Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of war.
13th, yeah 13th and right there on your bulletins we have our service times
Sunday morning 10 30 Sunday evening 4 30 and Wednesday service at 5 30 p.m.
And then we have our soul winning times are Sunday at 2 p.m.
Then we have the memory verse of the week. We're in the book of Philippians and it's Philippians 1 to grace be unto you and
Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ
And then of course we have August happenings today is actually Jesse Bottega's birthday on the 17th
Is Eli de Matos and then on the 28th is Cynthia Garcia. Then we have our anniversaries coming up
Oh, actually just past Pastor Cobb and Sister Linda celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
So congratulations to them.
We had a good time at Mighty Burger.
We really enjoyed the fellowship with you guys on Sunday after church.
It was fun.
Then on August 22nd Pastor Steven Anderson, I'll be putting a video out for it
I'll send some info with from faithful word Baptist Church will be coming and visiting us and
We'll be preaching for us that Friday afternoon or Friday evening 7 p.m.
I don't have all the details of a strip yet as soon as I do
We'll know we'll do some fellowship before after we'll figure all that out
And then August 23rd that Saturday we have a soul winning marathon here in Houston last time we had it
It was pretty good. So our we're looking forward to that and then
This actually tomorrow, I'll be leaving in the morning. I'll drive about four hours to what's that place called?
Glen Rose wherever the dinosaurs are I think isn't it?
Yeah, there's a couple of Christian camps out there. I'm going to one of them
and I'll be there basically through Saturday.
So two nights, and then we'll be back for Sunday.
On Sunday, we have Pastor Cobb preaching for us
in the morning, and then I'll go ahead and renew
or just get back on preaching Sunday evening.
And then in about two weeks,
we have the fire breathing back to his fellowship.
For those of you who follow closely,
there was no red hot preaching this year,
but there will be red hot preaching.
here in Texas and so even though the summer's not been hot there'll be some hot preaching August 27th through the 31st and
Then I just want you to keep praying for everybody
And then we have the Mexico City soul winning
Mission strip September 8th through the 12th, so pray for that
That it go well, we're probably going to try to do another little podcast before that and then we'll go from there.
Then of course we have the prayer list in the back or the prayer request to just keep everybody in the prayers.
And if nothing else, is there anything? Oh, and then pray for Sister Linda. I know you lost.
I heard Sister Linda was shot.
You lost a nephew. Suddenly he was 59. So we'll just be praying for you and your family as well.
Yeah, he just did you have a heart attack
What's his name
All right
To the family
All right. Well, nothing else. What's our next 10?
133 133
Turn your animals over to page 133
Glory to his name on the first
Can you go get me a little water, please?
Three, zero, four.
Sweet hour of prayer.
Let's sing it out loud.
he's three and I just I did forget one announcement pray for Fernando Val
Tierra he fell off a 30-foot silo and broke his pelvis and shoulder
so that was in a fun experience I guarantee so with all that said
Go ahead and you can start recording
After I read the that's fine
You're fine. You're doing good Lucy
My daughter is helping me. We're short staff today. So we're there in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse number 1
That's to everything. There is a season and a time
To every purpose under the heaven a time
Time to die a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted a time to kill and a time to heal
Time to break down and a time to build up a time to weep and a time to laugh a
Time to mourn and a time to dance a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a
Time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing time to get and a time to lose a time to keep and
a time to cast away
Time to rend, and a time to sow, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak,
a time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace.
What prophet hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men, to be exercised in it.
He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he hath set the world in their heart.
so that no man can find out the work that God make it from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life,
and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor,
it is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put
God doeth it that men should fear before him that which hath been is now and that which is to be hath already been and
God require it that that which is past and moreover
I saw under the Sun the place of judgment that wickedness was there and
That the place of righteousness that iniquity was there
I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time
There for every purpose and for every work
I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them
and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts.
And even one thing befalleth them, as to the one dyeth, so dyeth the other.
Yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above the beast, for all is vanity.
All go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man, that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, that goeth downward to the earth.
Therefore, I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works for that
It is his portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Pastor Cobb will you lead us in a word of prayer?
The question for the strength that you're giving us to come into the house to see you.
By the way, I asked you to, that's different now.
We pray you to lay the burden on his heart and he might purify your world of us.
By the way, pray now that you bless your church and the whole,
that you seek your honor and go above all your precious things.
Father, what's that for the soul?
Now that He forgives our sin, Jesus is saved. Amen.
All right, we're there in Ecclesiastes 3. We're continuing on this wisdom-filled chapter.
And we saw the first two were really
Solomon's expressing the very first thing he starts out in one extreme and as we get closer to chapter 12
Of course, he's gonna end on another extreme and throughout it
He starts to make subtle pivots and this is one of them. We now take a look
He's he's already basically emphasized and then re-emphasized that everything is vanity
and vexation of spirit.
And then we start there in Ecclesiastes three.
And the title of my sermon this afternoon
is the seasonality of carnality,
the seasonality of carnality.
And the reason that I titled it that
is because the book of Ecclesiastes
is a book from a king who started out really well.
who was blessed of God for his righteous intentions of wanting wisdom but not
only that even after he got wisdom
Initially he did build the temple of the Lord and he did do great things and I mean I just got reading where he read from the book and we get the famous, you know, of my people which are called by my name.
That's God's response after who? After Solomon prays, it basically dedicates the temple to the Lord, you know, and he's excited about this great...
Feet that they just completed where they've given the Lord a resting place here on earth
And of course the Lord doesn't need that but he allowed it to happen
it's a way of us recognizing that we want to do great things for the Lord and
The reason that I named the title
You know the seasonality of carnality is that Ecclesiastes is really about the flesh
And so a lot of wrong applications and wrong teachings can be taken from Ecclesiastes if you try to apply it like a very spiritual application to all the verses.
Now there is a lot of spiritual application but not every verse or every mention is that.
So for example the first eight verses here talk about timing.
But the Bible makes it very clear that we are to redeem the time
and that we are to be instant in season and out of season.
We're going to look at those verses, but that's not what Solomon's talking about here.
You know, in Ecclesiastes, this is dealing with what?
The carnality of time.
You know, there are certain things that we just cannot stop.
You know, there's a time for...
great wealth. There's a time for great poverty. There's just, there's certain things that have to
flow in life, right? I mean, we, in 2022, 2023, we had horrendous summers and then
in 2025, we have a light summer. It's just a time for those things. You know, sometimes it's cold,
sometimes it's hot, sometimes you're happy, sometimes you're not, sometimes you have a lot
of time, sometimes you don't. We're there in verse one, it says to everything there is a season and
A time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time
to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time
to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to sow.
A time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
that you have all these different times.
And I mean, you could add to this,
but this covers like the major events in your life, right?
Everybody is born and everybody dies.
We all have to eat.
And, you know, how do we get food?
Well, we have to plant stuff or grow animal, you know, raise animals, not grow them.
They grow by themselves, but we raise them to grow up.
And there's a time for war, there's a time for healing, there's a time actually for
the government to kill individuals that are, you know, put them to death that are breaking
the law.
And then there's a time where you're forgiven.
Right you you there's times when we have to break stuff down and I can foresee maybe in the future
Maybe not in my lifetime or maybe where this building would be broken down for a better building
I mean those things happen all the time, right?
There's times where things happen in your life and you cry, you know, you weep
I remember when my mother-in-law passed away a lot of tears were shed
At the same time, a lot of laughter was dispersed.
There's a time when you're mourning,
there's a time when you're happy, you're dancing, right?
So we see all of this, we get it.
So the first point is that God ordained seasons
and times for all things,
but this is a finite, temporal thing, right?
We can actually see the changing of the times.
We don't get eternity, I know God made the seasons and the times for us to be able to discern different things, right?
Maybe the end of times or maybe the beginning of summer or the beginning of winter or the beginning of fall
but also it's just a stark reminder or a strong reminder that
We're temporal, you know, it's not eternal yet
The flesh is just going to perish, it's going to wither away, it's going to become dust again.
And it's not like a doom and gloom thing, it's just so that we just have things that are just a matter of fact, right?
I mean, the great thing about the book of Ecclesiastes is that it's just a very matter of fact book.
I mean, there's just a time for different things.
I mean, there's not I'm sorry that I'm not jumping down but now but I mean King Solomon
He was just like this is just the way it is. That's it. There's not a lot to it. Go to Daniel 2
Go to Daniel 2
verse 20 and
You know, it's a shortly to the right
You know
Lamentations you see killed Daniel, but in Daniel
2 verse 20 the Bible says Daniel answered and said and this is when you know
The king gets this vision nobody can answer him so he wants to kill everybody and then he's like whoa wait a minute
Don't kill us
Amongst all these other guys I can get you an answer and the Lord gave him an answer and I said Daniel answered and said bless
Be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his
I like this because he's saying hey, it's it's an eternal God
But he says, And he changes the times and the seasons, he removeeth kings and seteth up kings,
he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that no understanding.
He revealeth the deep and secret things he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth
with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might,
No made known unto me now what we desire of thee for thou has now made known unto us the king's matter
And so a couple of things he's recognizing that the Lord gives the times
But he's also been given at this specific time a message of salvation
Because even though he's not preaching the gospel
per se, it's because he's able to reveal to the king his dream that he has spared his life, right?
I mean, then his time was not...
Jesus talked a lot in the Gospels about how his hour had not come. It was not his time, right?
There was a very specific time that he had to die for our sins.
You know for us it just looks like he came on earth and died, but that specific moment in the wisdom of God had a very specific purpose
Go over to 2nd Timothy. I'll read for you really quick in Galatians in verse 4
It says but when the fullness of the time was come
God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
That we might receive the adoption of sons. So, you know God
schedule the time, and then he fulfilled it. Acts 1.7, the Bible says, and he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father had put in his own power.
And that's really the contrast, right? And I'm going to kind of emphasize that point. I guess
if you wanted to do a sub point is that when we're preaching the Gospel in the Spirit, it's always time.
There is never a break from the gospel. There's never a break from the ministry
We create the breaks because we're in the flesh, right? I mean, there's times where like today
I'm preaching up here. It's just been kind of this crazy whirlwind week. I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow
I still got to do a couple other things. So I've been trying to get everything out of the way, you know
I'm in my in my
I'm praying to the Lord give me the spirit to be in the time to preach the word but
Sometimes during the day, I'm just kind of distracted
Right? That's the flesh.
But the spirit it's always a time and we need to be able to recognize that especially when we're out in the world
We're talking to people and if somebody's in need of a spiritual
Cleansing or spiritual clarification. We need to put things aside and that's the time now
I will say that the more you grow in Christ the more you recognize this
You know, I've mentioned it before my life would look totally different and be way more comfortable and much better
at this age if I just stuck to
you know, my career and making a good income and growing, you know, an insurance company,
my wife and I at 45 would probably be traveling the world. I'd be making some really good money,
but I wouldn't be in the ministry, right? And so I recognize that I've sacrificed that
Pleasure time or that carnal time for
redeeming the time and so you have them those are choices
We all have to make and you don't have to necessarily get up behind a pulpit of preach
But everybody should sacrifice their flesh for the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean that's biblical
Right. We're there in 2nd Timothy 4 and verse 1 it says I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
Who will judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word?
Be instant in season out of season
Reprove rebuke exhort with all-long suffering and doctrine. Hey, it doesn't matter what the season you preach it
Says for the time will come when they will not adore sound doctrine
Hey, the reason he's saying preach the word in season or out of season because there's gonna be a time where people aren't gonna want to listen
To sound doctrine but after their own lust show they heap them to themselves teachers having itching years
And they shall turn away their years from the truth and they shall be turned unto fables
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist make full proof of the ministry
For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is that any even Paul recognized
Hey, I'm coming to the end of my line
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also, that love is appearing."
Hey, that's really the finality of our life.
We should just get to the point where we're like, hey, we fought the good fight.
Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Right, we don't know and we don't know when that times comes so we need to invest as much as we can into the Lord Jesus Christ from the minute
We recognize it
We need to be instant in season and out of season. I literally I didn't know I guess Joe Olsteen's mother passed away and
Something popped up and in the service
The person who did the singing was Stevie Wonder and I thought to myself. What does Stevie Wonder have to do with Christianity?
Nothing against Stevie Wonder. I mean, I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder. My dad loved it. So he
He made us listen to it and then I listened to it on my own
From a carnal perspective. I mean, he's a really good artist. He sings really well as songs got beat and rhythm
But none of them are have anything to do with Christ
Right he he got up there and said some kind words to about his mom, but there was no gospel. There was no
Bible verses. There was no
Message of salvation and hope is just Stevie Wonder singing cuz Joe, you know
Joel's Dean has pool and can bring over Stevie Wonder
That's really it
You know, and that's kind of what we we see, right? We see that for everything. There's a time but for us
We need to recognize the seasonality of our carnality so that we can move
Those obstacles that will keep us from what being instant in season or out of season
Bible says the reason he wants us to be in season, no matter when, or be instant, I'm sorry, no matter when, is because there's going to come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine.
We are at that time. The majority of the world does not want to listen to sound doctrine.
The majority of the world does not care that Jesus Christ lived the majority of the world does not care that God
I was watching some stupid debate
But from these apologetics, which I think it's just like the worst and in the debate
Some guys trying to say that you know, basically the the right wing is wrong because we believe that life is at
Conception and we call it a miracle when he's like, it's not a miracle. We know where life comes from
It's the gene code from the mom and from the dad except
that's dumb in it now because you don't know where those genes came from nobody knows the first
genes other than if you read the bible you know and that's what the the the enemy will do they'll
try to dumb it down to make it look like something you know uh elementary he's like oh we know where
life comes from 50 percent comes from the mom and 50 percent comes from the dad yeah but you still
He's like, well, we know what's going on. No, you don't you know the process of what's going on
The Bible tells us I think it's Job or maybe it's in Ecclesiastes. I don't remember the Bible says how do we even know?
How the bones are formed
You know, we don't
It's don't come to me and tell me you know how times are you know, we don't even understand the time of development
We know the cycles, but we don't know what triggers hormones to kick in my daughter's nine
You know in a couple years. She's gonna change
I don't even have a clock that says when that's going to be released, but one day in her body something's going to be released and the same with my son and all of a sudden hormones are going to kick in.
And that's how they end up being differentiated between a child and an adult, right?
My son will go from having a high pitched voice and his voice will drop and then it'll squeak.
because all of a sudden, just like every teenager that's ever lived,
you wake up one day and your voice is deeper and then you don't know how to talk. You're like,
what? What happened? You know, right? But we don't know what really triggers that. We know that it's
around a certain age time, but they still can't tell you what it is that's in the code that'll do
that. And they can't even replicate it. They can synthesize some of the stuff, but they can't replicate
Right? Let's go point number two. Today, I'm not going to read. I just, I really just got more points than anything. You know, the number two is that God gives purpose to man's labor, right? And verse nine, it says, What prophet hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
That we just labor for the Lord
Because if we just focus on man, we're gonna fail and we see this because if we were to go back to verse 24
And we'll touch here a little bit, but we go back to verse 24 of Ecclesiastes 2 says there's nothing better than a man
for a man that 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 good from the hand of God. Hey, it's good for us to have a purpose
right
But he's asking the question, what prophet hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
I've seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therein and he'll expand here
I just wanted to focus on this
because
The purpose is for us to work, but it's also kind of the punishment
Right in Genesis 2 15 the Bible says and the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
To dress it and to keep it if you just go over one more chapter
What was the finality of that? So let me let me back up
I know because it sounds kind of weird what I'm saying. It's like a paradox the purpose is to work
But it's also the punishment. The purpose has always been to work
The thing is, when you're working for the Lord, the work is for the Lord.
God says to do everything for what?
For His glory, right?
But ...
...
When the fall came in Genesis 3 verse 17 says and unto Adam he said because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
...
Wife and as eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying thou shall not eat of it
Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life
Thorns also and this old shall it bring forth to thee
and now shall eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till
thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shall
thou return." So initially, God said, hey, you need to till the land, right? In verse 15 of chapter 2,
he says he put it in the garden to dress it and keep it. That's work. That was the purpose.
The purpose didn't change, it just came with a little bit more toil and travail.
But when we dress and keep the garden of God, you know, the temple of God, His people, when we're out soul winning, that labor is sweet.
Unfortunately we do have to sweat and we do have to suffer because we still have the flesh.
But one day we'll get to heaven and we'll look at the fruits of our labor and be like,
oh, okay, it was worth it.
And up there, there won't be any more sweating, there won't be any more pain, there won't
be any more knee pain, or back pain, or fatigue, just be what it is.
You don't have to turn there and stay in Ecclesiastes, but in 1 Corinthians 15-58, we know this, right?
It says, therefore, my beloved brother, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Colossians 3 verse 23 says and whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the
Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance for ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Man Christianity needs a good
slap in the face and good reminder that we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
My wife was
We're part of a like a I don't know like a homeschool group
And you know, it's different people different groups of people
We just go do the little bit of fellowship just so the kids have other interactions
But it's just one day a week. You know, obviously we live our lives
but they were meeting at like a
Church of Christ this big humongous. I mean this thing's huge. It's got two floors
elevators
Jim, you know one of those mega churches and
They had to move to another location because they were charging them too much. It was like $6,000 for 24 Mondays or something
Like that's like $250 a Monday
And at one point this like can we use the space and I said well, there's only two conditions number one
We're not going to charge anybody
because
We're not here to make a profit
And number two, it's King James only
Of course, they decided not to use it not because of the condition of the building because it's too
far, but it's just interesting that these churches, that's how you know they're false churches,
they're not serving the Lord Jesus Christ. All they care about is making sure that they
charge people. They make these big buildings and they basically become real estate moguls.
remember many years ago this is over a decade ago when we were part of the
Republican Party we went over to Grace Church you know the one right there off
the Beltway with they used to be Pastor Riggles I don't know if he's preaching
anymore off of the Beltway and 45 on your way to Galveston it's a big big
church and they had the Republican Texas Delegate Convention there they rented
it out we don't do any of that because we serve the Lord Jesus Christ it's not
We're in a good location. I mean honestly we could spruce up with the big piece of land we have get a bunch of rooms people would come
I mean we have like the HOA's from around here always wanting to use this place
We've had politicians come and want to see if they can give their stump peaches stumps speeches here
And they probably pay that's not what this is for. This is for the work of the Lord
You know God gives us the purpose and the purpose as to what to labor for the Lord
The labor of love right go to go to Ecclesiastes 3
Verse 11 the Bible says the third point out for you today is God's timing is what beautiful and
Unsearchable
So we see that he says hey, this is the labor and then in verse 11 he says he has made everything beautiful in his time
Also, he had set the world in his heart in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God make it from the beginning to the end
I know that there is no good in them
But for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life
And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God
Which is very similar to what we saw in verse 24 of chapter 2
So God wants us to work and he actually doesn't even want us to have a poor mentality
He wants us to have just a mentality of gratefulness
Hey, if you do good and you have a little bit extra enjoy it if you don't know
You know, we the church has been blessed. We don't have a lot of money, but we're also not poor
I mean what I mean by that is we can pay our bills and stuff and on Sunday. We didn't we didn't go to
You know taste of Texas, but we went and and and and treated everybody at the church for the 50th anniversary, right?
I mean we had a good time
So, you know, we enjoyed that labor
There was because we said also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor
It is the gift of God. Hey, there's nothing wrong with
Celebrate and join the fact that you put in 50 years. That's a lot of labor
Being married to the same person, most people, the lewdness and the vileness of this world is like I can't believe that I'm only going to be with one woman for the rest of my life.
I can't believe you want to be with more than one woman for the rest of your life, right?
The reason that they don't want to do that is because it's selfishness, because being with one person for the rest of your life requires work.
Sometimes it's my wife. Sometimes it's me. Go to Isaiah 55. Go to Isaiah 55.
Sometimes I walk into the room and I'll say something
and I get my wife in a bad mood.
That wasn't even my intention. Sometimes it is my intention, but sometimes it's not.
Right? And then sometimes, you know, I give my wife comes and gets me in a bad mood.
You know what we do? The way we overcome it is we put the work in.
Right and Isaiah 55 verse 8 says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways say the Lord
For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and the thoughts
Than your thoughts for as the rain coming down and the snow from heaven and return and not thither
Both water at the earth and making it make it make it that bring forth and but that it may give seed to the
Sower and bread to the eater social my word be that goes out forth out of my mouth
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall
prosper in the thing where to I sense it." You know why we get up and preach even if there's
a small group like tonight? Because God's word's not going to return void.
Right. I've been, you know, over the years, I just need to sit down and do it. It's, it's a study that I want to do, but I know enough to know that sound waves, technically the way that I've read it and don't quote me on this because it's been a long time.
This is why I need to do study, but they're just like basically they're never ending their perpetual. They basically die down, but it's like an ongoing sound wave. Right.
You know if I say something it's carrying through
Right, and we know that there's there's a supernatural
Effect to that and if God says that when we preach his word it doesn't return void
Then it doesn't matter if I preach to an empty room. He's doing something somewhere
And I mean we know at least the demons are listening because there we don't see them
But we can you know, there's a whole other realm. I
Don't know. I'm just saying that I believe the Word of God and he says hey
My word will not return void, then it's our duty to preach the word.
That's why when we go soul-winning, I mean, if you look at the percentages,
our conversions are really low. Most people say no, or they'll let us
talk a little bit, then they say no, they don't have time, but it doesn't matter.
Our goal is to just preach the Word of God. His word will not return void.
All right? Romans 11, verse 33 of the Bible says,
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments and in his ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath
first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again, for of him and through him
Psalm 37 verse 4 says delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart
Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass man
That's some of the hardest lessons to learn easy said hard to apply
But it should be easy to apply because the Lord doesn't fail us, but you know what we get in our own way
And that's really what Solomon is saying here, right?
He's like, he's going to get to verse, you know,
chapter 12 and he's going to give us the finality, right?
The conclusion of the whole matter.
And it's basically this, but Solomon got in his own way.
Your worst enemy is you.
You are your own worst enemy.
And it's like the little things today. There's just been this one tiny account in my business
Where this guy's just kind of complaining about some fees that aren't real
He's a young guy. He's new to business. I see the mistakes he's making.
But you know what? I let it get under my skin.
Because we just get under our own skin sometimes.
It doesn't have to do with anything. I know better.
You know, just like we've had those conversations, Pastor.
And the flesh is just trying to bring me down.
I'm so glad that I come to preach on a Wednesday
or that I'll listen to some preaching because slowly that's dissipating.
It's just going to go away. It's just going to disappear.
Because for everything there is a time, but you know what as long as we remain in the season of Christ those times will be short-lived, right?
Go over to Ecclesiastes back again and the fourth point I have for you is that God's work is
final
And we should fear it
All right in verse 14 it says I know that whatsoever God doeth it should be forever
Nothing can be put to it nor anything taken from it and God doeth it that men should fear before him
That which hath been is now and that which is to be hath already been and God requires it
That which is past. Hey, what does it say? Hey God already knows?
everything
It's kind of a hard thing
For us to wrap our mind around the fact that God's outside of time
So God can see both past present and future
It's not just that he skips forward to the future
You know, I believe that God's so, you know powerful that he just sees it all
Right. It's kind of like a really good chess player who can see
The board where it is now
Right. Have you ever studied those chess players the really top?
the line chess players not only can they see the current situation they can
replay all the steps that that happened before that for both them and the
opponent and they can play 20 30 40 steps ahead and kind of anticipate what's
gonna happen with certain scenarios and algorithms and all that stuff
That's why they're so good, you know chess is not a difficult game. It's a game of strategy the difficulty of chess
Is the variables, right? It's the same thing with life. You know life's not difficult
You get up in the morning and you brush your teeth and you go to work and you do this
But I can't control some guy who's complaining about this. I can't control the economy
I can't control the weather, you know, I can't those are and that's where you need to learn to play the game of life, right?
But God's already seen it all. But what does he say? He says, hey, I know everything
And it shall be forever, nothing can be put,
nor anything taken away.
And God doeth it, that what that meant should fear before Him.
Now we need to be reminded that the reason all this happens
is for us to fear the Lord.
Maybe there's a trial in your life,
so you're reminded fear the Lord.
Right, maybe there's a success in your life that you actually weren't expecting or you don't really think you had a hand in it
So you could fear the Lord, right? I was uh talking to
Pastor Shelley because I was getting the information for
Going to the trip tomorrow
And I said hey, thanks for you know just being so supportive the church is doing great
And the reason I'm thankful is because I know had no I mean
I know it had to do with me the fact that the Lord doesn't return void
But I didn't have to do with me directly like I didn't like those people weren't here because of me
They're just here because
There's a church that preaches the word of God if that makes any sense because it's not that right God
Just needed someone to be here behind this pulpit
It just happened to be me the people he sent were here because they want to listen to the word of God as nothing to do
I'm not a celebrity status
They're not here to like get my autograph and just Google at every word just hang on my every syllable
That's not the way it goes right we need to be thankful
You know what it makes me fearful because just like God can give it to you. You know what he can do you can take it away
I'm like Lord just help me do whatever I need to do or keep doing the thing that I need to do
To do this because I want to feed the flock and I want to help them out
Right. I want to be there for all the people whether it's five people in the church or 40 people in the church
I want to be able to give them something from the word of God there. You don't have to turn there for the sake of time
I'm gonna have you turn in other places, but in Malachi 3 verse 6 the Bible says we know these verses for I am the Lord
I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed
James 1 17 says every good gift and perfect gift is from above and coming down from the father of lights with whom is no
Variableness neither shadow of turning
Hebrews 12 verse 20 says wherefore we receiving a
Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire
Now we need to be reminded of the just the power of God
But not like these contemporaries. They're like, oh my God is an awesome God. I think it's awesome what God does
God says he's terrible
God says he's a fire and that he consumes things
God says that everybody that's in hell is
Basically being tortured day night forever and ever what in the presence of the Lord
God's everywhere someone 39 he says hey, you were with me when I was in heaven you were with me when I was in hell
You're everywhere
The reason that everywhere exists is because of God you think you're gonna get away from God you're not
As a matter of fact, we should give you a little bit of the he be Jesus right like God, you know put things in order
Point number four, go back to Ecclesiastes, I mean, point number five, God will judge righteousness and wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 3 verse 16 says, And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment.
The wickedness was there, that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time.
there for every purpose and for every work. Isn't it interesting how he says, hey, he's judging the wicked and the righteous?
Man, I just love how
consistent the Word of God is.
You know, maybe for me, the Old Testament just has a very special place in my heart.
And I'm not ever going to say it's better because the Bible clearly gives us an indication that the New Testament is the better Testament.
Right, but I really love the Old Testament because I grew up so that the Adventists and a lot of false religions will do
What they focus on the Old Testament and they kind of almost try to convince you like this
There's there's something about the Old Testament that the New Testament missed
except that the New Old Testament always pointing towards the New Testament and in these verses we can see that hey, I
saw under the Sun a place of judgment that
wickedness was there and
The place of righteousness that iniquity was there. Hey, where you go to church when you're hanging around congregation of believers
You know what's there? Wickedness
Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Hey, there is no sinless perfection
There is not enough works. We could do to get to heaven. It's all by grace. I mean, he's literally saying I've seen righteousness and wickedness
Right there and he says I'm God's gonna judge the righteous in the wicked. Why is he judging the righteous?
I thought we were saved by grace. We are but we're still living on this earth
Goes with Hebrews 12 where he says hey, I'm gonna chastise you because if I don't
You're a bastard and not a son
right
Hebrews 927 says and it is a point of me man to die once
But after this the judgment
Go to 2nd Corinthians 5 go to 2nd Corinthians 5, but Ecclesiastes 12 verse 14
The Bible says for God she'll bring every work into judgment and every with every secret thing whether it be good or
Whether it be what?
evil
I was listening to some idiot talking about, I don't remember who it was.
And he was talking like, hey, you know, it's one of these weird Christian supposed platitudes.
And he's like, you know, I don't think that, you know, evil this or evil that because God, God is not evil.
And I thought to myself, I guess they've not read the book of Isaiah where God said he created both good and evil.
Like God created everything.
I guess that I've read some of the chapters I'm going to read for you right now.
God does some interesting things with the Spirit.
But in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10, the Bible says,
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
That everyone may receive the things done in his body,
According to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also our made manifest in your conscious.
We need to be a little terrified sometimes
This is the final point and this is probably the longest point because I'm not gonna develop it
But it's kind of almost a sub point
It almost requires its own sermon, but because it's touched in this chapter. We need to address it a little bit
In verse, I mean point number seven is man is dust
Right is flesh without God
And in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 18, it addresses the issue of the Spirit.
It says, I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them,
and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
And I think it's an interesting word because obviously in the New Testament,
when it says that they, what they know naturally in Jude as brute beasts,
it says the same kind of language in 1 Peter 2, right?
in Romans 1 where it says that they worship the creation more than the Creator, right?
But here, remember, the book of Ecclesiastes is focused more on the flesh and the spirit,
especially in these verses.
It says,
And that they might see that they themselves are beasts, for they which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts.
Even one thing befalleth them as the one diet, so dieteth the other, yea, they have all one breath,
for all is vanity all go into one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
Therefore I perceive that there is nothing better
Than that a man should rejoice in his own works for that is his portion who shall bring him to see
What shall be after him?
And so we see here, it says,
who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward,
and that the spirit of the beast
that goeth downward to the earth.
But before that, it says what?
All beast, and what he's really referring to here,
in the beast, this is the context.
This is why we need to let the Bible define itself.
This is not talking about the reprobate.
This is just talking about the body, the flesh.
He's making this very specific comparison to animals.
saying animals die
When they turn to dust and men die in the flesh and our flesh turns to dust. He's not talking about the spirit
And that's very important because people have taken a lot of these verses out of context
You know, there's a group of false religions Jehovah's Witnesses
Seventh-day of Venice and then just some other sub religions that the Mormons that talk about soul sleep
Because of verses like this, right and then they're waiting for God to come and then you're going to wake up and be like
Oh, I'm going to heaven and
Let me just you know dust myself off. No, it's not like that
We're body soul and spirit and the soul and the spirit are intertwined
It's kind of hard to separate them. There's some overlap, but let me just kind of give you a little bit
You know, obviously the body is we were formed what from the dust
But the soul is the breath of life
Not not just oxygen. It's a specific thing because I've always said it's interesting that there's oxygen all around us
But people still die
So it's not just the oxygen
There's more mechanisms at what play that we don't understand and the spirit is what's given by God and now I'm gonna prove that to you from the Bible
You know the function
of all of these aspects is that the body is kind of it's a worldly
You know, it has to function in the world. I feel I taste I hurt I
Get strong I get weak
You know the soul
These aren't perfect by the way. This is another sermon, but it's it's your conscience, right?
It's our free will we can have a soul that believes on Lord Jesus Christ
We can have one that's rejected. That's why the soul either goes to heaven or goes to hell
Right and then the spirit is what God gives us, right? We have, you know, he can add or remove spirits in our life
and then
they can
the body can be destroyed
the soul
Can't be destroyed except by God Almighty, right? If you're not him who can destroy body but can destroy what body and soul and
Then the spirit the spirit can be renewed
or it can be put out and and the interaction is that it number one the
body interacts with the physical world our soul is like our emotions our
thoughts our free will and the spirit is
Comes from God. It's where he guides things and I'll point this out, right?
We can we can be saved but not filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning we have the Spirit living in us
but we're just not using it to be filled with it, right? Or
you know, we can
We can see people that have like an evil spirit
If you go to Genesis, no, actually don't go to Genesis, go over to first Kings.
I'm going to give you two examples that are very clear, go over to first Kings and in
Genesis 3 verse 19, the Bible says, in the sweat of thy face, so thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and dust
shall thou return.
The body will decompose the maggots will eat it will become dirt will fertilize the ground that surrounds us
That's just the way it is
That's the body. That's what he's referring to here. He's like hey just like a dog can be buried
So will you be buried and both of you will end in the those bodies will have the same demise
They'll just become dirt
except
that it says
One spirit, it says, the spirit of man goes upward, because God, obviously we're different
than animals, we're not animals.
And the spirit of the beast goes down, meaning whatever that spirit, whatever that personality
was that God gave those dogs or cats, it just disappears, basically, it's done, because
they have no conscious, they have no soul, they have no understanding.
I know, even something like this would trigger, you know, you got those, how dare you?
How dare you? Pixie's wonderful. She feels things, you know.
Who's ever heard people just talk about their animals, like their kids or something?
My poor... She loves me. I mean, I literally had a family member tell me that, you know,
their lake house was their dog's favorite place because they could just tell that the dog,
that was their favorite place. I was like, how do you know?
Went to dogs favorite places probably just feeding a better food there. That's why I likes it. Dogs only care about one thing
eating
If they're domesticated if they're out in the world, they just care about eating sleeping
Procreating
Going to the restroom and that's it. That's their life
Right. That's the way God made them Psalm 103 verse 14 the Bible says for who know with our frame
He remembered that we are dust
Job 34 verse 14 we see says if he set his heart upon man if he gather unto
himself his spirit and his breath all flesh shall perish together and the man
shall turn again unto dust but what I want to focus on is the spiritual part
of it right in first Kings 22 you're there in first Kings 22 or just turn
over to first Kings 22 I want you to follow me here the Bible says there
Think it's verse 18. So I think I got this one wrong verse 18
Yeah, verse 18 of first Kings 22 says and the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat. Who's the king of Israel at the time? Ahab
Remember Ahab and Jehoshaphat make a league
Jehoshaphat says hey, you're my people. Let's go to war
And they're like, but let's get counsel from what the prophets and there's like 400 of them. They're like, hey, should we go to war?
Like yeah, God's with you
But Jehoshaphat, I guess he kind of figured everybody was like a
Giving them lip service. I mean like hey, they have
Is there not another is there not another like this is this it 400 preachers?
Is there just not another preacher around?
So they call them right?
They call the other preacher. Let's go there real quick. Let me just get you the name because you know
It's first take where are we first Kings?
First Kings 18, I mean 22, give me a second here.
First Kings 22
And so they call it Makaya
The prophet and then the other prophets are like hey said Akai is like hey
We already told them what they wanted to hear
So you need to basically tow the company line.
Hey, we told you not to vote for Ron Paul.
You need to vote for Mitt Romney.
That's why I wasn't chosen, you know,
the delegate at that time in 2012, right?
He's like, you need to do this.
And so Mackay is like, heck no.
I'm not gonna be like you guys.
I'm not gonna kiss the ring.
I serve God.
I'm gonna tell these guys what God told me to tell them.
That's right there in verse 19
I mean verse 18 says and the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat
Did I not tell me the thou that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?
He's all mad because he didn't like what he heard and he said here though
Therefore the word of the Lord I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand
And on his left and the Lord said who shall persuade a have that he may go up and fall at Ramath Gilead
And one said on this matter and another said on that matter and there came forth a spirit
It stood before the Lord and said I will persuade him
And the Lord said unto him wherewith and he said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets
So all 400 of them are
Indwelled with this spirit somehow he's able to control all of them or influence them all and he said but who who allowed it?
God
said thou shalt persuade him and prevail also go forth and do so now therefore behold the Lord
hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets and the Lord hath spoken evil
concerning thee this is the magnitude and glory of the Lord the Lord hates lying yet the punishment
Which is horrible because these prophets think they're serving the Lord and the Lord's like you're so
Wicked that I'm gonna let you not only be wicked
I'm gonna help you in the matter so that when you read that God hates lying and you're a bunch of liars
You know exactly who I hate
That's even like wilder thinking right like the fact that God is so powerful that you'll do
I mean he is the one that's allowing
a lying spirit, and he's not contradicting himself.
He's just allowing, hey, these prophets have a will.
But because they've rejected the Lord Jesus Christ,
God has allowed their wills to be weak, right?
Our soul should be the ones strong
so we can get a good spirit
and avoid the bad spirits in our life.
mean that's kind of crazy when I read that I'm just like man we need there's
things we just don't understand about God I mean God hates lying and then he has
a round table and he's like a hab is so wicked in heaven and he's like I need to
take a hab out and then there all the guys are like well he's like any ideas
Now this has got all might and he's like any ideas and so forth one comes up and he's like given him ideas like nope
Nope, he's like I'll do it. He's like what are you gonna do?
He's like well put a lying spirit in all the prophet's mouth. He's like do it. He's not only that he says do it and
It's gonna work
That's wild
That's how you know people don't read their Bible you don't hear this kind of preaching from like regular like most pulpits because they don't like this
This makes them uncomfortable to say this truth because it's all I'm I don't I can't explain at all
I'm just telling you what the Bible says. Hey, God said there was a spirit in heaven. There was a lying spirit
Apparently it looks like a person who says it stood before him. I don't know what it looks exactly but in my mind
the Holy Spirit's a person, the three persons of the Trinity, and this one stood before God and he's
like, hey, I'm gonna get this job done, and this is how I'm gonna do it. And God said, go do it.
That's wild. That's why it says the Spirit goes back up to God, because whatever spirits with
man, those spirits will go back up to God, right? It says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 13 that said,
then Samuel took the horn. You don't have to turn that because we know this, right?
Samuel kills Agag, he cuts him up into pieces, the anointing is removed from Saul, he's
mourning and he says, hey, how long without mourn after Saul?
I've already gotten a new king, and then a few verses later he says, and Samuel took
the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brother, and who is the anointing David?
And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward, what spirit?
The spirit of the Lord.
So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah, but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
Not salvation, just the spirit. It's the soul that gets saved.
It says, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Here's the challenge,
because the way I read this is we're saved.
And so, if we don't have the Spirit of the Lord, well, we have to have some Spirit in us.
And it sounds like if God's removing a Spirit from us, he's replacing it with another one.
That's not so good. It says,
And an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him.
And Saul's, and then the people recognize this, and Saul's servant sent unto him,
Behold now, an evil Spirit from God troubled thee.
And then we know I mean that's the isn't that the rest of his life like the rest of his life
Saul is literally bitter and jealous and envious and angry toward towards David
He seeks to kill him
Many times
You know why because he's now lost control
Of the ability to do this because he just disobeyed so much
That's why when people said hey Saul killed his thousands and David his ten thousands it bothered him so much
That was the initial like it bothered him initially, but God was like well, that's your spirit
I'll just make sure you have that spirit. Let me just give you an evil spirit. That's how you're gonna act
I'll just make sure you act that way all the time
That's dangerous as a you know as a Christian
That's why we need to be careful the way we act like our bitterness or grudges or Envy
Because if that's how we're acting God's gonna be like, you know what?
That's the spirit you want. I'm just gonna take my spirit. I'll give you one of those
That's why there's so many Christians today that that are angry, you know whenever we preach the word of God hard
Or they're angry whenever you're successful and growing for they're angry when you're out soul winning and you know
Online it hasn't happened recently, but in recent it's happened in the past where I've seen comments like oh
All these guys like to do is brag about their soul winning numbers
Why don't they clean up their life first and then go soul winning? You know what that is?
That's the spirit being removed and being replaced with an evil spirit
Why would you be mad at someone that hasn't cleaned up their life?
And still go so winning because let me just remind you,
none of us have ever cleaned up our lives completely.
That's why it's a renewing daily, right?
Daily renewal is required because we're so dirty
all the time.
That's why I believe that we have to shower also, right?
Cause it's also like a basically a carnal reminder
of the spirit.
You know if if I don't shower tonight, you know what tomorrow morning? I'm a as a matter of fact. I got a great example
We stopped at the Starbucks because my daughter wanted a cake pop a strawberry cake pop and you know
And they're two and a half years old and they talk really cute
You kind of fall for some stuff, but they didn't have any so it's okay
So we left the Starbucks and we're walking out and I'm not kidding. There was two homeless guys. They were about
15 to 25 feet from us, you know, because I was walking I could engage it. I could smell them downwind that far
They reaped
Right. Well, sometimes our Christianity is like that you walk into a place and they can smell you downwind
They smell your evil
wicked
You know hateful
spirit
So I don't know I just I really like that part like that's interesting to me because I it took me a long time to understand
it says the spirit goes to heaven and
This the spirit of beast goes downward and I'm like what that that you know
You could take it to be like everybody say but it's not because the spirits different soul
You know, that's a and obviously it's deeper than that. There's a ton of verses for that
But the Bible makes it clear that that's body soul and spirit
So, you know, it's a good lesson to learn but let's go ahead and just close the word of prayer on Ecclesiastes 3
I think it's a great chapter, you know, just to recap
Really the chapters is just about what time there's a time for everything. I
Mean Saul had the time to have the spirit of the Lord and he messed up
And then he had the rest of the time he lived in what in the spirit of
You know a have same thing a have actually humbled himself at one point before God
But he's just too wicked
Yet aligning. I mean God send a spirit one spirit
I don't know these spirits are powerful because it was if I recall the numbers like 400 prophets
They're all like yeah, go go to Ramath Gilead and and get in a fight
And the Kyle's like no
Well, actually he's like you're gonna you're gonna go and win, but it's not gonna be the way you think he's like you see
I told you this guy
Preaches against us and we don't like it and isn't that how it is with us like hard independent fundamental Baptist
We're gonna you know or new in
Independent fundamental about whatever you want to call us we preach the word of God and people are like we don't like that I
Don't like that
I don't I don't like it at all. So let's close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father Lord. Thank you so much for today
Thank you for your blessings Lord
Give me traveling Marseys this week as I go to
Just fellowship with other like-minded believers, protect my family at home.
Thank you for all those here in attendance today, Lord.
And help us to have a good turnout on Wednesday.
And then also just keep pushing on our soul winning and our numbers.
And then look forward to our guest preacher,
and then some of the events coming up in the next couple of weeks.
And I just pray not only that you would bless those here in attendance
and our church members that weren't able to make it,
but just bless me and my family.
Thank you for what you do, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Did you stop it? Stop streaming, honey.