service in the morning and then the English
service in the evening.
And then, of course, we have our Mexico City soul-winning mission strips, September 8-12,
also in conjunction with a steadfast.
It just worked out like that.
We actually like all the churches, but we are partial to our Texas churches, right?
We stick together.
In the freezer are for the soul winners and the ice cream is only for the Bible memory verse for those that are out there for the kids.
And then you want to come back up?
And then I think we have the prayer request in the back.
Oh, I do need to update it if you'll remind me.
We've got a couple of reminders.
And if nothing else, what's the next 10?
420.
So let's turn our handles over to page 420.
I will sing the wondrous story, 420.
Ecclesiastes 2 for the reading 266 266 my faith has found a resting place
I'm just, I'm just multi-tasking over here.
Turn your Bibles over to Ecclesiasties too, and we'll be there in the scripture. We'll read the whole chapters is now our custom
And then we'll have our you can start record now if you want to
And we'll go ahead and read Ecclesiasties chapter 2
Let me just get a little bit of hydration here
Right there and the Bible says in chapter one I said in my heart go to now I will prove thee with myrrh
Therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity. I said of laughter. It is mad and of mirth
What do with it? I saw it in my heart to give myself unto wine yet equating
Mine hard with wisdom until they hold on folly till I might see what was that good for the sons of men
Which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. I made me great works. I builded me houses
I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens orchard and orchards and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits
I made me pools of water to water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees.
I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house. Also, I had great possessions.
great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me I gathered
me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the
provinces I get me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of
men as musical instruments and all that of all sorts so I was great and
increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem also my wisdom
remained in me and what's over my eyes desired I kept not from them
I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was
my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought,
and on the labor that I had labor to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit.
madness and folly for what can the man do that cometh after the king even that
which hath been already done then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly as far as
light excelleth darkness the wise man's eyes are in his head but the full
walketh in darkness and I myself perceived also that one event happened
to them all then said I in my heart as it happened to the full so it happened
And why was I then more wise, than I said in my heart, that this also is vanity, for there is no
remembrance of the wise more than of the fools forever. Seeing that which is, which now is in the
days to come, shall also all be forgotten, and how dyeth the wise man as the fool. Therefore, I hate it life.
Because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit
Yay, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun
Because I should leave it unto the man that should be after me and who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool
Yet shall he have rule over all my labor
Where when I have labored and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun this also is vanity
Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun,
for there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity,
yet to a man that hath not labored therein, show ye leave it for his portion.
This also is vanity and a great evil.
For what hath man of all his labor and of the vexation of his heart,
wherein he hath labored under the sun?
for all his days are sorrow in his travail grief, yet his heart taketh not rest in the night.
This also is vanity. There is nothing better for a man than he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul and joy good in his labor. This also I saw that it was from the
hand of God. For who can eat or who else can hasten here on to more than I?
for God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy but to the center
he giveth travail together and to heap up that he may give to him that is good before God
this also is vanity and vexation of spirit. Pastor Cobb will you lead us in a word of prayer?
Have the Father look till you again this evening
for your goodness toward us.
But thank you for preventing it.
We have to come together to hear your name.
Lord, with our thanks to the word and to the fact
that we're going to extend the word and pray for those that
were naked on the night before you thought you were going
to eat them, and should give us a safe grip on them.
We'll give us that verse in the name of Jesus for his sake, yes.
Amen.
We're there in Ecclesiastes too, and you know, one of the things is that if we were to look
at just sheer numbers and results sometimes, if we didn't have the Word of God, we would
get discouraged.
Last Wednesday, we had over 20 people in church, and today I think we might have less
than 10.
You know, just ebb and flow of life.
Ecclesiastes 2 ends on a note about those who labor for the Lord and how much better
it is than laboring for man.
And so it's a good way to segue into Ecclesiastes 2.
Last week we saw the beginning and we're still on the same theme.
We still haven't changed directions.
And what's the theme is that everything is vanity and vexation of spirit.
The title of my sermon this afternoon is Ecclesiastes 2, Pleasure, Possessions and Pride
are vanity. Pleasure, possessions and pride are vanity. And we're there in Ecclesiastes and the
verse that I really want to focus on today is about found in verse 11 it says then I looked on all
the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labor to do and behold all was
vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no prophet under the sun. What's interesting about
You know the entire world functions in the business world under profit and loss
I mean, literally everything is, hey, send me the prophet and loss for this month, for
this week, for the quarter, for the day, for the last three years, for the last two years.
How are we doing compared to last year?
How are we doing compared to this year?
How are we doing in anticipation of the year to come?
And what does the Bible says?
He says, then I looked at all the works that my hands had wrought and the labor that I
there was no prophet under the sun and I mean if anybody could give you and like a
synopsis of life on this earth it would be Solomon as a matter of fact as I was
reading through this it gave me another thought you know it's interesting
Here, later on, we see another verse where it says that, as he gathered stuff, all his
wisdom remained.
And we have other characters in the Bible, you know, like in the book of Daniel, when
King, I think it's King, is it King?
As Zuharis loses his mind, or is it Nebuchadnezzar?
I forget.
I think it's Nebuchadnezzar.
He loses his mind, right?
Because he thinks of himself as a God.
There's a difference. I thought that was an interesting way to phrase it in the sense that God
Doesn't take anything that he gives you away, right? If he directly gives it and what I mean by that is
When we're born, we're born with a certain predisposition for certain skills, right?
Like I have skills to be extroverted. I love sales. I love being around people.
Other people are really good at math. Not that I can't be good at math,
but there's our brains are predisposed for certain things versus others.
Right. And so as I grow through life, I can gain skills like wisdom and knowledge, but
I could also lose those because I'm the one who gained them through free will but in Solomon's case
It was given to him directly from God and even though he used it incorrectly
The Lord never removes that which I thought was a great picture of salvation, right?
If it comes directly from God, which salvation is only from Jesus Christ, we can never lose it
Right, so I just thought that was an interesting point, but just to stay on theme
before we change
It's just what excessive pride, right?
It's when you worry too much about what you look,
too much about the qualities, your abilities,
your achievements.
You know, your character or the quality of being, it's the opposite of humility, right?
It's just basically a counter like, I mean, it's a vanity is something that it's worthless.
It's trivial.
It's pointless in the life.
In addition to vanity, we now see an over-emphasis, and we saw that in the chapter 1, but we start seeing them tie together what?
To be vexed or vexation of spirit, right? And what does vex mean?
Vexus is basically to irritate or annoy or provoke.
You know, synonyms to that are like to fret, to earth, to anger, to torment, to trouble,
distress, plague, worry, to confuse or bewilder, to confound, to discuss or debate with vigor
or great length, to disturb by motion, to stir up, to toss about, right?
And what do we see?
That I at labor to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no prophet under son
I mean Solomon is going through this entire chapter
Right there in the middle of the chapter. He's talking about and we're gonna see it
But he's talking about everything. He just basically did and what he gathered and what he built and what he accomplished
And he looked at it all and he said look it's worthless
The vanity part, it's pointless, it's futile, it's empty, it's void, it's just a black hole,
and not only that, it irritates me.
It, it, it, it, uh, what is it, it just, uh...
I'm looking for that word. It like it just makes my soul just completely
You know overwhelmed like I'm just frustrated and annoyed and angry that I did all this work
And it's gonna mean nothing
It says there's no profit under the Sun and that's the reality, right? I mean you have
Corporations that have been around for hundreds of years and nobody cares
I mean, I know most of the younger generation won't know, but you remember Woolworth, right,
Pastor?
Oh, yeah.
And they were around for, you know, a long time, profit, and profit, and profit, and
profit, and then one day they closed up, and nobody cares.
And I mean, they were a staple of the United States, the reason that is such a great name
in United States history of business is because it was at every downtown, right?
You would go into downtown before there was malls and metropolitan areas.
Everything focused what?
In the town square or downtown, right?
And downtown compromised of what?
You had the general stores.
started to get industrialized, you started to get mass production of consumerism, and
you had companies like JCPenney and Woolworth, and the reason we know these names is not
because of some product, but because the men that were behind them were the ones that were
basically showing off their wealth.
You had all these big staple companies, and now most of them are gone, or they've had
right? Because the first point I have for you is that it's the empty pursuit of what?
Pleasure. Because honestly, business is the empty pursuit of pleasure. Because most people,
you know, what does Bill Gates need billions of dollars for?
Now, I'm not, if he earned it and he keeps it, I'm not one of those that I believe in distribution of wealth.
The Bible speaks well of like, hey, if you make it, you earn it, you know, we have the parable of the talents.
But when it comes to a worldly thing, at what point is enough?
The Bible describes that that we're never satisfied that the eye is never satisfied the tongue is never satisfied a fire
Is never satisfied, right? You could feed a fire for all eternity, and it'll never and it'll just keep feeding on itself
It's just this perpetual thing. So let's go there to Ecclesiastes 2 and the right there verse 1 it said I said in my heart
Go to now. I will prove thee with mirth
therefore
Enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity. I said of laughter. It is mad and of mirth. What do with it?
You know what he said? He said hey, I convinced myself
That I will go out and basically party right and enjoy myself
And I figured out that it was in vain
And you know what, I can actually relate to this because I got saved at 25.
So I actually did what most college students did and I partied.
I remember staying out all night, partying and doing all that.
I don't talk about it a lot because I want people to confuse the change of my life to
my saving day because actually after I got saved, I actually didn't change quite a bit.
It wasn't until I started reading my Bible and showing up to church and then I was like
I think about it all that time and I'd rather not, because you'll see my
countdown has changed. It's just a sad time in my life that left me empty and void.
There's nothing that I gained all those years partying out with all my friends. I don't talk to
most of them. There was no benefit here on this earth. I couldn't call them to save my life if I
All right, I mean turn over to Luke 12, but I'll read for you really quick Proverbs 14
And in verse 12 says there is a way which Seamoth write unto a man
But the ends the end thereof are the ways of death and now love verse 13 says
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth
is heaviness. I mean you see people that get like commit suicide like on a
celebrity status and what's usually the story that goes behind it oh you know
the last time we saw him he was so happy and jovial and joking we couldn't even
really tell there was anything wrong with him and then he just killed himself
Because the reality is there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the ways there the end thereof are the ways of death
We're in Luke 12 we have the story of the parable it says in verse 16
And he spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth
Plentifully and he thought to himself saying what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits
I mean think about you get so big in your riches. You don't even know what to do with yourself
That's literally what this guy say and he said this will I do I will pull down my barns and build greater
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods, and I will say to my soul,
soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou full, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou hast provided? So is it he that layeth up treasures for himself,
Isn't that's kind of a scary saying to get to the end of your life and you think you've got it all and God says hey
Thou full
Thy soul is required of thee
And isn't that what's gonna happen to all these billionaire millionaire moguls. It's just the natural
We met a guy yesterday
My business partner and I went out and replaced the water heater
And so we were out to like eight or nine and the gentleman who we replaced it for he's an 84 year old
Gentleman who you know, he lived this life
He was a sheriff at one point and he was a bond trader one point
Somebody stole four million dollars from him and you know when the thing that made me sad was you could still see the fire in him
He was talking about maybe potentially trading in crypto
and that he just wanted to do this and do that because he was supporting his family,
you know, because apparently, obviously, he has some money saved up.
But at one point also, he's talking to me, he's just like, you know, we all get old.
He's like, I don't have much time left on this earth.
And so he's trying to fill his time with another purpose because he realizes he got to the end
To show for it because the money just goes it comes and it goes and the all the stories and all the great people
He knew and all the great things he did. They're they're they're in history past
Right. It doesn't do anything for you
You know, I I've talked to people and I the other day I was telling someone of all the things that I've done in my life
And they're like man, you've lived a life
For what?
It doesn't matter who I matter who I know or what I did. It's done
The only I can worry about is today and what and if God gives me life
I can maybe plan for the future and prepare for that, but that's it
Right and this guy, you know, he's he's looking out and he's like, I don't know what to do
So I'm just gonna build greater only for for what forgot to take it away
Go over
go back to Ecclesiastes but in Hebrews 11 Bible says there in verse 24 says by faith Moses when
he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he heth respect unto the
recompense of the reward you know I love preaching and reading the Bible because it resets me
because I wasn't like my goal was never to be just a preacher my goal was never to just be in the ministry and
I'm gonna be honest with you there's days where you know
I know a lot about business and I know that I should be making way more money than I'm making now
But I know the reason why I'm not
Because three days out of the week are for the church, and then I'll only work four days for my business, like, and I think to myself,
you know, in my flesh, I get frustrated. I'm like, man, if I only have one of those days back, if I could only do this.
But then you read the Bible, and you're like, everything's vanity and vexation of spirit anyways.
So then my flesh, I just got to push it down and be like, shut up!
Right devil leave me alone, and I'm gonna prove that to you from Bible, right?
But I'm like just just leave me alone, and then sometimes I'll
Sit up at night. I'm like man my dad wanted me to be a doctor
If I would have been a doctor by now, you know, I'd have a practice
We'd be making money all the time traveling, but you know what I wouldn't be doing so we got
Right, or I could have just stayed in the insurance and financial services game
And I could be getting trails and renewals every month, and I probably have 30 40 adult thousand dollars
There's guys that make hundreds of thousands of dollars just on interest
They don't even sell anymore
But I wouldn't be serving God
And I mean you think about it
I'm actually glad I got saved as an adult because it's easy to reset because I know what that life is
The allure is sometimes when you're struggling, you know, you're trying to balance time and maybe you've got a lot on your plate
You're like, oh, it would be easier if I had this but the reality is it wouldn't
Because then you run out. I met a guy. I'm actually going to meet him tomorrow. He runs a
handyman's business for seven that makes seven million dollars a year and
He's trying to get me to help him with some of the technology
but what's interesting is this guy's like in the 60s and
When I was talking to him I was like look, I don't know how you think I can help you or what you want to do
He's like yeah, you're right. He's like well, I sold my business here in Houston
to AT&T and like all the Xfinity and all that when I was 40 years old to like 20 years ago
he's like I sold it for like $765 million and it's interesting what he said he said
and I didn't know what to do with myself and he's like and it was the worst time in my life
he's like I was depressed and I was just down on myself and I was beating myself up
and so I started another business you know why because we're men we need purpose
I mean, I'm sitting here with a guy who probably has hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank account
And he's looking to me to help him build another thing because without Christ
You're just trying to you know, you need another goal only to fall short because the minute you get that goal
You're gonna be like when and what now?
What do I do now? What's next, right? So the first point I have for you is the emptiness
or the empty pursuit of pleasure.
The second is the futility of great fleshly accomplishments.
The futility, and I didn't set my timer,
so you guys are gonna have to forgive me,
but I'll try to stick.
I'll probably even preach you for a couple of minutes,
like 20 minutes, right?
So we'll just add another hour that,
I'm just kidding, we're not.
But the second point is the futility of great...
fleshly accomplishments. What do I mean by that? Well, the only way to do great
works for the Lord is to first be saved and then to actually do works for the
Lord, right? But there's a lot of Christians who make money. There's a
lot of rich Christians. I mean, we see it by the fact that Baptist churches,
forget the other ones because I think they're false religion, but at least in
Baptist churches there's people that are tithing well, that are running, and the
Bible says, you know, that those guys, those accomplishments, it's all
You know, you're there in Ecclesiastes 2 and verse 3, Solomon continues, he said,
I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine.
He's like, hey, this thing of getting drunk looked good.
He said, yet equating my heart with wisdom until I hold on folly.
And even though he kind of was trying to figure it out with his wisdom, he said, what?
Let me just be foolish also.
He says, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do
under the heaven all the days of their life, I made me great works, I builded me houses,
I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards, I planted trees in them of all
kind of fruits, I made me pools of water, to water there with the woods that bringeth
forth trees.
I got me servants and maid servants and had servants born in my house and I had a great
possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me
also silver and gold and the peculiar treasures of kings and of the provinces. I got me men singers
and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as the musical instruments and that of all
Increased more than all that were in Jerusalem, and this is that one thing also my wisdom remain it
Remained in me with me. I think it's interesting that he segues to that because that's the point
I was trying to make it earlier is he knows that the Lord's being merciful to him
That's why he said I can't I couldn't understand how wisdom was with me knowing that I made that I did all this folly
Because he admits it, right? He said there, he said and to lay hold on what on folly or foolishness
He's kind of shocked because basically he's so wise
He's able to do all these great things in the world and he's able to gather all this and try all that
But he's gonna he ends up hating it all
He says look I basically who is he?
You know, we have this fictitious character and it's probably drawn from King Solomon who King Midas, right?
That everything he touched turned to gold and then what was his punishment that?
He could never be around anything because everything he touched turned to gold if he touched his wife
It turned to gold and it was just basically showing the foolishness of how if you have too much you're gonna suffer
But I'm guarantee you that story is drawn and just twisted from scripture because Solomon's like everything I touched
And I hated it
And you say he hated it. He's saying vexation and vanity of spirit
Well, just we'll read up a little bit more and you're gonna see that he actually hates it
But turn over to 1st Timothy 6
verse 17
But in Matthew 6 verse 19 the Bible says lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth where moth and rust death corrupt and where thieves break through to steal
but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and
where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be
also you know we go do uh fixer ups like all over the city and sometimes we get some wealthy clients
Man, they love to lay up treasures. There's literally a oh, man. I forgot the name of is it round top round three the
The antique store. It's real famous here in Texas. You know the NT
Outdoor store where you can buy like is round top right you go. There's a place here in Texas has been around for years
Probably decades. It's near Austin. It's like every weekend
130 round top right and you go out there and all the antiques and high-end furniture
guys and everything they sell you that and I've literally had clients who bought
like really expensive from like the 18th century tables for like 50 60 70
thousand dollars for just one table
I mean, so this is not an exaggerated thing in Ecclesiasties too. People do this all the time.
I mean, you have like, you know, auctions where people will buy, you know, a string that was touched by Napoleon for millions of dollars.
Right? Oh, the nail that pierced Jesus Christ.
Millions of dollars nobody can confirm it, which we know it's not true
But you know and and people just get all up and arms where you're there in 1st Timothy 6 and in verse 17
And then verse 10 we'll touch on that here later, but it talks about you know the love of money
But in verse 17 as this continues on the steam it says charge them that are rich in this world
That they be not high-minded nor trust in certain riches, but in the living God who give with us richly all
things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich and good works, ready to
distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good
foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. And I
have a sermon called lay hold on eternal life. Just about how I can just
visualize like you're just holding on to this great recompense, right? Oh, Timothy,
and vain babblings and oppositions of signs falsely so-called which some professing have
aired concerning the faith grace be with the amen and I included those two last verses because
it's actually on the same theme who are the people that debate the most rich people because they
You know the greatest philosophers were basically spoiled brats. They were trust-fum babies
So then they went around saying oh, well, you know God exists because I exist therefore
I don't exist God doesn't exist no idiot God exists whether you think he exists or not
He's just so high-minded because you got nothing better to do Charles Darwin one of the greatest
Detriments to Christianity because people believe the theory of evolution a satanic
A doctrine came from a guy who was basically a trust fund baby.
He had nothing better to do.
So he's traveling around with his folks, on his folks dime, and he ended up in Galapagos
islands, and he noticed that there were different animals.
Well, duh, you're in another part of the world, bro.
And he's like, wow, these look different.
You know what?
The theory of evolution.
It's not even a fact. When we can point to the Bible and I can point to Scripture that's factual and it still stands the whole of time.
I mean, the truth of time.
Go over back to Ecclesiastes, but in Mark 8 verse 36, it says,
What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
What shall it profit a man?
You know what the profit is?
That's why we go out soul winning
That's why we do what we do
You know it used to be before I became we came into the mystery that Saturdays was my day to just kind of catch up on
Business and prepare all these great things and in that way the next week I could do that now Sundays are spent just you know
Reviewing you know my sermons and if there's an opportunity to go soul winning and then if I'm not I know Sunday
I'm gonna be out there all day, and then Wednesdays I spent them you know preparing
And the reality is I love it.
I do get frustrated.
I'm not going to lie.
And I talked about how it's a paradox.
But I'm not a hypocrite, I'm just a man.
The flesh is warring against the spirit all the time.
But if you ask me sincerely, even in my frustration,
there's nothing else that I would rather do than this.
Nothing excites me more than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I mean, and I pray to the Lord that He give me strength
and that He give me youth to do it for many more years
because I got started later in life.
And when I look at these young guys, I'm like,
you, man, you got 50, 60, 70 years to do this, do it.
you know, knock it out of the ballpark.
So, third point and a half for you
is the failure of fleshly reward.
You know, so we have the empty pursuit of lie,
of pleasure, the futility of great fleshly accomplishments.
And then we have the failure of fleshly rewards.
Right, in Ecclesiastes two verse 10, the Bible says,
and whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them.
I withheld not my heart from any joy,
for my heart rejoiced and all my labor.
And this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought
and on all the labor that I had labor to do and behold,
all was vanity and vexation
and there was no prophet under the sun.
It doesn't matter.
He's like, hey, if I wanted it, I'd have it.
I mean, basically Solomon,
the way that we would envision him today
is he walks into the Galleria and he's like,
I got 700 wives, 300 concubines.
He walks in with his harem of women.
And one of them was like,
well, I want to buy everything at Louis Vuitton.
He's like, have it.
And the other one was like, I want all the Gucci.
And he's like, have it.
The other one was like, I want three Teslas.
He's like, have it.
I mean, and there's people like that.
I mean, they're literally the rich
will have entire buildings just for all their cars.
And he was more, you know, laborious.
I mean, he had more money or wealth
than any of the people today.
So he's not lying.
He's just walking around.
He's like, anything he wanted, his hard desire.
And what was the conclusion?
It was for nothing.
You know, that's why I think that...
Those people that make a lot of money, they just want more money because it's not even about the money anymore.
It's just about the goal. It's just about the purpose because if they know that the minute the purpose runs out, there's nothing to fight for.
You know, they create these fictitious enemies in competition and stuff because there's nothing to fight for then.
We don't need a fictitious enemy. We face a real enemy.
don't have to worry about it. I have a purpose for the rest of my life. Go to
Luke 4. Go to Luke 4 and we'll look at this story here and in verse 1 this is
when Jesus is being tempted, right?
And this is exactly what the devil does.
He's going to tempt you with what?
Fleshly reward.
It says, in Jesus being full of the holy ghost,
returned from Jordan and was led by the spirit
into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil.
And in those days, he did eat nothing.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him, thou be the son of God,
command this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him saying, it is written.
that man shall not live by bread alone, but by what?
Every word of God.
Literally, with the invention of TikTok and Facebook
and all this, the entire world is,
there's an entire group of people called foodies.
And all they do is go around eating food,
thinking it's the end all to everything.
And they have millions and millions of followers.
There's a guy who went around, he's like,
I saw a clip, but he's like,
going around to all going to every state in America and eating tacos at every
state and telling you which ones are the best ones you know where the best
tacos are my house I know I can cook them just as good as any of those guys
it's simple it's just tortillas and whatever you put in them right and then
it said
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that it is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it.
If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be dined.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou worship.
So what is it saying?
Whenever you think that you need to go gain something,
what you're worshiping is that thing and not God, right?
Where's our heart?
And then,
He said he brought him into Jerusalem set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto him if thou be the son of God
Cast thyself down from hence for it is written
He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee and in their hands
They shall bear thee up less than any time thou dash thy foot against the stone and Jesus answering said unto him
It is said thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God
And when the devil had ended all temptation he departed from him for a season. You know the difference is what?
That Jesus resisted the devil in the flesh and he taught us to resist the devil Solomon just took it all in
The devil came and said hey
I'll give you all the kingdoms because you have wisdom and he took them said I'll give you all the good food
And he took it right he said I'll give you safety and protection and he took it
Instead of remembering and saying to the devil you know what the kingdom and protection came from God. He told me that
And all this money God said he's gonna give it to me because I have wisdom and all this food
It comes from God because he's the one that's gonna give it to me
But you know, who do you think everything we have comes from it comes from God Almighty?
Not from Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton or George Bush
Or whoever you want to praise it just comes from God Almighty
You're there you're there in a Ecclesiasties too, but in Psalm 127 verse 1 and 6 accept the Lord build the house
They labor in vain that build it accept the Lord keep the city the watchman walketh but in vain
Hey, this church is only as good as what the Lord builds if we think we're building this church
Without the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says it's in vain
John 6 27 says labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life
Which the Son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed
Isaiah 55 2 says wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which
Satisfyeth not
Harken diligently unto me and ye ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in
Fatness and you know what? It's a it's a where do we get our our fatness from the Lord Jesus Christ?
You got all these people
And you got all these people that are just so focused on eat, you know eating good, and I'm not I mean
Brother James and I on Sunday went and we ate Korean. It was good
You know they bring you all the beef and you cook it on the stove and you eat, you know the crispy lettuce
I mean, I love a good meal, but you know what I also just love being fed
And we need to take the attitude of what is my purpose in life?
And you know when you take a look at if your purpose is to serve the Lord
Then if you're fed your fuel, and that's all you really need to go do the work of the Lord
Right, if I eat a steak and I eat a sandwich, you know what?
I can still do soul winning with both of them
Now of course one might help me if I'm like in a workout program and of course one might taste way better
But the end result is the same
One might give me a little bit more energy than the other but the end result is the same
You know what? I'll still need in a couple of hours
more food
If I eat a 16 ounce steak, or if I eat three sandwiches from Kroger's, you know, with
bimbo bread, or what would be the equivalent of bimbo, because bimbo is a Mexican brand.
I think they sell it here.
But, you know, the cheapest bread, you know, the one that you just, the generic brand,
and then you just buy like generic peanut butter and generic jelly, and I were to eat
both of them.
One would taste way better, probably be a little bit more healthy, but if I needed both
You know, it's just the way we look at it, right?
And the problem is that people are just so focused on the wrong thing, right?
So we looked at the empty pursuit of pleasure.
You're just pursuing things for the world.
It's empty.
It's vain and it's vexation of spirit.
And then the futility of great fleshly accomplishments.
I mean, we read about Solomon talking about all the great things he did.
And what did he say?
Vanity and vexation of print spirit. There is no prophet where under the Sun and then we see that there's a failure of
Flesh reward. He's like, hey, I just tried everything. I tried drinking and I tried good eating and I tried all this and
I hated it
And then we get to the fourth point, which is the certainty of
Death for all men and then I mean this is why Ecclesiastes is so hard
If you don't have a foundation in Christ number one and if you've not read the entire Bible
because if you were to take just this chapter out of context without anything else, you wouldn't
understand it. But the entire book of Ecclesiastes is to remind you that the flesh sucks. The flesh
is not your friend. The flesh is your enemy. The flesh will let you down. But also your friends
and your peers and your mentors and the people you look up to, they're all flesh.
And they're all gonna let you down at times and they're all gonna be weak and they're all gonna drop the ball
And you know what else they're all gonna get old I
Talked to that guy. He was 84 and I said, you know, he was talking I was talking to him and I said I don't remember
Oh, I said hey, you know my business partner
so-and-so told me that you know you you used to be in in
In law enforcement, he's like, oh, yeah, he's like
that was in the past he goes now I've just gotten old it's what happens to all of us
he's like I don't got much time left he's not sick or anything but he's just coming to the end
of his life right and so what one thing that we all realize is that we're all headed to the same
exact place we're all gonna die let me just dampen your mood for a few minutes you're all gonna die
Period so don't get too excited about the newest technology and the greatest health craze and
You know, whatever else you can inject and whether you extend your life
But you know I read these studies that are so weird right like oh smoking takes five years off your life
How do they know this stuff like how do you know you don't know when you're gonna die?
Or a secondhand smoke takes this much it doesn't really matter
Let's go there to Ecclesiastes 2 verse 12 it says and I turn myself to behold wisdom and madness and folly
Man, he's this is rough, right? He's got he's got it all
He's got wisdom and he's got madness and he's got folly
For what can the man do that cometh after the king even that which has been done already done
Then I saw that wisdom
excelleth folly
As far as light exceleth darkness, he's like, hey, wisdom's better than foolishness, just
like light is better than darkness, but then he says the wise man's eyes are in his head,
but the full walketh in darkness, so he's given this contrast, which he's not lying,
but then I like this, it says, and I perceived, and I myself perceived also that one event
happened to them all.
Hey, if you're an idiot, or if you're smart, you know what, there's one event that's not
That's what he's saying here, right? He says then I said in my heart as it happened to the fool
So it happened it even to me
And why was I more than what why was I then more wise then I said in my heart?
This also is vanity. Hey, I know I'm better than this guy
Have you ever had that in your life where you just meet someone and they're doing better in life and you talk to him
You're like this guy's a moron
How is it that this guy makes more money than me? I've had those thoughts
This is guy. I think this is what Solomon is doing here. He's like this boron this idiot
Has the same and that I do what he he's realizing that the flesh is kind of letting him down
He says for there's no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever
seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten and how
diet the wise is the fool. Therefore I hated life because the work that is
wrought under the sun has grievous unto me for all is vanity and vexation of
spirit." Men Solomon in all his wisdom and wealth and opulence said I hated my
life. You know why? Because he's looking out and he's realizing that the more he
The last he realizes how little he knows, number one, and number two, he's like,
I built all this great stuff and I'm going to leave it to these idiots.
He probably thought that about his son. He's like, I'm just going to leave it to this guy.
This is what, this is who I'm leaving it to.
You know, and in every generation is like, they don't make them like they used to.
You know what they're really saying is we built this great country and we're leaving it to this
Right? I mean, I'm just paraphrasing what the older generation is thinking, right?
If you talk to my father-in-law in the the the history of engineers that built all this great stuff
Well, you know what their biggest concern is that there's no engineers like them
Right, there's nobody coming up behind them to fill the gap, you know
There's a shortage of what medical trained medical professionals doctors and nurses and stuff because nobody wants to train
The way that they used to train before because now everybody's so lazy, especially with the advent of AI
Now you could just I mean even a nurse could dump a picture and they'll be like tell me what the diagnosis is
There's no common sense. I
need you to sit down
and so
Sorry, sometimes you just got to get onto your kids.
You got one coming to you, but you think about all this stuff, and you know what you think
about?
It's the certainty of death.
So you got to focus. Okay, what am I gonna focus my life on because this guy that I met yesterday, he's 84
He he at one point lived in Panama because he was trading
Foreign exchange and he made so much money that the guy that he hired
Stole a hundred and twenty million dollars four million of them was his
And you know what he has to show for his life
a finality. He's gonna die anyways. Whether he kept the $120 million and the $4 million
or he didn't, he's gonna die.
We're all going to the same place. So if we're all going to the same place
Why don't I just focus on the fact that you know what they can't take away from me?
Because I don't think like that when I lead someone to Christ
I don't think all all the work that I'm gonna do at Christ
I mean at Spring Crest Baptist Church all the work that we're gonna you know this church
Maybe let's say we make it nicer and all of a sudden there's hundreds of people and one day I die
Hey, if I pass the torch correctly, they're not only gonna do great things. They're probably gonna do better things
and they can't take away any of the labor that I put because every soul that I want is not hay,
wood, and stubble. It's refined in the fire and it's going to be in heaven.
Right? It doesn't matter. You could take all my money. You could take all my cars or my cars.
You could take the two cars we have that row. You could take my clothes. You could take my food.
You could take all of it. And you know what? You can't take away the souls that I want.
Bible says that once saved they're always saved but as many as receive them today and gave you power to become the sons of
God even to them that believe on his name, right?
For how long I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish so even though there's certainty for death for all men
If there's no it's only in the flesh the certainty is the flesh
Not the spirit right go to he actually don't go go stay there in Ecclesiastes
But I'll read for you really quick in Hebrews 9 verse 27 the Bible says and as it is appointed unto men who wants to die
But after this the judgment, you know
Man that is born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble. He comeeth forth like a flower and is cut down
He fleeth as a shadow and continueeth not I
Mean we have verses of in James. It says life is but a vapor Ecclesiastes 9 verse 5 says for the living know
That they shall die but the dead know and not anything neither have they any more reward for the memory of them is forgotten
The reason I threw this in here. I just want to make that clear
This is a book about the flesh Ecclesiastes
Because a lot of people, the Seventh Day Adventists, love this book.
Jehovah's, love this book, specifically this verse, because they're like,
oh, when you die, you soul sleep.
No, the flesh sleeps.
The soul either goes to heaven or goes to hell.
This is about the flesh.
That's why he's so vexed, because he knows that he's at war with the spirit.
Let's go to the final point.
Fine, I got two more points, but we'll start to wrap this thing up.
So we looked at the empty pursuit of pleasure.
right? I mean, there's just vanity in pursuing pleasure. Oh, I'm going to drink and I'm going
to eat and I'm going to party. And then you realize it was worth nothing. He's like the
few and then the second point is the futility of great fleshly accomplishment. Oh, I'm going
to buy and I'm going to build that I'm going to do all for nothing. Houston is one of the
great metropolis metropolises of the United States. They're constantly building all these
great things and it's going to it's going to be for nothing. It can be destroyed in a second.
Look at the Twin Towers, they were some of the great wonders of the world, and a couple
of towers, they were gone.
The failure of fleshly reward, right?
If we focus on our flesh, on just fulfilling the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh,
we're just going to fail.
It's not going to satisfy us.
And then he segues, and he's like, after I did all this, I just realized that this fool and this wise guy were all headed to the grave.
And really what he's saying is, I wasted my wisdom. What I should have done is built the rewards where the treasures in heaven are moth and rust that's not corrupt.
You know, my wife made a really good point.
She was talking about some family members that are now both retired and one pursued
their career all their life and they had the steady job.
And the other one was always like in and out of jobs, in and out of jobs, in and out of
jobs.
And she's like, you know, at the end of the, at the end of life, they're both like in a
very similar position.
One might have a little bit more retirement money than the other, but they're both retired
Right and but in the course of their life
They probably like if you were to compare it to people like that because that's a very normal trajectory of people in the United States
Some people have like a job for a long time and some people hop around
The person who has a steady job probably looks down at the guy who is hopping around
And he's like oh this guy he didn't go to you know, he's not consistent. He's probably not skillful
And they're both gonna end up in the same place
You know, I don't care what Elon Musk says about me or anybody. He's gonna end up in the same place
That's why he's working so hard to try to get this eternal elixir. He's gonna fail
But that's exactly why he's doing it because he some point he figured out I built this great empire
It's just gonna get taken away
Go back to Cleesey s these two verse 18. It says yay
I hate it, all my labor, which I had taken under the sun because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
Yet shall he have rule over all my labor, wherein I labored and wherein I showed myself wise under the sun?
This also is vanity.
Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the laborer which I took
under the sun.
In other words, I stressed out about it, for there is a man whose labor is in wisdom
and in knowledge and in equity, yet to a man that hath not labored therein shall leave
it for his portion.
This also is vanity and great evil, for what hath man of all his labor and of the vexation
For all his days are sorrow and his travail grief his hard take if not rest in the night
This also is vanity
You know, it just worked out that that's where we have to go this this 84 year old gentleman
It was like 9 o'clock. We didn't leave that that job till like almost 9 30
Half of like 30 the last 30 minutes was just him talking
You know, I thought 84 year old people went to bed early, but this guy he had a fixation of spirit
You know what he can't do? He can't sleep
He didn't have to tell me I knew because he was wide awake
His heart taketh not rest of the night because he's realizing this is all vanity go over to John 12
But I'll read for you real quick a couple verses
Psalm 396 says surely every man walketh in vain show surely they are disquieted in vain
He heepeth up riches and know it not know if not who shall gather though Luke 12 20 says but God said unto him
Thou full this night thy soul shall be required of thee then who shall those things be which thou has provided
Proverbs 13 22 a good man leave it an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of a sinner is laid up for the just
Hey, that's why what I want to leave my kids with is a godly heritage
You know what?
Maybe in the short scheme of time
Me interrupting my sermon to get on to my children might seem like an embarrassing thing
I mean, you know, that's how people judge things. They're like, oh that guy can't even keep his children under control
You know, he can't do things, but you know what at least he'll remember it for the rest of his life
And he'll do something great about it
Right then if I just had because you know what at the at the end of the day children or children
If I give him everything and I make a ton of money, he's still gonna be a fool, right?
because the Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but at least I can unbind that
foolishness and bind some wisdom with God's Word, then just continue to just add more rope of foolishness
on there. And what's the challenge? You know why this 84-year-old guy's trying to get into crypto?
Because when we were there, I was kind of shocked. I didn't know. Trey was the one that knew the client,
so I just showed up. People kept coming in. It was like a revolving door.
And so finally, he told me, oh yeah, his adopted grandson and his wife live there.
His daughter and granddaughter live over there upstairs, and you know who's funding it all?
He is.
Because he didn't give them a foundation and you know what he's thinking, I'm going to
leave them all this and they're going to squander it, right?
They're going to mess it up.
But we know we need to have in John 12 verse 24
I love this verse I've actually preached on this like a whole sermon
It says barely barely I sent to you except the corn of wheat fallen to the ground and die
It abideth alone
But if it died bringeth forth much fruit
He that loveth his life shall lose it and he what that hated this life in this world shall keep it
unto life eternal if any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there
shall also be my servants there shall also my servants be if any man serve me
he will my father honor and there's two types of hating the life look you're
gonna get to the point where you're gonna hate life anyways
It's basically what I'm trying to point out here.
The Bible is very clear.
You're either going to hate it because you pursued everything and you realized it's
all vanity, or you're just going to wake up one day and say, I love the Lord so much.
I just hate everything about the world, even my life.
And Paul is saying, hey, I would rather be with Christ, but it's more needful for me
to be here with you.
And I know I'm paraphrasing that, right?
But where did Paul really want to be?
He's not being negative. It's just that if you think about it in the times when you're not enjoying the pleasures of life
If you really think about it heaven is great
No more sorrow. No more pain. It goes on forever and ever and ever
I don't have to worry about bills and people asking me all kinds of stuff and just adding all kinds of work and
Just being busy and just trying to show up to church and prepare everything a few minutes before or you know waking up
And you know you just have a yesterday. I had this perfect day planned and there was a little shortage in the house
just enough to mess up my old AC that I need to change.
And you know what I spent the next hour doing? Troubleshooting the AC.
My whole day got just derailed. There won't be any of that in heaven.
I'm just, I'm not going to worry about that. So, look, I hate my life, but I
hate it for the Lord. I just want nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Right? Or I hate my life because I'm working so hard
Because who's ever heard the saying,
if I want something done right, I'm gonna do it myself, right?
Who's ever heard that?
Have you ever heard that, right?
We got this attitude like,
nobody's gonna do it better than us
when that's not even the truth.
There's always someone better than us.
Let's go to the last point. Let's go there to the last point and
You know that only only good comes from God and let me just recap the other points for you
Oh, the only good comes from God, right?
I mean the whole chapter, but it does end on a well on a good note
So I'm not going to depress you too much, but the whole chapter is focusing on the fact that there's empty pursuit of pleasure
That we have the futility of great fleshly accomplishments. It's futile
Right. It's it really is that statement, right? It's an exercise in what futility?
That we have the flood failure of the fleshly reward that we have the certainty of death
For all men, we're all gonna die
Right. And so we know these things to be true and then we have the vanity of leaving our labor to others
You think Bill Gates wants to leave his money to all even the charities. No, you think Elon Musk even Trump
I know he's setting up his family like there's a Trump dynasty.
If you were to ask him sincerely, he wished he could just run it all forever.
I mean, that's just the fact of life.
The only good comes from God. Go there to Ecclesiastes 2 verse 24. The Bible says there's nothing better for a man
That he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor
This also I saw that it was from the hand of God. So what he's saying here. Hey, look, what is this?
This lines up perfectly with the New Testament. What does the God say as long as you have food and
Raymond
You have nothing to worry about, right?
He didn't even say it roof over your head.
He just says, as long as you have food and raiment.
That's why as Baptists, we just enjoy going out,
working and eating good.
And we like a good, I love Coke.
You know, I can't, I gotta stop it,
but I can't stop it all the time, you know?
I like a good cold Mexican Coke, you know,
where the best thing about Coke is when you get it
to the point, like the glass bottles,
when you get it to where you open it perfectly.
Then the liquid turns into ice. It's not ice yet, but then it open and turns and then you take that sip
And it's like half liquid half ice. It's not really slush. There's just particles of ice in there
That's the best one, but if you can replicate that that's the best one
But we you know, but he says that's the only good thing from the Lord meaning in our flesh
Here because you think about it
It doesn't matter how nice my suit is. It's gonna wear out. It doesn't matter if I have the best phone
You know what I have to do change it out. It doesn't matter if I have the greatest car
I'm gonna have to it's gonna entropy takes over right everything's always in the what constant
State of decay these pews this building that you know, we freshened up one of the rooms eventually
It's gonna look old again, too
Verse 25 says for who can eat or who else can hasten to hear unto more than I
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy
But to the sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up that he may give it to him
That is good before God this also is vanity and vexation of spirit. What is he saying? Hey?
If you take that wisdom and you take that knowledge and you take that spirit and that word of God and you give it to your children
You'll sleep well that night
But if you take all of that and then you build this great stuff when you get old
You're gonna be like at the end of night just writing on that you're gonna be like the miser
I'm gonna add you and take you away from my will and you're gonna be worried. I mean there's literally people who like dictate
The way that their families are gonna live if they're gonna touch those funds, right?
They're like to so-and-so goes this much
Every month and they're not allowed to touch it this way and do it like this and it's gonna be in a trust
And they can only spend it like this and if they're not gonna spend it like that that they can't touch it
Eventually you hire a good lawyer and you break that loophole like what's that guy gonna do? He's dead
There's nothing but if you give him wisdom
And the Bible, I mean, it's, that's their punishment.
So whenever you look at someone who's really rich
and you're like, man, that's not fair.
The Bible says, but the sinner, he give a travail
to gather and to heap up.
Hey, Elon Musk and Bill Gates,
and these are just the names now.
There's been others in the past, right?
Zuckerberg and whoever else, you know,
Carnegie and Henry Ford, he said,
hey, I'm gonna let him heap it up.
I'm gonna let him just get, go, go to town.
Get all that you can get isn't that the way God mocks you?
Isn't that just think about what a cruel joke from a fleshly perspective, but what a righteous joke from a heavenly perspective
He says gather it all up
So that you can just give it to another
This is also vanity and vexation as bear go to James. I mean go to 1st Timothy 6
I'll close there, but in James 1 verse 17 says every good gift and perfect gift is from above
And coming down from the Father of lights in whom is no variable in us neither shadow of turning
John 3 27 says John answered and said a man can receive nothing except that be given him from heaven
Psalm 60 11 says that will show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy and
I mean, at that right hand, there are pleasures forever more.
If we go to 1 Timothy 6, verse 10, we know these verses, but I just wanted to point out
a couple of things.
I really thought this was the appropriate place to close, and we go over to 1 Timothy
10, by the way, if you don't know, they're all, all the teas are together, 1 2 Thessalonians
and then 1 2 Timothy and then Titus, and in 1 Timothy 6, verse 10, the Bible says, for
Well, let's start at verse 9, it says, actually, let's start at verse 8, because that just
proves my point.
It says, and having food and raiment, let us be there with, what, content.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Flee these things, run away, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, where unto thou art called, and has possessed a good profession before many witnesses.
And then he says I give thee charge in other words
I command thee in all side of God who quickeneth all things and before Christ Jesus
Who before punches pilot witness the good confession that thou keep this commandment with outspot
Unrebukeable into the peering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, he says hey, this is a commandment that you flee
the love of money
And that you would do all the other things that he talked about, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Isn't that interesting?
But today Christianity promotes this prosperity gospel and that it's okay to have money and all this stuff.
And I'm not saying be poor, I'm just saying there's a difference between being middle class and being wealthy.
some people are pursuing wealthy look if you have money and you can do great
things and I'm not saying don't enjoy your money don't enjoy vacations don't
enjoy a good meal a good steakhouse every once in a while but that shouldn't be
your life's goals right our life's goals should be did I do all the things that I
could do for Christ today yeah okay well then a little reward's not gonna kill
you
But don't look after all the pleasures and if you just need a reminder just read the book of Ecclesiastia
Actually, it's not that long and you probably you know if you're really feeling down
Just remember Solomon was worse than you like he's like depressed
Because he's like man. I had all of this and it just it was for nothing. It sucked
But it only sucked because he didn't follow God
Not because he didn't have the way he had the opportunity
He started out good and he screwed it up and the war the best part about Solomon because sometimes we pick on
I'm wrong actually the best part about a book at Gleesie s is he he had enough wisdom to say you know what?
Let me pen it down for the next generation. He did leave something that was eternal, which was don't do what I did
Do what God says let's close in order to prayer heavenly Father Lord. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings
Lord, thank you for all those in attendance today, but Lord more importantly
Thank you for the lessons to remind us that we are at war with the flesh
That is our duty to flee these things
Flee the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the love of money and just wanting opulence and power and
recognition and applause of men and instead that we should focus on pleasing you Lord
Nobody can remove my salvation. Nobody can remove the salvation that we helped others receive
Once saved always save Lord and you know people can take away. I've had my car broken into a couple years ago
We had a catalytic converter
Stolen right in front of our driveway. You know these things happen
But all of that is going to burn up anyways
You know what if somebody died shortly after they got saved they're going to have him forever
And if that was the case, I know it's a little bit extreme, but I'm just making an extreme point is that that was worth all of it
Instead of taking away we gained so Lord I just asked that as people would listen to this
Preaching that they would apply it to their hearts and I just be here's but doers of the word also in Jesus name we pray amen
I think my wife's over there, so we're just gonna go ahead and dismiss and