October 2nd, service times are 10.30 a.m., 30 p.m. on Sunday, and 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Sole waiting time is 2 p.m., and I don't remember why, I think we're at a hundred and something.
You know what, go bring me a bulletin from back there, if you don't mind.
We'll get the number for you guys here in a second.
We did get one on Sunday, pray for brother James.
He finally made it to the Philippines, so he's going to be there for the better part
of a year, or half a year, and then 200, oh, I'm sorry, I'm downplaying our numbers.
We're at 217 for the year, so I apologize for that.
We have all our birthdays right there, our memory verse, all our instructions, and then
we have the upcoming activities.
This Saturday is the church work day.
Depending on who shows up, but regardless, I'm going to, my goal is to kind of split
up some stuff, like we need to clean drives and switch over backup channels and just do
some honeydews around the church.
And then also, are you guys planning to be here on Saturday?
If you are, just to say what I'll do is I told Mary Sarah, so I might have the ladies
just kind of gather that list of like hymns and bibles we need and all that stuff, and
that way I have it and then I can actually pull the trigger because if not, I'm never
going to get it done.
So if you, the reason I'm saying it out loud is so that if I don't remember that day, somebody
will remember.
And then the church fellowship is October 31st, so it actually works out because next
Friday at 6.30 PM, we're going to be here.
I'll make sure we bring our board games.
We might even, it might be worth going to like a Salvation, you know, one of these
drift stores and see if we can pick up some more games and then we'll plan some stuff
and we'll have chili from Brother Heat.
So just make sure you only eat one bowl, not good, it's not good because it's heavy.
That's the only thing I remember, I was like, man, that night was rough.
But other than that, it's a really good chili, this is really heavy.
Bring your own beans, your beaner, you know what I'm talking about.
And then we're going to plan the Thanksgiving Fellowship and then the Christmas Fellowship
and then the Refugio so winning.
We are shooting for November 22nd.
So I got a call from Freeman, I forget his name, I think it's Jason Freeman, I mean I've
met him, John Freeman, sorry.
So I spoke to him on Monday, or no, yesterday and he suggested the 22nd or whatever, I
don't remember the other day, but I think the other day, the other time was I'm going
to be gone in about a week or two, just for a couple of days because I've got to get the
shoulder checked out and then we'll do the Soul Winning Marathon.
So what we'll do, Refugio is about two and a half hours away, so whoever wants to plan,
let me know.
If we want to do a carpool or something or if we need to rent a van, we're a small enough
group, we'll make it happen so that it's easy for everybody.
So that's what we'll do and then we'll have the Christmas Fellowship details coming up.
And then all the prayer requests, I haven't updated everything here, I did today, so you'll
get a new one.
But pray for Sister Millie.
So she's been updating Facebook, but I didn't realize she actually got heart surgery.
So pray for her because she's been dealing with the back pain and she's got more surgeries
pending.
She's in ICU right now, so just pray for her heart.
And then I spoke with Wendy, what's Wendy's daughter, the Bosticks?
Oh yeah, it's Wendy.
Her name's Wendy.
Mary is a mom.
Mary has dementia, so pray for her because she's basically declining and Brother James
is doing well.
He just has a lot of pain.
But they're both in the retirement home.
And then I think I mentioned the Leveque family.
I think I said it wrong.
So Sheena, if you're watching, got it.
It's Leveque.
So pray for the family, for salvation is also a thing for health.
And then there was a couple others, but it'll go out.
Your uncle and are there any other updates right now, Pastor?
Do you know, like, is there any on the list that we need to update right now?
You have it?
Just let me know.
But other than that, if nothing else, what's the hymn that we're going to sing?
460.
So let's turn our handrails over to page 460 while you check that, Pastor.
I'm the first.
52BH50.
A family integrated church.
My daughter's potty training, so we have to cut it halfway to make sure that potty training's
taken care of.
I wouldn't have it any-- I never was comfortable, never liked it.
I know you guys didn't ask for it, but I hate when you go to church and the first thing
they want you to do is drop your kids off.
I'm like, that's why I have my kids home school.
That's why they're with me, because I don't want to drop them off anywhere.
I don't trust you.
I don't know who you are.
So, to God be the glory, Pastor Cobb, was there any updates on the prayer list?
Okay.
We'll go over it this week.
The first, to God be the glory.
To God be the glory, great is the son of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes eight.
Through this study in the book of Ecclesiastes, so we're there in the first verse, it says,
who is, as a wise man, who knoweth the interpretation of a thing, man's wisdom, makeeth his face
to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God.
Be not hasty to go out of his sight, stand not in an evil thing, for he doeth whatsoever
pleaseth him.
For the word of a king is there is power, and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing, and a wise man's heart discerneth
both time and judgment.
Because to every purpose there is a time and judgment; therefore the misery of man is great
upon him.
For he knoweth not that which shall be, for who can tell him when it shall be?
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he in the
day of death.
And there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given
to it.
All things have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done unto the Son.
There is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
And so I saw the wicked buried, who hath come and gone from the place of the holy, and they
were forgotten in the city where they had so done.
This is also vanity.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of
the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know
that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.
But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are
as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there be just men unto whom it happeneth
according to the work of the wicked.
Again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous.
I said that this also is vanity; then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing
under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; for that shall abide with
him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon
the earth, for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes, then
I beheld all the work of God that a man cannot find out of the work that is done under the
sun, because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther,
though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
Pastor Cobb, will you pray for the preaching this afternoon?
Amen, so we're there at, oh wow, I rarely get yawns when I'm talking, like in public
speaking, but I don't know what happened.
But anyways, we're there in Ecclesiastes 8, and the title of the sermon this afternoon
is "Because Judgment Delays, Men Rebelle," because judgment delays, men rebel.
And the reason I wanted to focus on that is because, you know, in the book of Proverbs
and Ecclesiastes, and even in the book of Psalms, you have a lot of mention of the fact
that, you know, even Asaph, who is in Psalms, like in the 70s, he talks a lot about how
he was envious, and we're going to touch on that, of like the prosperity of the wicked.
And I think that's one of the things that as Christians we find sometimes hard to like
consolidate in our life, right?
How do we consolidate the fact that, hey, we're serving the Lord, and things aren't
always going the way we think they should be going, right?
Maybe our jobs aren't providing the income we want to, or our families don't love us
the way they need to, or the projects that we put into effect or that we start, they
don't turn out the way we want them to.
And yet you turn around and you look at people that maybe you grew up with, or people in
the news, or people that you know are wicked, and it seems like they got it all together,
right?
I mean, if you turn on the news right now, it looks like Trump's got it all together.
Looks like Bill Gates has got it all together, and Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, and name the
CEO, and if you turn on Hollywood, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt, and name all these people.
And Senator Cruz was at Cornerstone this week, or even just today, and he was talking about
Israel, and even the guy, John Hagee is talking about it, and he's lived a long life, and
you're like, "What in the world is going on?"
As a Christian, you're like, "I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing.
Our church is small.
We don't maybe have the finances that a big church has."
And I'm not being negative, I'm just saying those are the things we could wake up and
look at it like that.
I could be like, "Man, Spring-Crest is, we're in the heart of Houston, and we don't fill
up the parking lot every week."
Sundays is our best day, and then Sunday evening, just like typical church, and then Wednesdays
like your true three times a week, three to thrive, and our building is old, and technology
sometimes works and it doesn't work, and people don't tithe the way they should, and they
don't read their Bible the way they should.
We could do all that, but the thing is, I'm just generalizing, because you know what?
That's every church in America, good or bad, but what we need to look at is the fruits
of our labor in the Spirit, and although that's not the sermon, that's really where even Solomon
is going to take us in this passage, because the challenge is that if we look at the delayed
judgment of God, it looks like the enemy's winning, right?
But they're not, and so we need to remind ourselves daily that God has a better plan
for us, and the other thing is that when we do that, we become more heavily minded.
The only reason that we feel like that is because we're in the flesh, and the flesh
wants to stay here.
But if we really just focus on the heavenly, we'll never forget about that, right?
But just as a real quick recap, chapters one and two, Solomon spends a lot of time talking
about the vanity of life without God, right?
And then chapter three, he really talks about just time.
I mean, that's really like the crux of it, he kind of focuses on that.
I'm just giving you basic synopsis, of course, we've covered a lot of things in there.
Chapter four and five, the need for fellowship, compassion in the son, and then fearing God
in vows and words and wealth.
Chapter six is just blessings without gratitude, bringing emptiness, meaning the Lord allows,
it's basically what it's a recap of what I'm talking with a little bit more detail
about how it looks like the Lord's blessing some people, but it's really not, right?
Wisdom through mourning and correction.
And then in this chapter, it's really God's justice may be delayed, but it really isn't,
right?
Because a thousand years is as a day to the Lord and a day is as a thousand years to the
Lord.
So we really need to try to understand as much as possible about the Bible, not about
God because God's eternal and his wisdom is beyond searching, we're even going to touch
on that.
But this chapter overall, it's dealing with the limits of man's understanding.
And that's why we need the Lord to basically supplement the areas where we fail.
And one of the areas that's really hard to consolidate, and I'm going to go back to this
because this is really a thing that people struggle with, is that area where you're serving
God and the enemy's not serving God and the enemy looks like they've got it together and
you look like you're losing.
And then the other challenge is the reason I think we fail also is because most churches
won't preach the way I'm preaching, I'm not saying I'm a better preacher, I'm just saying
I'm preaching God's truth.
I mean my wife grew up in a weird teaching from this gentleman by the name of Bill Gothard
and it was called the Institute of Basic Life Principles and the most damaging thing that
I remember from that, besides all the drama and controversy that was later revealed, but
the one thing because I actually went through the entire week because I was like I'm going
to marry this girl and her parents want me to go through it and it was weird, but the
one thing that really annoyed me about the teachings was not that it wasn't biblical,
but that it wasn't accurate because the way that it was taught was, hey, if you do the
A, B, and C, then by result, you're going to get D, E, F, but that Bible is not like
that at all.
As a matter of fact, God says, hey, the more you do, the more you're going to suffer for
me, the more you're going to partake in my sufferings, tribulation, and persecution, and
the trying of your faith is part of life.
Just because I do good things for the Lord doesn't necessarily mean that He's going to
just reward me like the world would reward me.
What I mean by that is, let's use the example of a job.
In a job, they give you certain descriptions, and if you hit those parameters and then you
exceed them, the next logical conclusion is a promotion, where with God, He might demote
you before He promotes you.
So wouldn't it be weird if you got a job and they say, "Hey, the only way you can be truly
successful in this job is that the role you have right now, we're going to demote you."
Pay, authority, job description, you're going to be like, "Wait a minute, what do you mean?
I'm a CPA.
I went and got my license, yeah, but we really want you to know your commitment to our company.
So for the next six months, you're going to be the janitor and get janitor's pay."
Who would stay at that job?
Nobody.
And I'm not saying God makes us janitors, I'm just saying God sometimes makes us do
the dirty work.
And then you're like, "This is really ... " and actually it's even worse, right?
You look at Job, and Job didn't go to janitor, Job went to nothing.
He's like, "Even the kids and people who would respect me don't respect me anymore."
And then, but later on, he persevered and he was grateful to God.
He said, "Hey, I don't take just the good, but I take the evil."
And then, of course, he was not only doubly promoted, he was ten times, tenfold rewarded,
right?
And so I just, I really want to emphasize that because Solomon, in this transition he
made in chapter seven to chapter eight, where he's now focusing on God, he starts to point
this out.
Initially, it's like very depressing, very dire, vanity of vanities, vexing of life,
but now he's like, "Hey, let me point these things out, a couple of things."
So let's go there in Ecclesiastes eight, and in verse one it says, "Who is as the wise
man, and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?"
He's asking two questions, "Hey, who is a wise man, or as a wise man, and who knows
the interpretation of a thing?
A man's wisdom makeeth his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed."
Interesting the way it's said, it's not countenance, but boldness, because wisdom makes us bold
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?
So it's not just getting people's face, but it's doing the things of God, and we know
this is about God, because he's going to actually bring us back to that.
Now he says in verse 2, he says, "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and
that in regard of the oath of God, be not hasty to go out of his sight, stand not in
an evil thing, for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
Where the word of a king is, there is power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing; and a wise man's heart discerneth
both time and judgment."
So a couple of things that really stand out, he says, be not hasty to go out of his sight,
stand not in an evil thing.
He's saying, hey, don't just run away from the authority, and also don't stand in the
way of whatever the authority is doing, even if it looks like it's an evil thing.
And by the way, remember, in the King James, evil can, it depends on the context, and the
context here is, it's just a harm or a bad thing.
I know we tend to think evil like, ooh, Halloween is evil, because it's harmful, but we're not
talking wickedness.
And God does that.
He said, hey, I created both good, and Isaiah, he says, I created good and evil.
He said to Saul, he said he removed the good spirit, you know, the spirit of God, and he
put what, an evil spirit upon him.
So we need to be aware of those things.
And he says, you know, you know why you need to stay in his presence and not get in the
way of what he's doing?
Because he does whatever he pleases.
I love that it uses the example of a king and not necessarily a boss, because sometimes
bosses might not be able to do, they're restrained by maybe governmental entities or, you know,
the environment.
But a king is all sovereign.
That's why, you know, the majority of the world today doesn't want a king.
I mean, there's literally, which is kind of a dumb name, but there was this weekend, there
was a no kings protest, right?
Nobody wants a king because the king has full authority to do whatever he wants.
He's almost like a godlike figure on earth and that's been the problem, right?
Kings throughout history have had so much power that they actually thought they were
a form of God.
I mean, so kings can do whatever they want, right?
I mean, a form of kinghood is my home, right?
In my house, I am the king of my castle and I can do as I please.
That doesn't necessarily mean that I do as I please because I have to answer to God.
But if I wanted to, I could.
You shouldn't and it's not a good thing to just do everything, every whim and whimsical
idea that you get in your mind.
But that's what kings do.
I mean, and there's been kings.
Look at Ahab.
Ahab was like, you know, Naboth is not giving me the land and his wife basically commits
forgery but he's the king and he's like, well now I got the land so I'm just going
to do whatever I want.
You'd think later on he didn't find out that she did it.
Like I mean, you know, gossip is not a new thing.
We've all been gossiping for a long time, right?
But go to Ecclesiastes 3 and in verse 17 the Bible said, "I said in mine heart, God
shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time there for every purpose and
every work."
And remember he ends with, "Whoso keepeth the commandments shall feel no evil and a
wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment."
Right?
And the strength of wisdom, and that's my first point, is the strength of wisdom in
the face of authority.
Wisdom is to discern both time and judgment.
What does that mean?
Well, it just means that you got to pick and choose your battles.
There's more that it could mean, but for today's lesson, you pick and choose your battles.
There is a time for everything.
As a young man, young men tend to get in a lot of fights, whether it's physical or verbal,
because they don't know how to time things.
They're a little bit hasty.
Why do they have an amateur league for everything?
It's not because they're not athletic, or they don't have the ability, although sometimes
they're still building their bodies, or they don't have a man body.
But a lot of the time, it's just because they're just kind of jumping the gun on everything,
right?
They don't have the ability to judge correctly.
I think about this in sports, right?
You look at ... Michael Jordan is my favorite basketball player of all time, and if you
look at highlights when he was a young man versus towards the end of his career, he's
much more fun to watch as a young guy.
He's doing the highlights and the dunks, but man, he's a lot more entertaining mentally
to watch as an older basketball player because he's actually playing the game.
He's not just running up and down, dunking and running around and doing all kinds of
crazy stuff.
He's actually orchestrating a play and orchestrating a victory.
You can see the mental aspect, you can see the team aspect, you can see the individual
aspect.
Isn't that like the maturity of a church?
As the pastor matures, you no longer just see the hastiness of the youth.
You see the orchestration of bringing together other leaders and other families and people
to do different works.
One of the exciting things about where our church is headed is that we have people at
different stages of life and we can now implement that ability.
Go to Proverbs 16 verse 10 and the Bible says there in verse 10, it says, "A divine
sentence is in the lips of the king.
His mouth transgresseth not in judgment.
A just weight and balance are the Lord's.
All the weights of the bag are his work."
So everything comes from the Lord, right?
But it's talking about kings here.
It's an abomination to kings to commit wickedness for the throne is established by righteousness.
Hey, all power, all leadership comes from God.
It says, "Righteous lips are the delight of kings and they love him that speaketh right.
The wrath of a king is as a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it.
In the light of the king's countenance is life, and in his favor is as a cloud of the
latter rain."
And you know, if you've ever studied history or you watch any documentaries or even movies
about kings, everybody wants to be in the presence of the king and be able to get his
favor and gain his favor because that's the most influence you're going to have.
You know, you see these stories or you'll watch these movies where they're trying to
backstab the king.
Even, you know, obviously there's been success with that, but even most of the time those
plans will be foiled because the king just has so much power, most people will not want
to side with the potential of future power knowing that the power already exists.
You know, and that's really the failure of the devil is the devil's trying to get you
on his side saying, "Hey, when we win, I will be king and I'm going to give you all this
power."
And the reality is Jesus was tempted three times and he's like, "I'm not impressed."
You know, obviously because Jesus is Jesus, but isn't that funny that that's how the
devil works?
And isn't that the norm of just every position of leadership?
You know, just give it time.
If it's not happening already, it'll happen in time.
Somebody will try to put a wedge in the members of this church with the leadership, you know,
with me up here saying, "Hey, this is happening versus that, and if we can just do this, then
it'll be better this way."
Because everybody always thinks they know better, right?
Romans 13 verse 1, the Bible says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for
there's no power but of God."
"The powers that be ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."
Look, at the end of the day, the reason we obey is because we don't want to resist the
ultimate power, which is God.
In 1 Peter, I think, it says even if your leadership is forward, you submit.
And today we have, I've said this before, I'm going to keep saying it, we have an authority
and a submission problem, right?
I mean, it doesn't matter if Biden is in office or it doesn't matter if Trump's in office.
There's always a group of protesters and the reason they're protesting is because they're
not happy with the authority.
I mean, right now I happen to agree with the authority that's in place because, you know,
Montrose got the queer flag removed from their streets and, you know, it looks like the world's
becoming anti-Zionist and morality is back on the rise and all this thing.
But God said, "Hey, it doesn't matter what you like or don't like, you obey."
I'm going through the book of Jeremiah, it's actually apropos, I'm like, I think I'm more
than halfway through the book of Jeremiah, but the main theme is that, isn't that the
main theme of Jeremiah is, "Hey, go to Zedekiah, go to the people and tell them, 'Hey, you
need to just allow yourself to be captured,' and then submit to that, go live peacefully,
go have children, marry, serve, grow, and when the time comes, I'll bring you back."
And what is their split?
There's the false prophets who are like, "Jeremiah doesn't know what he's talking about.
Jeremiah is nuts."
And they're like, and people will be like, "Well, but isn't Jeremiah talking to God?"
"No, we talked to God."
And they end up the ones that get killed, they end up suffering, they end up like losing
out and the people that just submit, God redeems them over a 70 year period.
But that's a whole other thing for a whole other day.
So first thing is we see the strength of wisdom in the face of authority.
The second thing, go back to Ecclesiastes, of course keep your finger there when we're
going through the study, is the mystery of God's timing and judgment.
So we end in verse five with, right, he says in verse five, "Whoso keepeth the commandments
shall feel no evil thing, and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment."
And then verse six says, "But to every purpose," so here we go again, like chapter three,
"there is a time," now this one's a little bit different, right, because for everything
there's a time and judgment, and I think that's important because, remember, for everything
there's a time, but also there's a consequence, that's what judgment is, right, is a consequence
of God's giving, "Therefore the misery of man is great upon him," and here's why we're
miserable in the flesh, "For he knoweth not that which shall be, for who can tell him
when it shall be?
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power
in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver
those that are given to it."
In other words, hey, you better realize that the thing you need to take on is the purpose
of time and judgment, and it's so interesting because obviously I'm preparing these, but
I'm also sometimes reviewing them just on the day of or whatever, so I'm reading my
regular Bible and then I'm doing the Bible study for this and doing all that, and so
this morning I necessarily wasn't thinking about this chapter, but I was thinking about
life and then I was like, "Lord, allow me to just do more work for you because time's
just fleeting," right, like, you know, every day I wake up, my eyes are a little bit more
dim and things hurt a little bit more, and I think to myself, you know, I think I could
do better, I could do more work, but you know what, one day my body's just not going to
allow me to do the work that I think I can do.
It's just the reality of life and we take that for granted and the only thing that matters
is when I get to the judgment seat, I want to just be like, here's the crowns that you've
given me.
I want to get as many crowns as possible.
I want to do as much work as possible, you know, that's why when brother John Freeman
called me, he's like, hey, let's do the soul wedding marathon on October 22nd, a few days
before Thanksgiving.
And in my mind, I'm thinking, man, that's a lot of packing a lot into like the next
couple of weeks.
But then immediately, I'm not, and that's probably what I was thinking, immediately
I was like, well, if I don't do it now, when am I going to do it?
Like the time to do it is when?
Right now.
When are we going to get this thing done today?
When do we talk about these things now?
This very moment, because nothing is guaranteed.
You know, as a matter of fact, this was not on the agenda.
But yesterday, I was helping out a brother in the church, so I wasn't at home and my
wife calls me and she's like, "Hey, Super Kitty died.
We don't know why.
I mean, he was not that old.
He was like five or six."
She's like, "He came into the room.
He laid down on the carpet.
I thought it was weird the way he laid down.
Next thing you know, I stepped on his tail and he didn't react and he just passed away."
It makes you think, even when your cat dies, I mean, a couple of days ago, he was purring
in my wife's lap.
I remember it's like right now, like a regular cat.
There's no signs that he's sick, nothing's oozing.
Sometimes cats get like, "Oh, none of that.
He just looked healthy."
Then next thing you know, it was his time.
Isn't that life though?
Also sometimes you get a call and people are like, "Hey, so-and-so never woke up."
What do you mean they never woke up?
Yeah, they went to bed last night and we've been knocking at their door.
We opened the door and they just died in their sleep.
Nobody knows what happened.
We've got to realize there's a mystery to God's time and judgment, and it makes us miserable
because we don't know when things are going to happen.
Ecclesiastes 3, we have those famous verses that says, "To everything there's a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven."
You notice how he's building on the concepts, but now he's elaborating.
And then in verse 11 it says, "He hath made everything beautiful in his time.
Also he hath set the world in his heart so that no man can find out the work that God
maketh from the beginning to the end."
Turn over to Ephesians 6, but I'll read for you really quick in Hebrews 9.
Verse 27, the Bible says, "And as it is appointed unto men that once to die, but after this
the judgment."
So time to live and time to die and then what?
The judgment.
Verse 28 says, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
looked for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Job 14, Pastor Cobb loves to use these in funerals.
I like Ecclesiastes 7, Pastor Cobb likes Job 14.
Who's right?
Well, I'm behind the pulpit, so I'm just kidding Pastor, actually both are right, right?
Because it's God's word.
It depends on the situation and what God's given, I'm being facetious.
These are great verses and I've actually used these in the funeral because they're also
very comforting.
It says, "Man that is born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble."
"He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down.
He fleeeth also as a shadow and continueth not.
And doth thou open thine eyes upon such as one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?"
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
"Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, that was appointed
as bounds, that he cannot pass."
Hey, you know what, these humanists, it would do well for them to not only read Job 14,
verse 5, but apply it in their life.
The Bible says, "that was appointed as bounds, that he cannot pass."
Hey, every man will reach that border they can't pass.
There's a point of no return, they'll pass that line, but they won't be able to pass
that line, and you're done.
That's what the Bible says.
In Ephesians 6, we know this is the famous chapter of the armor of God, but I like these
verses, it says in verse 12, it says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places."
Why am I tying this together?
You say, "What does it have to do with anything?"
Because in verse 8, he says, "And there is no discharge in this war."
It's interesting the way that Solomon worded it, "Hey, life has time and judgment.
You cannot control it.
It makes you miserable, and you can't be relieved from this war."
And you know why he calls it a war?
Because this is where he starts to focus on God.
It's a spiritual war.
Right?
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
So we need to figure out what time and judgment, what do we run to, what are the battles we're
picking?
But then verse 18, and this is why I wanted to focus on it, when he's closing this out,
he says, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel."
Hey, when time is short, and when you're in this battle, what you want is you want
to open your mouth boldly.
Verse 20 says, "For which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak."
Hey, the only thing that matters when you're running out of time is to be bold, right?
We were actually having a little fun, I don't know who was in here, I was back there reading
some of the comments on the church from hell, the Jehovah's Witness, you know, that sermon
I preached on Sunday, and of course everybody came out of the woodworks.
And one guy, he's getting on to me even though he's with me, technically.
He's like, "Hey, I like your sermon because I was a Jehovah's Witness for 33 years, and
I think it's great that you're preaching this, but I wish that the information you gave was
a little bit more accurate.
Apparently, I got some stuff wrong."
Well, probably I got some stuff wrong because, number one, when you do a search, basic search,
you're just going to get whatever's on the internet.
I know some truth, obviously we know Jehovah's Witnesses, also I'm basing it off of my real
life experiences with Jehovah's Witnesses, which this guy doesn't know.
I go soul-winding, you run into a Jehovah's Witness and they tell you all kinds of weird
stuff and you know, so I'm basing it off of this information.
And number three, I've not been a Jehovah's Witness for 33 years, so I just don't have
all the facts.
But then he's getting on to me and then I responded saying, "Look, I just preach the
gospel of Christ.
I preach the truth.
It doesn't really matter.
They're liars anyways.
Like, it's a false religion.
What does it matter?"
Then one of the responses is funny because he's like, "Well, you shouldn't preach that
people are going to hell for serving in a false religion because that might turn them
off to the gospel."
But according to Ecclesiastes, we only have so much time and then comes the judgment.
When would you like to find out about hell?
Now or when I tippy-toed around it and you died and you were in hell?
I would venture to say, "I'm not a betting man, but anybody who would bet would say I'd
like to know about hell now while I can still do something about it."
If you're in hell and you're looking up, you're like, "Dude, why didn't you tell me?
Oh, well, because some guy on the internet told me that I shouldn't piss you off."
No, I want to piss people off about hell.
I really do.
I don't care.
If they get pissed off because they say, "All you do is ... I don't like your God.
All he does is threaten us, and he's going to ... I don't understand how a God could
send people to hell.
I thought he was a loving God."
That's why he's sending people to hell, because he gave you the easy plan, and you want to
screw it up by making it more difficult.
Isn't that what Solomon's talking about?
He's like, "I did everything under the sun.
You know what I find out?
That it's super difficult.
If I would just follow and serve God, it would have just been super easy."
Let's go to the third point.
You're there in Ecclesiastes 8.
The first thing we see is the strength of wisdom in the face of authority, right?
We need to be wise when we're under authority.
And wisdom comes with not being rebellious, and not being unsubmissive, and being, you
know, just rejecting everything that the Lord is doing.
You know, we don't sit here and question the Lord as to why he allows bad things to
happen to people.
Notice I didn't say good people because all I have sinned and come sure of the glory
of God.
I don't sit here and question why, you know, my collarbone was broken, or why so-and-so
died suddenly, or why I so-and-so went to the hospital, or why, you know, sister so-and-so
is in the hospital, or so, that's life.
That's not for me to question, it's for me to just obey the Lord and continue fighting
on.
You know, but people don't read their Bible.
I mean, we know that all things work together for good, so we need to focus on that, right?
Because then we have the mystery of God's timing and judgment, meaning it's mysterious
to us, the timing and the judgment, because we don't know when either one is going to
come, because only God controls that.
And then Ecclesiastes 8, verse 9, the Bible says, "All this have I seen and applied my
heart unto every good work that is done unto the Son.
There is a time where one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
And so I saw the wicked buried, who hath come and gone from the place of the Holy,
and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done.
This is also vanity.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of
the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
You know, sometimes I think that's why the Lord allows things to do.
He's just like, "Well, if you're going to be bad, let's get it all out so I can judge
you just that much harder."
I always tell people, it always concerns me when I notice someone, you know, obviously
it's easier to notice somebody else is harsher than yours, right?
That's why we go to church, that's why we need accountability.
Not that I'm not trying to be aware, the Bible says let us examine ourselves, so I'm
not saying that, but you know, oftentimes, especially as a preacher, you're noticing
things from the congregation or just people.
I always tell my wife, I've been saying this for a long, many, many, many years, for as
long as I mean she could probably remember.
I'm like, "I always worry when I know someone's really messing up and God hasn't punished
them."
Because if God's delaying punishment, that means it's coming down hard.
You know what I mean?
I know people in my life who have broken up marriages and caused the other person to commit
adultery and all that stuff, and then it just looks like everybody was winning.
And then I'm like, "If the punishment hasn't--" I want to be like David, right?
I want to be like David where Nathan's like, "You are that man," and he's like, "I've
sinned."
And then that way, David, Nathan comes, he's like, "Well, God's given you three
options to get punished."
And he's like, "I want the option that's from God, and I want the one that's quick."
Because you notice of the three options, the one that came from God was the one that lasted
the least amount of time, because God's not here to just rub it in your face.
He's just going to punish you and get it over with.
That's what I want in my life.
I'm like, "Lord, if I've messed up, if I've sinned, just punish me."
I already preached that, so I'm not going to touch it, but when I broke my collarbone,
I was just like, "Lord, if it's a punishment, let's get it over quickly.
Thank you, Lord, for fixing whatever I need to fix and moving on."
The reason I don't like to play that game is because obviously I've got sin in my life,
so there's always chastisement, you know, I mean, whatever.
I mean, you notice Job didn't play that game.
The game he played was like, "Man, this is just really rough."
But go over to 2 Peter.
I'll have you turn to 2 Peter in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 16.
The Bible says, "And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment,
that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there."
Hey, wickedness and iniquity are there in the righteous and in the wicked.
Luke 4.13 says, "And when the devil had ended all the temptation,
he departed from him for a season," because that's the third point I got ahead of myself.
But the third point is, the wicked seem to prosper, because that's where we ended, right?
They set their hearts to do fully evil because judgment's not executed speedily for a season.
Now, here's two ways to apply this.
Number one, we as Christians sometimes tend to see God's judgment not coming in the time we need to.
Now, that's not true. God's judgment's always on time.
We may feel that way.
But the other application to this is the reality of men where, for example,
we're living in a society that does not execute judgment speedily.
Instead, we're too lenient, and what it's doing is it's setting the hearts of men to do fully evil,
so much so that now people are just blatantly knocking people out in the streets
during broad daylight, stabbing people, you know, did a day...
The Louvre, I've been there like 20 years ago and the security was tight, right?
The Louvre, which is one of the most famous museums in the world, it was like a movie,
it was heisted in broad daylight because they know nothing's going to happen.
You think about it, if the Bible, if kings were just or presidents were just or the government was just,
especially here in the U.S., pedophiles would be put to death immediately, right?
Queers would be put to death immediately.
Certain other sins, you know, depending on the situation, fornication, riotous children,
adultery, certain, you know, all these would be put to death immediately, but we delay it.
And so, you know, what is it, I might have my wife speak up during the preaching, but just because
the words, and you know, we talk about this stuff, and I always do this when I'm preaching, but
recidivism, like when you, recidivism, recidivism, recidivism, sorry, I do this, I don't know why I
get tongue-tied sometimes with people, but anyway, recidivism is that that term just means like
people that go to jail and then they fall back, right, and they end up doing the same thing over
and over again. It's always really high because people don't get punished for the sins that they're
doing. Like a pedophile is not going to stop being a pedophile just because you took him through some
therapy program, some rehabilitation program in jail for six months, and then when he comes out,
all of a sudden that unnatural affection is going away. The Bible says God gave them over to a
reprobate mind. It says He gave them over to an unnatural affection. They, you know, they don't do
the things that they naturally would do. It's become natural to them to be unnatural like beasts.
That's why the death penalty needs to apply to them because all they want to do is take advantage of
children. And people don't want to preach about that stuff but the Bible says they're therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully said in them to do evil, right? In Psalm 73, let me just kind
of give you a little bit more here. Psalm 73 verse 3, the Bible says, "For I was envious..."
Oh no, I had you turn to 2nd Peter. I can read for you Psalm 73. Sorry, 2nd Peter 3.
2nd Peter 3, in Psalm 73 verse 3, the Bible says, "For I was envious at the foolish,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death,
but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued
like other men." And you know, he's seeing that kind of like, hey, when P. Diddy comes out
and it looks like they acquitted him, you're like, what the hell is going on? Right? But if you want,
you can go to Psalm 73, just because I'm going to come back to it. But in 2 Peter 3, verse 8,
the Bible says, "But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing," in verse 8, "that one day
is what the Lord has a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise." So, hey, you ever think about the fact that sometimes the delay that we
see is because God is not slack concerning His promise? As some men count slackness but is long
suffering to us word, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. There's that misery, you don't know
when it's coming. "In that which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with a fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
But here's the positive, which is number four, the fourth point I have for you is
the patience of the righteous in waiting for justice. Look, justice is coming, we just got
to be patient, right? It looks like the wicked seem to prosper first season, but keep being the book
of Psalms, but let me just read for you because the next verse is in Ecclesiastes A verse 12,
the Bible says, "Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged,
yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. But it shall
not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because
he feareth not before God. He said, "Hey, don't worry. I know that the powers that be, the kings,
are delaying judgment, and that's why evil people are doing this. And then you're looking at it,
and you think God's delaying, but God's not delaying. His timing is different than man's
timing." So there's two perspectives. Remember, let me be clear. God is not delaying anything.
We sometimes in our feelings perceive that God is delaying what we feel like should be the
judgment of people right away. But other times, the Lord's also allowing these things. Number one,
He's not slack concerning His promise. Number two, He gave them up. They have their reward.
And number three, we don't know what they're suffering. And we look there in Psalm 37,
you can go to Psalm 73, but it's Psalm 37. By the way, I got these confused while I was writing my
notes because of the numbers, but Psalm 37 says fret not thyself in verse one because of evildoers.
Fred is what? Don't get panic attacks, don't get anxiety, don't stress. Neither be thou envious
against the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and withers the
green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shall thou dwell in the land and verily thou
shall be fed. Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto thy Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass and he shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and
wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in this way because of the
man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Seize from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself
in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord
they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be,
yea thou shall diligently consider his place and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the
earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of his peace. And if you go over
Psalm 73 we read those first five verses and he says hey I was envious of the prosperity of these
guys so it's very similar but then when you get down to verse 17 he says until I went into the
sanctuary of God. When was he all envious? When was he you know going through all these feelings
for the first 17 verses? When he was outside of church? When he was not with God's people?
You know the problem with the majority of our congregation and the congregations that serve
in other churches is they get out of church and then they wonder why they're feeling the way
they're feeling and I was talking to someone yesterday and he's like man I'm so mad at the
HOA and you know it was a brother in Christ and we were just having this conversation he's like
and he's like and I just don't know how to consolidate this feeling that this uh this
piece of crap just you know I just want to catch him you know turning me into the HOA the one that
you know you know the one the Karen that drives around pointing at everything he's like I just
wish I could break his window and pull him out and beat him to a pulp he's like I don't know
what to do I said alert that's temptation just don't give into temptation and I said that's a
normal feeling you know why because when I got a letter from the HOA about my trash can several
years ago you know what I thought I was like I want to know who turned me in and who did this and
you know I own this house I pay the taxes on this house I pay the mortgage on this house it's not
your house it's my house but I signed the stupid agreement right that's just the way life is
but when you get in church you're reminded hey vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord just leave it
in the God in God's hands but when you're not in church you're just like man just kind of take
this guy out and then that's when you get in all the the the the ego and the battles and all that
stuff but what did he say there verse 17 says until I went into the sanctuary of God then
understood I there at you know why because somebody preached it and they're like oh yeah
that's in God's word surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou casted them down into
destruction how are they brought into desolation as in a mountain as in a moment they are utterly
consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh so oh lord when thou awakest thou shall despise
their image thus my heart was grieved and i was pricked in my reigns so foolish was i and ignorant
i was as a beast before thee you know he comes to the sense that he's like hey the lord's telling me
that they're afraid that they're lonely says they are utterly consumed with terror you know
what i know for a fact i don't care how bold and fearless trump looks or biden looks or kamala
harris looks or bernie sanders looks i'm trying to just pick both sides the bible says they're
utterly consumed with terror it says they are brought into desolation they're cast down into
destruction they're they're they're going down slippery places slippery slopes it says the lord
shall despise their image so who cares don't worry about it god's going to take care of it but we
need to be patient in that endeavor in malachi go back to ecclesiastes but in malachi 3 verse 18
the bible says then he shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him
that serveth god and him that serveth him not. Romans 2 verse 6 the bible says who will render
to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuous and well-doing seek for glory
and honor and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the
truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath. Hey that's the world we live in you know
sometimes I want to pull my hair out. The flesh in me has fun preaching against the Catholics
and against the Jehovah's Witnesses and against the Jews and against the Mormons and against the
Seventh-day Adventists but if we're honest the soul in me the saved person mourns for those people.
The false preachers I can't do anything about but yeah you know one of the comments said hey
a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses are born into the religion and they've been brainwashed since
childhood. What child abuse to send someone to hell? That's child abuse to say hey I'm going to
convince you I'm going to convince you I'm convinced you so there's no hope for you so no matter
how many times you will knock on your doors so no matter how many times you hear the gospel of Jesus
Christ so no matter no matter how many times you hear the truth you're just going to say no thank
you and isn't that what we deal with all the time every time we go door knocking they're like I don't
have time I'm cooking I don't care I don't believe in your God I'm not religious I don't believe in
heaven I don't believe in hell I don't we hear it all that's painful right and then you have family
members who you want to lead to Christ and they fight with you and they disown you and they don't
want to talk to you your own siblings your own children I mean everybody could disown you just
away goes the fifth point I have for you is the reason all this happens is because we have the
vanity of carnal observation right and there in Ecclesiastes 8 verse 14 the Bible says there is
a vanity hey son pull that out of your mouth and let's not make that noise anymore thank you
in Ecclesiastes 8 verse 14 the Bible says there is a vanity which is done upon the earth that there
be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked again there be wicked men
to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteousness of the righteous sorry I said that
this also is vanity then I commendeth mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to
eat and to drink and to be merry for that shall abide with him of all his labor the with him of
his labor the days of his life which God giveth him under the sun so he's saying hey the vanity
upon the earth is there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked what
does it mean it says hey sometimes you're doing stuff righteously and you get punished like it
looks like you're the wicked uh case in point joe isn't that what his miserable comforter friend
said hey what did you do what kind of sin what kind of thing did you do in your life that god's
now judging you right and it says and there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the
work of righteousness hey this guy you ever met those guys that are lifers i had an uncle like
that it felt like he couldn't do anything wrong he passed away young but in his youth you know he'd
party hard he was irresponsible he was basically a big teenager i love my uncle when we're teenagers
because he was one of us you know we go and i remember one time we stayed there for three
months i was like yeah like 15 and my brother was like 13 and i remember one night my uncle was like
hey i got a call from work how naive were we you know of course he needs to take advantage of it
he got a call from work at like 10 o'clock in the evening he's like and i gotta go i gotta go meet
the bosses but i'll be back in a couple hours and we were young we never been left home alone like
we're in mexico we're like i don't know what okay that's fine and then one o'clock in the
morning comes there's no uncle no tío juan where's tío juan two o'clock in the morning
my brother and i like tío juan's not here three we're we're awake looking through the window i
mean you know when you're 14 15 years old you're just four o'clock in the morning five o'clock in
the morning there's no internet like there is today there's no social media there's no messenger
calling your parents is like a big hassle from mexico to the to the united states finally like
my brother tells me i don't remember that i must have been so traumatized i got in the car i don't
even know what car we were driving and i'm trying to drive somewhere and i'm even driving on the
wrong side of the road in mexico trying to we finally get a hold of my parents of course my
parents lose their their ever-living mind they're like you know juan what are you doing and my uncle
who's like a lifer he's like oh they're fine don't worry about it everything's good we're
gonna have a great time and of course he came and apologized and he took us to do a bunch of fun
stuff so we'd forget about it and we did right never looked like there was any consequences to
his actions everybody just kind of turned a blind eye they forgave him they gave him money they
gave him opportunity and then over over the period of his life he died young because he just drank
too much and party too much never took care of himself and just died he got diabetes and he was
like he was convinced he didn't have it because in his mind he just he just didn't have it and he
just ate how he wanted and lived how he wanted and life took him you know and i miss him because he
was a really fun guy but that's the consequences of life let me uh let me let me start closing
this thing out but uh you guys stay there in ecclesiastes but ecclesiastes 3 verse 22 the
bible says wherefore i perceive that there's nothing better than that a man should rejoice
in his works for that is his portion and for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him
and i think what solomon is saying here this is my personal opinion you can draw whatever you want
from this but i'm just saying is from a carnal perspective he's not saying go drink and be
married and everything he's saying hey keep your head down and just enjoy what god's given you
you know if you've got a job and you got money in your pocket and you got food in your stomach and
you got raiment then just keep doing that thing and enjoy it like don't don't overexceed yourself
don't be overzealous don't be envious of the wicked who cares what everybody's doing just keep
your head down do your own thing and it's a biblical concept right the bible says in the
new testament that we need to be quiet as men and just keep our heads down and just be student like
be diligent about our business jesus was like hey i'm about my father's business we just need
to be serious about the thing we're doing forget all the drama forget all the all the uh gossip
and just get to work right and back at guan verse 13 the bible says thou art pure uh thou
art of pure eyes that to behold evil speaking of god and says and can't not look on iniquity
wherefore looketh thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdeth thy tongue when the
wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he and this is like a question that someone's
asking but obviously that is the common theme of the bible also that people just question sometimes
why god allows these things to happen why is this going on but it's just because that's life
i mean the challenge with answering that question is that there is no answer because his ways are
higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts there is no answer completely
other than what the bible says because we don't know the whole picture you know if you've ever
been in a position of authority or leadership and most of the people here have whether you're you've
been only as a parent or you know with me I run a business I lead the church I lead my family
many times people will come in and give you an opinion and they don't have the whole picture
and by the time I you know sometimes I tell my staff I'm like guys I just need you to do what
I'm asking it's like one day when I have time I'll explain the purpose but you don't need to
understand the purpose of everything I'm asking you to do because I understand their side because
I've been on the other side of that float where you get a command or an order from the leadership
and you're like this just doesn't make any sense but remember you only have like you know you're
looking at like let's say we need to do something here that was important and the thing was maybe
we're going to revarnish this the the servant sometimes is only responsible for the phone
that's on here and the boss comes and he's like remove the phone from there and you're like the
phone's been there every wednesday and sunday when the pastor preaches if i remove the phone
the pastor's not going to have the phone but that's all you ever see is the phone and you
don't understand that you need to move the phone so that everything else can get taken care of
and so now you're fighting with them about the phone and the boss is like i don't need
you to fight me about where the position of the phone is i just need you to move the phone
right there's a great book that my dad i've never read it but he's because he explained it but
it's called uh flatland and the book talks about the fact that it's the perspective of a of a two
of a one-dimensional like letter or shape living in a two-dimensional world and so like the shape
only has one dimension it's flat so it only sees the flat dimension so then another square comes
into scene but it's a two-dimensional square and he's freaked out because he's never seen a square
that is like this and like this because he doesn't understand he has no ability to look up all he
sees is a shadow so he doesn't recognize it because they don't look the same that's how
sometimes we treat the authority of God we are that one dimensional square God comes in and he's
this big shadow and he he's got three dimensions four dimensions he's ever dimensional and we're
trying to be and God says hey I need you to just do these things and you're like but but why God
I don't understand it and he's like I don't need you to understand I just need you to do it right
we need more people to be like yes sir no sir yes ma'am no ma'am you know when you go to the
army it's not like you know I was making I was talking to brother James and we were making fun
about how people don't like authority and you know when you go to the military we need a little bit
more of like you know when you go to the military it's not a volunteer thing it's a authority thing
right and the military you've seen have you ever seen those videos where they get on you maggot
you're nothing you have no mother no father no brother no sister you have nothing in this world
you have no god i am your god i am your dad i am your mom i'm everything to you right because
you are now property of the united states of america you are nothing you know nothing you
own nothing you say nothing i own you now i mean that's an extreme case but isn't that how it is
with god like sometimes we just need and what is the the guy screaming in his face expect as the
answer sir yes sir but here we are guys god doesn't even do it like that he's just like hey i just
need you to do this and you're like why why do i need to do that or can i do it but can i do it
this way that's the other response i hate right hey can you do this for me this way you know just
do a b c and d and they're like okay but can i do a b and z no i said a b c and d as a matter of
fact you know let me not get distracted let's go to the last point the last point is the limits
of human understanding and so it goes back to the point i'm making here but you know the reason
that we have this this there's vanity in this carnal observation is because we only look from
that one dimension the only way we have access to these these eternal dimensions and only snippets
of it is the bible we're one dimensional in god's eyes right god doesn't he his ways are i mean even
the angels are above us even though we're the greater creation the creation that he he loves
the angels have more power they they see things they're in a different realm than we are we just
don't understand it go to verse 16 to close this thing out so i don't go over in verse 16 the bible
says when i applied mine heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth
for also there is that neither day nor night see it sleep with his eyes then i beheld all the work
of god that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun because though a man labor
to seek it out yet he shall not find it ye further though a man a wise man think to know it yet
shall he not be able to find it you know the bible tells us it's unsearchable right and for the sake
of time just turn to job 36 and i'm just actually just going to close out with this job i had a few
other verses but i don't want to i don't want to go over time but in job 38 we get this vision
perfectly you know job 38 everybody had their chance to speak notice god's timing he let
everybody say their peace he's like i'm just gonna let these guys air it out hot air in all these
balloons let it all out even job right and then god comes in in verse one of job 38 he says
then the lord answered job out of the world went and said who is that darkeneth counsel by words
without knowledge gird up now thy loins like a man for i will demand of thee and answer thou me
where was thou when i laid the foundations of the earth declare it if thou has understanding who
hath laid the measure thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it whereupon are
the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner of stone thereof and then we were continued
through 37 i mean 38 and all the way through 39 up to the first part of 40 this is just like a i
mean he beats up joe he says this question after question is like do you know how to do who does
this and who controls leviathan who controls the stars and who does this you know it's like this
just kind of a sarcastic facetious rhetorical questions you know people don't like i hate that
right when people ask you a question they already know the answer to but god knows the answers to
all these questions what he's doing is he's like all right let's figure this thing out right people
hate that but the reality sometimes they need to put in their place go to joe 40 verse 1 go to joe
40 verse 1 he closes out he says moreover the lord answered jobin said shall he that contendeth
with the almighty instruct him he that reproveth god let him answer it god's like hey bring it
because we can't right and i mean so the reality of life is that we don't know why god does
anything and the reason i named it because judgment delays men rebel is because we just
need to be mindful of the fact that these things are going to happen the world is going to wax
worse and worse and even with all this knowledge and even showing up to church three times a week
and reading our bibles the bible says that if it were possible we would be deceived why do you need
to be in church now more than ever because deception is at an all-time high i mean people
are lying to themselves about everything one of the things i've started to just really kind of
taper back is these videos you know when you're on social media you're following different things
and then all these videos pop up 25 ways i cured cancer whoa wait a second 10 ways your doctor
doesn't know what he's doing and then on the opposite side is 25 ways these people don't know
how they're curing cancer and 10 ways your doctor knows everything and it's like which one is it
because everybody's deceiving everybody how about we just stick to the word of god and then just
actually look for truth and proof in life right ecclesiastes a is a great chapter because it just
tells us hey time and judgment is the thing we're running out of time and there's always a judgment
so get the job done that's why we do soul winning that's why we're going to keep pushing
that's why next year will be better than this year doesn't matter the challenges the challenges
are going to come our goal is to push through the challenges and continue to just do the work that
the lord has asked us to do which is bear much fruit let's close in a word of prayer heavenly
father lord thank you so much for today thank you for your blessings lord thank you for the
book of eclesiastes thank you for eclesiastes 8 lord and help us to just discern time and judgment
not only be aware that there's a time for everything but also to judge properly for us to
discern not only the judgment that we are executing out you know where we're judging things but also
know that there's a judgment coming we're being judged we're being observed we're being held
accountable lord and the most important thing is that we should know that we need to be held
accountable by you and so we love you lord we submit to you we want to obey and reduce the
questions and just do as you say and help us to do that thank you for those that are here on a
wednesday thank you for the nice weather help us have a wonderful week in jesus name we pray amen
what uh him are we singing 495 turn your emails over to page 495 495 help me out i'm getting a
little cotton mouth here when we all get to heaven amen