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Good afternoon everybody and welcome to steadfast baptist church
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will go ahead and get started
And for tonight's first song once you find a hymnal find song number 20
Song number two zero
When I see the blood
Song number 20 when I see the blood everybody's singing out together on the first
Redeemer died on the cross died for the sinner
All
I
Is
I
Judgment is coming all will be there
Let jesus
Last
Passion
Jesus has power jesus is true
All who believe are saved from the storm
Oh
Is
Great singing everybody. Let's open up the service with a word of prayer
Lord we love you. We just thank you again for this awesome church
We thank you again for the people in it and thank you for allowing us to gather here and sing unto you
We just ask that you bless this church and fill it with your spirit and bless this service and it's in jesus name
We ask it. Amen
All right for our next song. Let's go to song number 110
Song number 110
All the way my savior leads me song number 110 everybody's singing out on the first
Way my savior leads me what am I to ask beside?
Can I doubt his tender mercy?
Has been my god
Here by faith in him to dwell
For I know what air before me jesus do with all things well
For I know what air before me
All the way my savior leads me cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me
And my soul
The rock before me lo a spring of joy I see
Lo a spring of joy I see all the way
Oh the fullness of his love perfect rest to me is promised
In my father's house
When my spirit clothed him mortal wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way
Through endless ages Jesus led me all the way
Great singing everybody
Thanks for coming to steadfast baptist church
If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front. We have our bible memory passage
We've been working on psalm 59 on the inside service so winning times and our church stats
Um, please make sure you're submitting your church. So winning statistics to your soul winning
Tribe captains and please just include
You and your soul winning partner and just what um soul winning totals that you have
we've been trying to keep some detailed statistics on that and
i'm planning on and hoping maybe towards the end of the year we can
Kind of put that together and even provide that back to you guys just to give you some kind of feedback of
What the soul winning look like, um as a church and what try what different tribes are doing and what different individuals and so?
I encourage you to participate in that also on the right. We have a list of our expecting ladies. We have upcoming events
so this
Uh, thursday and friday is our mighty men's conference
I pretty much just sent a generic email out to just kind of the whole church
So, um, if you're just a single lady or not going just ignore that email just delete it's not a big deal
but uh
I just want to put it out there because a lot of people said they weren't they didn't sign up
And they were still potentially wanting to go to the friday night service just to hear pastor a minute speak
And I totally understand and so if that's you you are more than welcome
Of course, i'll also be preaching there tomorrow night as well
And so if you'd like to come out for either just the services or just one night or whatever
Um, you are more than welcome. It looks like we might have room for another one or two spaces, too
So even if you're last minute and you'd like to participate
Um, you can do so it does look like it's going to be pretty hot out there
So, please, uh, please just keep that in mind
also
We are having a carpool opportunity. So if you want to go around 8 30 in the morning 9 o'clock in the morning
We'll be just gathering here
Uh at the church building and then carpooling down, but if you don't really live over here
It doesn't necessarily make sense. You can obviously just drive, uh yourself
Um, and uh, if you'd like to you can be a part of that but it's pretty much if you show up
You're gonna you're gonna go i'm not gonna have a sign-up sheet for the carpooling
So if you show up and you're here
Then you can go with us. Otherwise, you're just gonna have to mosey on down yourself, but uh,
We'll be returning
um
Saturday
Mid-morning, we'll probably leave around by 10 30 11. So we should get back around 12 12 30 here at the building on saturday
Just so you have an idea so we leave around
thursday
Morning around 8 39 get back around 12 30 or so on saturday
If you're planning on carpooling from here, otherwise, you're more than welcome to just meet us at the location
I should have put all of those details in the email there for you. So if you would like to
Reference that that'll be your best bet
That's pretty much
All I have to say about the conference
But if you do have any questions
Or or you want to ask me something about that
This is probably going to be the last year we go to this specific spot because i'm thinking about doing something different next year
and so
If you are going out there
Enjoy the activities that we have. I really like the pool volleyball. That's a lot of fun and stuff like that. So
But whatever activities you really enjoy
Please please do that and we're still going to have our competition
I'm trying to spice it up this year add in some luck skill accuracy and all in all in between so
Um, i'm kind of excited about our competition and sunny was our last year's winner
So we'll see how he can fare this year. All right
Also august 24th is baby shower for a couple ladies
September 1st is going to be the ordination
of brother salvador alvarez
And that's going to be a pure words baptist church. And so we're going to be letting that church go
It's still going to be pure words baptist church, but it's just no longer i'm going to be the pastor there
I'll just i'll be handing it off to brother salvador officially and so he'll be their their pastor
And i'll only be pastoring steadfast baptist church at that point. And so please do pray for them pray for that church
one other thing this kind of one thing got kind of bumped up and so I want to announce it but
Down at pure words, um pastor anderson is actually going to be going out there and preaching on a friday night
And it's going to be next friday night. It's august 23rd
So I just wanted to throw that out there. It's going to be their normal service time like 7 p.m
But obviously that's kind of back-to-back weekends as well
But so I don't know if anybody can make it but I just want to at least throw it out there
Just so people would be aware
But august 23rd pastor anderson is going to be going out there preaching for pure words baptist church
Um in lieu of their thursday service, they'll have just a friday service at 7 p.m
And so that's exciting for them and then i'll be going down there and preaching on september 1st
And so i'm excited to go down there and for brother alvarez to be ordained
Please be in prayer for him. Also september 8th is dr
Phil stringer is going to be preaching for us both services sunday morning and sunday evening
So I would highly encourage you to participate in both those services october 4th of the 6th is our heritage of the lord conference
And so we've had this
uh one one time in the past it was kind of the alternate year of an fbbf conference and we're still having some
Guest preachers pastor anderson is also going to be coming to preach for us here
Pastor bruce mejia is going to also be coming out and preaching for us
Saturday we're going to have our
spelling bee
Like we've had for the kids in the morning
There's also some other activities that we have planned for the weekend
so
hopefully I can
Get that maybe just in the bulletin just a loose schedule of what those activities and those events are going to look like we've been
Trying to get all those things confirmed before we put out our official schedule and everything like that
but I think we pretty much have our schedule booked and ready to go so
Um also down below is the baby shower details on the back is our prayer list
We'll just skip down to the announcement for the holdins first. Congratulations to the holdins on the birth of charlotte kate
She was born on the 10th
at uh, she was six pounds 20 and a quarter inches long. So congratulations to the holdins
And then i'll quickly go through our prayer list, um, miss
Naim we've been praying for her grandmother. We've been continuing to pray for her. We've been praying for also the carlson's mother
We've been praying for miss miller
Her friend and mom as well friend's mom. I'm sorry friend. It's mom and friend also. Miss, uh, brother scott's
Nephew, we've been praying for um, miss garcia's daughter who's expecting that's exciting for them
We've also been praying for brother sam for his fiance
We've been praying for brother gooseman for his mother's salvation and also he'd put in there. Um, dr. Gomez's health
I know that he's battling some health issues
Also, we were praying for the nickels for work and then we were praying for the weather's friend whose daughter is in the icu
So several health, uh prayer requests to be in prayer for throughout the week
And so we'll go ahead and say a quick prayer as a church family now
Thank you heavenly father so much for this church service and for this opportunity
To be here. I pray that you would just comfort those
That are struggling with health or with sickness that are not able to be here
I pray those that you can give a speedy recovery to that you would just heal them
Those who are struggling with long-term issues that you could just give them a miracle and give them comfort and peace during this
Difficulty I pray that you'd also just give favor under a church family that needs work or or needs
Some other special request. I pray that you would just continue to use our mighty men's conference this weekend
To glorify you and for us to be renewed and I pray that you would also just bless our upcoming ordinations
And the transitions for all of our church plants
I pray that you would just bless those churches greatly and that they could be used to
Give more honor and glory to you and in jesus name we pray. Amen
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our psalm of the week psalm 148
It's in our special handout psalm 148
All right, that was psalm 148 psalm chapter 148
Those that sing so well sing it out real loud on the first
Praise ye the lord
From the heavens
Praise him
In the heights
Praise ye him
All his angels
Praise ye him
All his hosts
Praise ye him
Sun and moon
Praise him
All ye stars of light
Praise him
All ye stars of light
Praise him
Ye heavens of heavens
And ye waters
That be above
The heavens
Let them praise the name of
The lord
For he commanded
And they were
Created
He hath
Also established
Them
Forever
And ever
He hath made
A decree
Which shall
Not pass
Praise the lord
From the earth
He
Dragons and all
Deeds fire and hail
Snow and vapor
Stormy wind
Fulfilling his
Wood mountains
And all
Hail's
Fruitful trees
And all
Cedar trees
And all
Cattle creeping things
And flying
Fowl wings
Of the earth
And all people
Princes and all
Judges of the earth
Woke young men
Men
Made his old men
And children
Let them praise the name
Of the
Lord
For his
Name alone
Is excellent
His glory
Is above
The earth
In heaven
He also
Exalted
The
Lord
Of his people
The praise
Of all his saints
Even of the
Children of Israel
Of people
Here unto
Him
Praise
The Lord
Great singing everybody.
Now as the offering plates are being passed around,
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes
chapter number two.
That's the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter number two.
Thank you.
Ecclesiastes chapter number two.
The Bible reads,
I said in mine heart, go to now.
I will prove thee with mirth.
Therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity.
I said of laughter, it is mad.
And of mirth, what doeth it?
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine,
yet acquainted mine heart with wisdom
and to lay hold on folly
so I might see what was that good
for the sons of men
which they should do unto the heaven
all the days of their life.
I made me great works.
I builded me houses.
I planted me vineyards.
I made me gardens and orchards
and I planted trees in them
of all kinds of fruits.
I made me pools of water
therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees.
I got me servants and maidservants
and had servants born in my house.
Also I had great possessions
of great and small cattle
above all that were in Jerusalem before me.
I gathered me also silver and gold
and the peculiar treasure of kings
and of the provinces.
I got me men singers and woman singers
and the delights of the sons of men
as musical instruments
and that of all sorts.
So I was great and increased more
than all that were before me
in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom
remained with me.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired
I kept not from them. I withheld not
my heart from any joy
for my heart rejoiced in all my labor
and this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands
had wrought and on the labor
that I had labored to do.
And behold, all that was
vanity and vexation of spirit
and there was no prophet under the sun
and I turned myself to behold wisdom
and madness and folly.
For what can the man do that cometh
after the king even that which
hath already
even that which hath been already
done. Then I saw that wisdom
excel with folly as far as light
excel with darkness. The wise man's
eyes are in his head but the fool
walketh in darkness and I myself
perceiveth also that one
event happeneth to them all.
Then said I in my heart as it happeneth
so it happeneth even to me and
why was I then more wise.
Then I said in my heart
that this also is vanity
for there is no remembrance of the wise
more than of the fool
forever. Seeing that which
now is in the days to come
shall all be forgotten. And how diet
the wise man as the fool.
Therefore I hated life because the work
that is wrought under the sun is grievous
unto me. For all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. Yea
I hated all my labor which I had taken
under the sun because I should leave it
unto the man that shall be after
me. And who knoweth whether he shall
be a wise man or a fool.
Yet shall he have rule over all my labor
wherein I have labored and wherein
I have showed myself wise
under the sun. This also is vanity.
Therefore I went about
to cause my heart to despair
of all the labor which I took under the
sun. For there is a man
whose labor is in wisdom and
in knowledge and in equity. Yet to a
man that hath not labored therein
shall he leave it for his possession
for his portion. This also is
vanity and a great evil. For what
hath man of all his labor and of the
vexation of his heart wherein he hath
labored under the sun. For all his days
are sorrows and his travail
grief. Yea his heart taketh not
rest in the night. There is also
this is also vanity.
There is nothing better for a man than
that he should eat and drink and that
he should make his soul enjoy good
and his labor. This also
I saw that it was from the hand of God.
For who can eat or who can
else or who else can
hasten hereunto more than I.
For God giveth to a man
that is good in his sight wisdom
and knowledge and joy. But to the sinner
he giveth travail to gather
and to heap up that he may give to him
that is good before God.
This also is vanity and vexation
of spirit. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for
Ecclesiastes chapter number 2, Lord.
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley
with your spirit. Fill him with your spirit
and help him to preach your word unto us
and just help us to be receptive to that
and to make changes in our lives.
Praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
We are continuing with the same
thought really of chapter number 1.
And really Ecclesiastes is
very repetitive style book
and the main
concepts. But as you get a little bit further in
it brings up some different subjects here.
In chapter 1
it is just really clear
everything is vanity. And that was
the main emphasis of chapter number 1
is that from a high level
from a big picture, everything is
vanity from an eternal perspective
in this life. And the only things
that really matter are things that have
some level of eternal value.
We of course
looked at chapter 12 already and the
conclusion of the matter is to fear God
and to keep His commandments. That's
really the essence of the
life that we have. Why? Because
you can't accomplish everything
that needs to be accomplished.
You can't enjoy everything that needs to be
enjoyed. You can't do all the work
that you need to do. And ultimately
all the works are going to be destroyed,
burn up, forgotten. And so
it really doesn't exactly matter
all the things that you accomplish.
It's more important how
you accomplish them. And that
while you're accomplishing them, you're doing it
with the fear of God. You're doing it
with all of Thy might. That you're
doing it to please the Lord.
You know, when we think about certain
people in the Bible
there is a poor widow woman
who cast in two mites
and Jesus Christ is looking
at her and contrasting
her with many rich people who
had given a lot more money
than she had. But when Jesus
Christ commented on the situation
He said that she had given
more than everyone else
because they were casting in
of their abundance and she had cast
in all her living, as He describes it.
And so it doesn't really even
matter so much
how many possessions you have,
how much money you have.
It doesn't even necessarily matter
the quantity of the money that you give
or the things that you're doing as far
as quantity sometimes.
It matters based on the heart
of the issue. And God, the way He
judges things are much different
than the way that we judge things.
And so we could look at our life,
we could look at our plight in life
or the things that we have
or our situation and feel as if
well, I don't really have
much or I don't have
that much worth. But the reality
is little is much
when God is in it. And the reality is
He that is faithful in that which is least
is also faithful in that which is much.
And in many cases
those who have been
diligent and those who have
been faithful and good stewards of the
little that God has entrusted them
are going to have great riches
and great rewards in heaven.
And many people that had
great abundance and wealth and treasure
and pleasure on this earth
are going to have very little
in heaven. And I put
that in the context of saved people, of course.
We understand those who are not saved
doesn't matter at all. I mean you're going to be
burning in hell for all of eternity. We're not even
talking about you because you don't matter.
But those who are saved
those who are Christian in this life
many times we think
that we want to have our cake and eat it too.
We want to be saved and a Christian
and serving God. But then we also want
all the riches and the lust
of this world and the pleasures
of this life. But in many cases
that's just vanity.
And that's what chapter 1 is really
emphasizing. And I want to reiterate
that again because as we get into chapter 2
it's not really a different
message. All the author is
really doing is getting kind of in the nitty-gritty
and the details of what
that really looks like and how he came
to this conclusion that these
things are ultimately
vanity. Verse 1 it says,
I said in mine heart, go to now. I
prove thee with mirth. Therefore
enjoy pleasure and behold
this also is vanity.
So he had already described
to us that everything was vanity.
In chapter 2 he makes
a little bit of a transition here where
he's saying I wanted to test
myself. That's what it means to prove
is to test. He wanted to test
himself with mirth.
Mirth is a little bit older word. We don't
use it as often. But it refers to
joy, pleasure, or happiness.
So when we think about
joy, pleasure, happiness
he's just basically saying
I wanted to enjoy everything that I could
possibly enjoy and I wanted to
test myself and
basically try to make myself as happy
as possible and he ultimately
realized this is vanity. Verse 2, I said
of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doeth
it? So he's saying
I tried to just have as much
fun as I could, laugh
as much as possible, enjoy
as much as possible,
and he said, man it's
mad. Laughter is mad.
It's just crazy. It's crazy
and the reality is you
can't really laugh
that much.
Laughter is kind of an interesting
thing and I feel like
as a society and as a culture
most Americans are trying
to kind of hit this laugh button
as much as possible
and so we have just all
these different ways to try
to laugh through TV shows,
movies,
jokes,
comedy shows,
but once you've kind of
heard a joke or
you've kind of seen a show,
it loses its luster. You know that
first time that something is really
unique and you kind of experience it, it can be really
funny. A joke for the first time
you hear it, it's kind of the best
that you're ever going to experience it.
It's usually not as funny the second time
and then maybe the third time
it's not necessarily as funny either.
It kind of starts to wane in its
enjoyment factor and it eventually
gets to a point where it's just like, yeah I've heard that.
Move on. And for a lot
of comedians the internet has
really ruined their profession
because for most comedians, they
had one particular comedy sketch
and they would just go tour all
over the world and they just deliver
the exact same jokes to a new
city and then a new city and then a new city
but because of the internet and online
well, if it ever gets online
well now they can never tell that comedy sketch again.
And you'll notice that most comedians
they can't even really perform on a regular
basis. It takes months
or years to even prepare
just a 40 or 50 minute
special where they're going to tell a bunch of jokes
and even in that 40 and 50 minutes
you know, parts of it aren't even
that funny. Even for the best
comedians of all time with the best
comedy sketches of all time, even
that whole sketch isn't necessarily even that
funny. But think about how much effort
and energy a comedian has to
go through. I mean you might have to go through six months
or a year just to get to the point
where it can make you laugh for 30 minutes or 40
minutes. But as soon as it's
over, as soon as you're done laughing, as soon
as you've gotten over the joke, it's
over. And there's no more
to it. You know, you watch that comedy
show, you watch that movie, someone
tells you some kind of a joke. There's
only so much of that that can
be passed out and it's very fleeting.
It's just over in just a short
period of time. And for Solomon
he's saying, I was just trying to enjoy
things as much as possible and just laugh
and have a good time. But you know
it eventually runs out.
It eventually
just, and it becomes even dull to a
point where people just are not that into
it anymore. And
you know, even within comedy
you'll kind of notice
if you kind of get this itch of like
I just want to watch as much comedy as possible
or watch things that are funny
as much as possible, you'll run out
very quickly. And then what you have
to do is you have to start like watching
other style or forms of comedy.
And they're really just not that funny.
And for most comedians
they're not even that funny. So really they just
tell dirty jokes or filthy jokes
and then it just starts becoming weird
and crazy and it's not even funny
anymore. And so you know
it's just kind of a bad train
that people get on where
they're trying to be funny and
get joy and laughter as much as possible
but it ends up just destroying them.
They can't even be funny anymore.
It's really taxing. I mean even
individuals like Dave Chappelle
which there's a lot of weird things that are going on with him
but he ended up kind of just like running
away from his entire show
and part of the reason according to him was just the
pressure. It was just the pressure to
constantly be funny and constantly
perform. And you know being
funny is a very difficult thing. It's not
something that's very easy. It takes a lot of effort
energy, a lot of skill
and for some people you know
you can be funny one moment and then just not funny again
later. And for this
he's just basically bringing up that Solomon
is just seeking this out but
at the end of the day it's
kind of crazy and
what does it do? Notice that in
verse 2. What doeth it?
If I go and I just laugh
my head off and I just have a good time
or I watch something that's just so much fun
as soon as it's over it's like
well what did I accomplish though?
What was the benefit? Did I get
some kind of a benefit? Did it make me a better
person? You know a lot of times
comedy or things that are funny
are inappropriate
because the human response
to something that's very uncomfortable
one of the responses is sometimes
the laugh. And it's not
because it's not even necessarily even if
it's funny it's just you feel uncomfortable
and it's just a natural
reaction to sometimes just kind of laugh or
blurt out or giggle or something when
you feel uncomfortable. You know try going
to the Philippines and just talking
to people in the Philippines.
You go out soul winning you just run up to
a few you know young ladies
they'll just start giggling uncontrollably
and you're just thinking like why?
Like I didn't even say anything funny it's just like
hey my name's Jonathan I'm from America
and they're just like hee hee hee hee hee
hee hee hee hee hee hee
you're like what? You're like thinking
like is there something on me? Like what's
going on? And it's just they're just uncomfortable.
They've never been around
America maybe or they haven't seen one in a while
or whatever and they just feel
so they just laugh.
I don't think it's the case over there as much but like
in America you know in junior high
high school maybe in college
a little bit but if
a bunch of girls were
you know in a group and a
young guy comes over that's attractive and that they
like and starts talking to them sometimes they'll giggle
or laugh and it's just because they're uncomfortable
they're nervous and because
of their nerves because of that stress factor
they end up laughing.
Another reason why people laugh according
to the Bible is when you're making fun of someone
it's at someone's expense.
Now this is the typical laughter that you see
in the Bible because God's the one laughing
and it's God laughing and
mocking idiots and fools
and the heathen and those
who rejected him. The Bible has
it very clear that God's going to laugh at their
calamity and that God's going to mock
when their fear cometh and God
is going to mock the prophets
of Baal and he's constantly laughing
at the prideful and the arrogant because
it's just kind of funny to him.
He's just thinking like you're just so puny
and there's no way you
can defeat me or there's no way you
can thwart my plans
but you think you can and he just finds
them funny. He just finds them funny because
of how pathetic they are and how
silly they are and he
also kind of mocks them in
their own misery and in their own woe.
This is what we call in today's world
slapstick comedy and
slapstick comedy is this idea of
watching people literally hurt
themselves and then finding it
funny. There was a popular
group that did this for a while. It's called like Jackass
or something. Who knows what I'm talking about?
And this group
was basically just hurting
themselves to get laughs
but did you notice where it went?
If anybody even followed that
or even kind of paid attention, at first
they were just doing kind of like weird stuff
like pushing each other around in shopping
carts and just kind of tipping each other
over, falling in bushes and everything like
that but then it just gets old.
You know eventually the pushing in the shopping
carts kind of gets old so then they kind of start
escalating it. You know and they
rent cars and then like they destroy
them and return them destroyed or they
dress funny but then it's just like that's
not cool anymore so then they start getting like
tattoos on their body that are weird
and then they start shooting themselves
with guns. So I think in
one, I don't know if it was a movie
or an episode, I don't know but I remember seeing
one of them got shot with a
bean bag gun
like the police would have in like a
riot thing and it just like
it hurt him. I think
that most of the stars now have like
permanent and serious bodily
damage from all the stupid
stunts and the horrible things that they
did. They did just like
reprobate type activities to themselves.
What? It's like what it's literally saying
here. I said of laughter it is mad.
In the chasing of the
high of getting more laughter
and more fame it's like they couldn't just
stop at doing some really dumb stuff.
They just had to keep escalating
it and keep getting weirder
and weirder and more reprobate
and more harmful and
it just gets to a point where people
literally get hurt. Permanently damaged
permanently suffering
all kinds of just weird
reprobate things.
I'm pretty sure the Steve-O
who is one of the characters on there
like got pedophilia
tattooed on his body.
And just the most weird
grotesque things. I mean these people
just basically just kind of went after Satan
as it were just to get
laughs. Just to become funny.
Just to become famous and really
that's where it ends. What does it
do with it? It destroys
you. Don't just pursue
laughter. Don't just pursue
joy. Don't just say like well
I just have to laugh
so I'm just going to watch a movie.
I don't even care if it's godly.
I don't care if it's something I should watch.
I just want to put something on just because
I need to laugh and I'm going to hit the laugh button.
And then you know well
that didn't do it for me. I got to do it again.
And then I got to do it again. It's almost like an
eating disorder. It's basically the same
thing where someone can't control
themselves in eating where they just
over indulge in laughter
and joy and pleasure
and they just have to watch TV.
I mean many people in America are
just addicted to television.
And you know television's
kind of an older technology now.
It's just like YouTube or something right. Now
people are just at least addicted to consuming
something. Whether that be TikTok videos
YouTube videos
even old fashioned television.
But it's almost like people
in general all of us
struggle with this but
some people are just grossly addicted
to watching something.
And you know now
because of the way the internet works
most social media platforms and most
networks now you just like have this
like scrolling thing right.
And whatever it's not even
a program thing where you know what's coming up.
It could be literally anything.
It could be the most disgusting thing
you've ever seen. It could be a drag queen.
I mean you could do this and it'd be a drag queen.
You could do this and it'd just be
some whore. You do this it could be
drugs. You do this it could be just someone
hurting themselves. You could do this it could be a Catholic
preaching a false gospel. I mean you basically
you're just basically like you know playing
Russian roulette with your
soul and just like what
what's on the next agenda. What am I going to have
next. I mean it's like
going to a Chinese buffet and
just you know closing your eyes and just saying
put stuff in my mouth.
That's crazy.
OK. Number one sorry
if you like Chinese buffets. OK.
But personally I probably wouldn't
even anything there let alone
if they were just like hey
we're going to you're going to close your eyes open
your mouth and we're just going to find something
on the buffet and just going to put it in
there. You know that's
almost more reasonable than what people
do on social media all day.
And they're just so addict. I mean people are
just so addicted. Why. Because they just
need joy and
studies have shown that you know in your brain
you spike a little bit
of joy in your brain
from watching these things.
Why do you think they're like 10 seconds
or 15 seconds or 40 seconds
or like max a minute. It's like
trained ourselves like little
monkeys to just hit like a
dopamine button.
You know I think they've even done experiments like this
where with animals they have like a little
button or something they can press and it just like gives
them like a high or gives them like
dopamine or gives them food or something
and the animals will sit there and just press the
button until it breaks.
And you know it seems like Americans
and it seems like people in the world today are
just trying to hit the dopamine button as much
as possible. And now
they can't even do something like just like
read a book
or sit in church for an hour or
do just sit and talk
to somebody even just the
head time. And look I catch myself doing it too
because I'm really busy so sometimes
I try to multitask and I'm trying to do a lot of
things at once but it's not very healthy
it's not a good habit and
we should learn to still be able to kind of like
have a conversation with people
and really just think about like
what is our life? What are we doing?
Are we just trying to get
highs? You know games and gaming
is really really
addictive right now
and people are just obsessed
with playing games and you know
I get it because it's fun
it's not like
what we're talking about is something that
you don't like it's something that you do like
of course the Chinese buffet was something gross
but I'm just saying like you know
when we're talking about joy and mirth
and this we're talking about
highly entertaining things
there's a reason why just almost all
of us have a problem in this area
because it's fun because it's
enjoyable you know consuming
media consuming laughter consuming
jokes consuming these things
we have to be careful because ultimately
at the end of the day we ask this question
what doeth it and the answer is nothing
you know
our society is becoming
like a just a
participation society
I'm sorry not a participation
what's the word I'm thinking of
spectator just like a spectator society
thank you we're not really participating
we're just spectating we're just watching
other people live their lives and
with AI it could get to the point
where we're not even watching other people live their lives
we're watching a robot tell
us how to live our lives
and you think that that's funny
I saw on YouTube the other
day it was like recommending
me songs and it said
this song was generated by
AI so it was
like not even a real song
it was just AI just making new
songs and just like hey you want to listen to this
AI song and
in many cases it's not even bad
you're just thinking like wow
like what's going to happen when they have like AI
TV or AI
because we as people struggle
to necessarily keep coming up with content
but the machine
it may be able to just pump out stuff forever
and maybe it's going to even get to a point
where you can even tell it
what you want
it's like hey I want a movie
about this time and it just starts making a movie
for you and then all of a sudden goes the road
you're like I don't like how it went that way
go back and redo it and then it just starts going again
and just telling a whole new story
because we pretty much just like to consume new things
I mean it's going to get dangerous folks
I think technology is only
going to get more enjoyable
with more options and more fun
and it's a
dangerous road
apps have become extremely addicting
especially with in app purchases
where people just get wrapped
in these role playing games
where they're
I don't even know all the different options anymore
because I don't really do this anymore
I can't have games on my phone
because I'm addicted to them
but there's so many options
with all these games
you're building a farm, you're building a city
you're building
I don't know what else you're building
you're probably building anything
or you're fighting a war
you've got to get armor
and then you've got to get more men
or you've got to get a cooler car
hey you've got to
grill these crops
and then they'll say like wait five minutes
or pay five cents
and you can fast forward
and people are like oh man I want to wait five minutes
and they're like pay five cents
and then it's like get this upgrade
oh you can pay another dollar
and we'll give you unlimited updates
uploads for the day or something
and it's like this is how these games work
people are just getting sucked into these things
that are professional time wasters
but again it's not like it's not fun
maybe you are enjoying it
but what doeth it?
what does it profit?
I saw an advertisement recently
and it was like
playing solitaire
and you win money
and I was like what in the world
it was like you play solitaire
I didn't understand it
but it was like some ad
and it just said like if you
if you win in the solitaire game
or you solve it quickly
or something you'll get like a hundred dollars
and this person is like I'm just
making hundreds of dollars an hour
just playing solitaire man
I'm just like there has got to be a sucker
out there that's just like I love solitaire
like I'm going to quit my job
and I'm just going to make money playing solitaire
because I'm really good at solitaire
you know it's just this kind of stuff
is endless
but you know it's a scam
I'm sure that no one is really making money on that
why would they advertise that?
like why are they going to let people play games to make money
there's something fishy there
I don't know how it works
because obviously that's not legitimate
but hey if you can make ten thousand dollars a week playing solitaire
go for it I'm not mad at you alright
but you have to ask yourself
this question you know like
how much time am I devoting to laughter
and mirth because
at the end of the day it doesn't really benefit much
and we probably need to make sure
that we're kind of keeping
that appetite
where it needs to be
hey we can have a little bit of fun
we should have a little bit of laughter
I'm not against these things but at the end of the day
we have to realize that it is vanity
and we don't want to just waste our whole lives
just chasing mirth
it seems like the older generation
has this idea of
and then just chase mirth for the rest of my life
and really I don't see why
there's ever a reason to just chase mirth
and joy and laughter
you know as long as you got breath in your lungs
we should be trying to still get people saved
and going to church and caring about our children
and our grandchildren and the things of God
you know there's a time for mirth
there's a time for joy
but you know we need to keep that
limited so as we don't just go down
a crazy train and become
like the jackass guys
look at verse number 3 it says
now he says here that he's
acquainting his heart with wine
I believe that
you know he's really talking about
alcohol here
based on the idea that he says
lay hold on folly
so you know based on this
context he already kind of brings up
riches and wealth in a lot of other places
so I don't think he's just only focusing
on just wealth
but I think he's talking about
becoming drunk and becoming
addicted to alcohol which a lot of people do
and that's why he says to lay hold
on folly it's stupid to drink
a lot of alcohol it's stupid to become drunk
but a lot of people just
really enjoy it and that's kind of
like all they seek after
that's all they want to do I mean there's so many
establishments today that are
evolving around
or revolving around drunkenness
specifically or drinking specifically
how many bars and sports
clubs and places
and establishments are designed
specifically for adults to go and just
drink alcohol and
a lot of people just do this
almost every day if not
regularly and even on the weekends
as their main hobby
their main hobby and their main idea is to
drink and I've worked with people like
this I've known people like this
where just like every second
they're just counting down the clock until
they can go start drinking it's just like
man I can't wait until work's over
so I can go straight to happy hour
or go straight to the bar
I mean there's a reason why there's a happy hour from 4 to 6
it's because people they were working
and they can't drink on the job
they would if they could but they just
they're just so itching to get a drink
that as soon as the clock
strikes 4 I mean or 5
they're headed straight to the bar
straight to get a beer
or drink some wine or drink some
liquor and they just can't wait
to just start drinking again and
Solomon's saying hey I gave myself
hey I tried it
I wanted to see what it was like
you know what does this do for me
but you know what it still doesn't
benefit it doesn't benefit
it's stupid it's foolishness
verse 4
I gave me great works I built me houses
I planted me vineyards
I gave me gardens and orchards
and I planted trees in them
of all kinds of fruits
I made me pools of water
water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees
I got me servants and maidens
and had servants born in my house
also I had great possessions of great and small cattle
above all that were in Jerusalem
before me
I gathered me also silver and gold
so he's just saying like
everything you could ever want to do
Solomon just did
I mean Solomon is building
not just a house, houses
Solomon has multiple estates
multiple houses
multiple vineyards
he has gardens and orchards
and I planted trees in them
notice this of all kinds of fruits
so Solomon gets to eat every
exotic fruit I mean he's eating
the oranges and the apples and the grapes
and the watermelons
and the cantaloupes
and even all the vegetables
the green beans and the tomatoes
I mean he's basically just
he's got it all
he's got all the different kinds of wines
and he's got all the kinds of different fruits
and he's got all the different things you could possibly want
not even just food
but even just beautiful flowers
beautiful gardens
beautiful things to look at
everything you could want to see
and desire he has it
he's got pools
he's got water there with
the wood to bring forth trees
he's not only got water
to swim in or to hang out in
he's basically got an aqueduct system
for irrigation to where he can basically
just plant anything that he wants
he has unlimited water
which you know here water can get expensive
even just watering your grass
and watering your front and back yard
can get really expensive a lot of people just don't do it
because it's not much money
he has plenty of pools
he can water anything he wants
he can make it as green as he wants
he can have it looking great and freshly mowed
he has all kinds of
servants, maidens
they're even born in his house
he has great
possessions of great and small cattle
he's not only eating
ribeye and steak, he's eating veal
he's eating the babies
he's eating the baby veal
he's got the fatted calf
he basically can have literally anything that he wants
everything he could possibly desire
it's just like
the Vegas buffet every single day
you know just the greatest meats
the greatest selections, the greatest imports
everything just at his fingertips
all natural
all organic, everything you could want
not only that, silver and gold
he says in peculiar treasures of kings
and of the provinces, I got me men singers
women singers and the lights of the sons of men
and musical instruments and that of all sorts
now of course
why is he gathering men singers and women singers?
that's because he doesn't have
a CD player
he doesn't have YouTube music
so if he wants to listen to music
people gotta literally perform for him
so it's basically
like he's just bringing in bands
from all over the world
he's bringing in the best guitarists
the best harpists
the best piano players
the best of all the different instruments
the best horn players
the best brass instruments
and he not only is just listening to
great symphonies and orchestras
he's listening to everything
did you notice what he said?
he said, and the lights of the sons of men
as musical instruments and that of all sorts
so he's listening to all music
he's got the jazz
and he's got the classics
and he's got the rock
he's got everything
bring it in here
the didgeridoo
the thing in Africa
that sounds really weird
not only does he get to do all of this
he still gets to be smart
he still gets to be wise
he's not downgrading himself
but at the end of the day
whatever he wants he has
he's still smart, verse 10
this is again
a really
extremely dangerous path to go down
Solomon
said yes every time
he wanted something
now think if you did that to your kids
every time your kids just said they wanted something
you're just like, yes
I think there's a stupid movie like this
called Yes Man
where he just says yes to everything
this is a bad path
this is how you get a thousand wives
where you literally just say yes
I mean, that is absurd
to think, how could a man have that many wives
and have all these different things
because he literally just woke up
and he never
stopped by saying no
he never said no to himself
he had no temperance
no self control whatsoever
he just went full bore
whatever I want, I get
and he had it
he said this is my portion
he said in verse 11
then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought
and on the labor that I had labor to do
and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit
and there was no profit under the sun
so he looked at everything
he said this is all meaningless
all it does is just stress me out
and not only does it stress me out
it brings me no benefit
he could say
he said yes to himself
for everything
he had everything he could ever think of
and he still didn't like it
he said in verse 12
he is saying
specifically in this verse
he is like
I have everything
so let's try being as smart as possible
let's try being as crazy as possible
and let's try being as dumb as possible
and he is like
well, for what can the man do
that cometh after the king
even that which hath been already
he is saying
well, I want to do something different
I want to be different
I want to be unique
but then he is like
but what can I do
more than what the guy did before me
and what can the guy after me do
any more than I have done
get a bunch of wives
David already did that
have lots of gold and silver
people have already done that
be stupid, people have done that
be smart, people have done that
have all the foods that are out there
people have had them all, people have tried them all
people have swam
people have, you know, drank alcohol
until they threw up
I mean, it's just like, how can I be special
how can I be unique, how can I do something
that no one has ever done, and he is basically saying
well, you know what, the next guy
the next king that has unlimited wealth
and opportunities, he is just going to do the same thing
I can't do anything different
it's just the same
even that which have been already done
what can I do, I can't be done
I can be smart, I can be crazy
I can be dumb, but, you know
it's not special
verse 13, then I saw
that wisdom excels with folly
as far as light excels with darkness
the wise man's eyes are in his head
but the fool walketh in darkness
and I myself perceived also that
one event happeneth
to them all
now, in this dissertation
of Solomon
he is still making a few things
clear here, that
okay, sure
in some way, all of this
is meaningless, but it's not to say
like, let's just be dumb
say, no, wisdom
is way better
than being foolish
and in fact, it excels it more
than you can possibly imagine
more than light than darkness
but, at the end of the day
there's one event
that's going to happen to them all
what's that one event? Death
so it doesn't matter if you were the smartest person to ever live
or if you were the dumbest person to ever live
you're both going to die
and that's kind of the point
that he's alluding to
here in this passage
he says in verse 15
he's saying, why am I really any better
than the fool if we're all going to die
now, this is kind of a really
negative train of thoughts
okay, this is not something that we should necessarily
go down the path of, but he's just saying
like, what's the point of me enjoying my entire
life and having fun and pleasure all my life
as opposed to the guy that suffers
if we both just die and it's over
and this is kind of an attitude that some
people get
that are not Christian and then they end up
wanting to kill themselves or something
because they just feel like it's all meaningless
is it nihilism? I think it's nihilism
basically is this terminology
where you basically just find
everything to be pointless
but we understand
the whole conclusion of the matter, we fear God and keep his commandments
there are things that have eternal value
but the things of this world and the carnal things
of this world, they don't have any value
so in some regard it is
true that all that stuff is
pointless, but it's not true to say that our lives
don't have meaning or don't have purpose
they just don't have meaning or purpose in the
carnal, the carnal isn't really that
doesn't really matter, it's the
spiritual that ultimately matters
but Solomon
is going down a path of only
walking in the carnal, walking in the flesh
not walking in the spirit for a
portion of his life and he's realizing
that a lot of that was really dumb
and so what's the point of being brilliant
and yet
at the same time
not using that for God or
not using that wisdom to basically
earn eternal rewards, it doesn't really
it doesn't really profit you
you know, you get a bunch of degrees, you go to university
you could study all kinds of
different things, you could become
the most fluent in every language
and the smartest man to ever live, but none of that
really profits in eternity
you know what profits in eternity is fearing God and keep his commandments
that's what profits in
eternity
so he's saying, how am I then more wise
he says in verse 16
there is no remembrance of the wise
more than of the fool forever
seeing that which is now
seeing that which now is in the
days to come shall all be forgotten
and I'll die at the wise man
as the fool, therefore
I hated life
because the work that is wrought
unto the sun is grievous unto me
for all is vanity and
vexation of spirit
now this is sad
but Solomon had everything you could
ever want
more than probably anybody that's ever
had it
and he said that he hated his life
but I thought that
seeking pleasure and seeking mirth
and seeking laughter would bring me joy
Pastor Shelley, no
how did you get to a point where you hate life
this is why so many
famous and rich people
hate their lives
because they've gone down this road
chasing that
same thing that Solomon
was chasing, they're trying to chase
as much pleasure and as much joy
and they're just giving their heart everything
that it desires and then they end up
realizing that that's not actually
a good path, they end up realizing
the meaninglessness of it
the pointlessness of it, they end up realizing
their friends are fake, their relationships
are fake and they have nothing to live
for and their children
often are just the worst people
and are going to completely squander
whatever wealth they have if they
haven't already squandered themselves
and they end up just realizing their whole life
is a complete train wreck
and they look and they see the poor person
that's an idiot and they think
how is that guy any
dumber than me really because
we're all going to die and it's all meaningless
and Solomon says
from a grand perspective
I mean if Solomon wasn't written down in the Bible
none of us would be talking about him
none of us even know
there has been so many rich
wealthy individuals of times past
that had all kinds of great accolades
built all kinds of great things
and we have no idea who they are
and we don't care
we may even be related to them
probably are, some of us
some of us are probably related
I mean there's so many people of the past
that were just amazing and then there was
even way more
that were terrible and dumb and foolish
and we have no idea who they are either
and so Solomon's just saying like
I kind of just hated life because it seems like
it's all pointless it's all vanity
it's all meaningless
and specifically the work
that he's doing it's grievous unto him
for all his vanity effects I mean he's just
stressed out about it
I mean do you think it's easy to build
all these orchards and gardens
and houses and to manage all this stuff
I mean think about managing a thousand
wives right I get it's like
700 and 300 concubines but I'm just using
that term loosely I mean
what's the difference between 700 and 1000 anyway
I don't even know right
I mean I can't even imagine
two let alone
700 okay
I mean that talk about
stress talk about
problems talk about drama
the real housewives
of Solomon talk about a drama tv
show okay that would catch
on people would love that
we would forget about all of them we wouldn't even know
what's going on he wouldn't know who they
are I mean he would try to get
married to his wife probably
he'd be like who's she we
should we should get together he's like that's your wife
bro oh okay yeah
and then pretty soon he just starts singing all
women are his wife right I mean the guy
is just nuts
and he's like I hate
life you know you think like
oh 700 wives that sounds cool
no this guy says he hates it
he hates his life
he abhors his life
it's all
just it's something that just so frustrating
verse 18 yea I hated
all my labor which I had taken
under the sun because
I should leave it under the man
that shall be after me
and who knoweth whether
he shall be a wise man or a fool
yet shall he have rule over
all my labor wherein I have labored and wherein I have
showed myself wise under the sun
this is also vanity
he's just saying
like you go out to the
beach and you're building
a sandcastle
well it's not going to really
last you build that sandcastle
as soon as you walk away
you know time elements
children whatever is going to come just knock
it down it's all gone I mean
who wants to sit here and just spend
hours and weeks and months just building
a sandcastle for it to just be dissolved
like that
you know kids that just build their
toys up and just their brother comes and just
knocks it down it's like they just get
so angry they're just like
and he's just saying like what's the point
of me just building all this stuff
up and making all this great stuff to
just probably hand it to someone else
that's just going to ruin it and squander it and waste
it
and this is a real threat that we all
need to take seriously go view the
progress chapter 13 we need to take
seriously the idea of
what our children are going to be like
after us and
one thing that I personally don't
advise is just
handing your kids
everything just giving them just
unlimited wealth or just making
their lives super easy I don't think
this is a good strategy or a good idea
I think it's much better to
try to encourage them to
actually work hard and have character
and try to earn things themselves
now in proverbs chapter 13 the Bible
says in verse 1 a wise son
here is his father's instruction
but a scorner heareth not rebuke
so one thing that we need to do as fathers
is we need to be constantly instructing our children
spending time to teach them things
and training them and
giving them the knowledge to be
successful in their lives because if we don't
really instruct them we don't really teach them well
we see how fatherless homes do
in the crime statistics
don't we
we see how children that are neglected
do in school
in society in the job in the workplace
it's the exception that proves
the rule in that scenario
most men who don't have
a father figure or some man teaching
them stuff really struggle
in their lives and it can
be overcome you don't have to
have it but at the end of the day
generally speaking it's
very difficult for a young man to choose the right
path and to learn things on
his own usually when they don't have
a solid leader or man
in their life to teach them and guide them
they end up making a lot of bad decisions
so we need to be teaching them
in verse 2 it says a man
shall eat good by the fruit of his
mouth but the soul of the transgressor
shall eat violence he that keepeth his mouth
keepeth his life but he that openeth wide his
lips shall have destruction
the soul of the sluggard desireth
and hath nothing but the soul
of the diligent shall be made fat
more important
than handing your children wealth
is handing them a work
ethic because you can hand
a child that's a sluggard
great wealth and he'll
lose it all and
you can hand a child a
hard work ethic and a pad on the back
and he can turn it into great wealth
but what we have to be careful of
is not just handing our
kids easy street and an easy
life they end up
not having character not
having a work ethic not caring
about learning and not being diligent
with themselves but just becoming slothful
and typically when you're just raised
with a silver spoon in your mouth giving everything
you want and you don't have to earn or work
for anything you end up just being a
very sluggish type person
a very slothful type person
and it's almost impossible to overcome
once you become an adult
you're supposed to train up a child
in the way you should go and when he's old
he will not depart from it one of those
is having a work ethic
you should have your kids regularly working
every single day and teaching
and training them and ultimately we don't know
you could still be a very good parent
and just
at some point in time hand them over
some money or hand them over some wealth
and they could just completely squander it
and that's what Solomon's point is he's just saying
this is kind of frustrating that I built all this stuff
and then I'm going to hand it over to somebody
and they're probably going to squander it
but let's think about Solomon
I mean when you're managing 700 wives
300 concubines
tons of different sons
how much time do you think Solomon was really spending
with those sons?
and how much was he withholding his sons from?
I mean while Solomon is just living it
literally how much do you think
that his sons are also probably doing the same thing
and when we read in the Bible
I believe it's Rehoboth, his son
the Bible says about him
he desired many wives
I wonder where he got that appetite
maybe it's from seeing his father getting all kinds of wives
and desiring lots of women
and we see this kind of pattern going down
where
hey, like father, like son
and we see individuals
constantly being like their parents
so also another thing
is probably to withhold yourself
from unlimited pleasure and wealth
and joy
so your children see the self-discipline you have as well
see that you're doing the right thing
hey, going to church
making sacrifices, loving on people
going out soul winning
this is going to instill in your children the right attitude
and the right behavior
to possibly carry on the right legacy
and not to just be a spoiled brat
that wastes all of your money
and you know
I don't know what the right method is
or the right, you know
way to handle these things
we'll all figure it out together
but in my estimation, in my mind
is it probably better
to hand over wealth to children
once they've been an adult for a while
like allow them to, you know, work
make their own money, live on their own
learn how to work hard
before you just start giving them large sums of money
large portions of wealth
and generally speaking, in an ideal situation
that's kind of how life works, isn't it?
I mean, in an ideal situation
your parents wouldn't die
or wouldn't leave behind, you know
their wealth or inheritance to you until you're a lot older
until you're probably an adult
with your own children and everything
and so you've kind of had time
to appreciate these things
take care of them
have a good work ethic
because, you know, frankly speaking
I guarantee I'm going to be better as a money manager
when I'm 40 or 50 years old
than I was when I was 20
or 25 years old
you know, I'm sure a lot of 20 and 25 year olds
are going out there and buying
you know, a 50,000 dollar
well, now, money, I can't even
like a 250,000 dollar sports car
or something
you know, if daddy gives them a trust fund
here's 5 million dollars, son
oh, sweet, 5 million dollars
they'll have that spent in 2 or 3 years
whereas it may have taken that father
a lifetime to accumulate such wealth
through hard work, diligence, sacrifice
not spending, and then his child
just wastes his inheritance
kind of like the prodigal son
wastes all that inheritance in a short time
period on harlots
and riotous living
and you know what, I don't want my sons to be like that
and, you know, I may
be willing to give my sons money to start a business
or do something, but you know what
they are not getting some large sum of money
from me, you know, when they're a young child
they're going to have to learn how to work
and be diligent, and
you know, struggle
and sacrifice, and in some cases
being poor just makes you a better person
there I said it
most people that
are very diligent, hard working
and have good character were poor at some point
in their life, that doesn't mean that
a person that's wealthy can't have
character, I'm just saying, generally speaking
people that are like the best people
to be around, have been poor at
some point in their lives, and it
taught them a lot of character, it taught them a lot of
responsibility, and you know
maybe you need to teach your kids
how to work hard and to be
poor at times so that they can have
more character and be a better person
because ultimately at the end of the day, at some point
you're going to handle all this wealth, I mean think about
what would be the point of me just slaving
working 80 hours a week
my entire life
building the family farm or
building the family business
let's say I accumulated some great wealth
10 million dollars or something
I don't know, I'm just throwing out a number
of course if you listen to this in the future
it's meaningless, you know, use inflation
calculator, but accumulate some
wealth of 10 million dollars or 20 million dollars
or something to just hand it
to your children to just completely squander
you think like
why did I spend so much time
accumulating all that wealth, I didn't need it
I didn't spend it, why didn't I
just spend more time hanging out with my kids
why didn't I spend more time
going soul winning
why didn't I spend more time serving God
why didn't I give some of that money to somebody
that was going to do something good with it
you know, and you kind of think about it
there's an opportunity cost
to every decision we make
and here's the question
if you can't take it with you
how much wealth do you really need
do you really need
I mean, if you have 10 million dollars
and your kids are going to squander it
what was the point?
you might have been better off having 5 million
or 2 million
and spent more time doing other things
that were of more value
and I believe that's what Solomon's trying to get at
is this point of what's the point of me
getting unlimited wealth and unlimited riches
if the next guy is going to completely
squander it and waste it and ruin it
and it starts to put some things in perspective
you start thinking like, why am I making the decisions
that I'm making
I'm trying to just store up a huge amount of wealth
what are you going to do with it?
I mean, what's the point?
you're never going to be like Solomon
you're never going to have as much money
and possessions as Solomon
and he even hated life when he had it
you know, what's more important
is probably serving God
and training your children to love the Lord
that's more important, isn't it?
verse 20
he just hates all the work that he did
verse 21
he's saying
not only did I acquire
all of this wealth and money
I acquired all the wisdom
the knowledge and the discretion
of how to manage that
and what to do with it
but the guy that didn't do that
is going to inherit it
and in so many times
you see this where
the son takes over the father's business
and ruins the business
why? because he didn't actually
study and learn
he doesn't know all the ins and outs of the business
he didn't get all the discretion
and the wisdom of the business
he didn't work really hard
and so he just completely ruins the business
because he just doesn't have that
and Solomon's basically
kind of saying like
think about how much information
and knowledge Solomon had
to have planted all of these gardens
and all of these orchards
and all of these plants
I mean, he's an encyclopedia by himself
a wealth of knowledge
and you know, you children
you should try to soak up
as much knowledge from your father as possible
because your father has spent
so much more time on this earth
and has done so many more things
and because of technology ruining
information these days
many kids just don't know anything
you children, you should learn as much from your father
and your mother as possible
learn how to cook, learn how to clean
learn how to sew
learn how to wash the clothes
learn how to fix the car
learn how to mow
learn how to use tools, learn how to build
learn how to manage finances
whatever it is that your parents know
you should just spend as much time learning
instead of just saying what cartoon can I watch
let me just go
run around and play because
at some point in time
the buck will stop with you
and it's nice to have had
as much knowledge and information
as he can
I remember, you know, just because of time
and happenstance, I had never
learned how to fix a tire
until I was an adult
you know, and the first time
it happened I was kind of intimidated because
it's not even a hard thing, but it's just
I've never done it, so it's just kind of intimidating
I wish that like when I was 16 or 15
I just asked my dad
like let's change a tire or something just so I wasn't
stressed out, and of course, you know, when I have to change
a tire, it's like the tire iron doesn't fit
and the nuts are
you know, stripped and everything, and it's like
it was like the hardest thing ever
to change a tire, which takes like 20 minutes
maybe, okay, and if you have the right
tools, maybe five minutes, okay, and you know
what you're doing, but I'm just saying like when you don't
it's like hours, and it's really
a painful and frustrating process
and so, you know
we want to make sure that we actually know how to
do things
but at the end of the day
you know, you'll probably never
be able to give, you know, give your sons
and your children as much wisdom as you have
and
it's just all vanity anyways
Verse 22
For what hath a man of all his labor
and of the vexation of his heart wherein he had
labored under the sun, for all his days
are sorrows, and his
travail grief, yea, his heart
taketh not rest in the night,
this is also vanity.
Here's another thing, you know
mow money, mow problems
is what he's trying to say, he's just like saying
you know, you think it's cool to manage
all this stuff until you have to really
actually worry about it
I mean, think about Solomon
like, laying down at night
the mental checklist he has in his head, like
did I turn off the water
on those apple trees
you know, is the
new shipment
of lumber gonna come in
on time for my other house
you know, how many birthdays do I have to celebrate
tomorrow, you know
all my wives, and then how many anniversaries
and how many appointments am I gonna make
you know, just like, just think about
like, maybe he's laying down at night
what's her name again?
I can't remember
he's the first one to come up with
nicknames like, hey babe, or whatever
you know, cause he just needed that
for all of them
that's, you know
there was just so much stress
he's like, his days, he's just full of just
and think about how many problems, it's like
this broke, this is, you know you think about
your honey do list, what about Solomon's
honey do list, you know
oh man, how many orchards and
and housing things and
you know, purses and whatever he's gotta get
all the cows and all the
I mean, he's probably even got
thousands of servants and maidens and people
that wanna constantly see him and talk to him
and bug him and need his
attention on things, and he's just
so stressed out
you know, famous people
celebrities literally complain about being famous
because they say they can't even enjoy their life
cause someone's always bothering them
someone's always wanting something from them
somebody's always trying to get something from them
and so it's like they don't even
none of us are famous, we don't even know what it's like
but it's just they go out in public, everybody wants their attention
everybody wants to talk to them, everyone wants a picture
everybody wants to say hi
it's just
that wouldn't be that much fun
if you can't even really enjoy
constantly just running, talking to strangers
and people already needing things
and all these flatterers
and you just, you have to wade through all these issues
you got all these wives and
concubines and servants
and cows, I mean just like
it eventually racks up to the point where you're just like
man, I wanna just run away
screaming from all of this
it's a lot of responsibility
not only that, he's managing a kingdom
he's gotta manage the army
he's gotta manage the economic policy for the entire
nation, he's gotta manage the
priests and all the other stuff that's
going on, I mean he's gotta manage like so much
this guy's
life is a stress
just so much stress
he says for all his days
are sorrows
I thought he was having fun
says this in verse 24
there is nothing better for a man
than that he should eat and drink
and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor
this also I saw
that it was from the hand of God
for who can eat or who else
can hasten hereunto more than I
for God giveth to a man
that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge
and joy, but to the sinner he giveth
travail, to gather and to heap up
that he may give to him that is good before God
this also is vanity and vexation of spirit
so he gives us a glimmer of hope
here and he's basically just saying look
God gives you an ability to eat
and drink and to
enjoy your labor, when you have
those moments, enjoy them
because for the rest of your life
and for all of us, your days are gonna be filled
with sorrows and travail
and grief and problems
we all have problems
we all have travail
we all have grief
but just in certain moments in your life
hey, you get that steak dinner
that one time, right?
or you get that brisket
or you get to just sit down and enjoy a milkshake
or you get to drink something
that you enjoy
or you get to admire the work that you built
you know, when you're working on something
it's nice when you finish it
and you get to finally admire it
you buy a house, you finally get it
you know, think about how much
I mean, buying a house, there's so much stress
just dealing with, especially if
you can't buy it in cash, like all of us
you have to worry about the mortgage company
and I mean mortgage companies are just
like Satan, I don't know
you have to give them all of these different documents
and all these financial statements
and every bank statement
and what is this transaction
and where did you spend this
and you know, what about your debt
and you're just like, can I get the house or not?
you know, and it's all this stress
and all this pressure
you know, even just trying to buy a house sometimes
you're visiting all these houses
and you're putting bids on them
and people are outbidding you
I know like a couple years ago
people were telling me it was like the most stressful thing
on the planet to buy a house here
you know, they go and visit
they go visit a house that comes on the market
20 people are going and visiting it
people are bidding like 10,000 over asking
you know, cash offers
and people are just
you know, they're writing letters like
this would be really special for our family
and you know, they go and they put it out there
and then it's just like sold to someone else
and you're just like, it was all vanity
why did I waste all this time
and effort?
and then you know, you finally get that house
you overpay for it and you move in
and the AC breaks and the garage door breaks
and you find mold somewhere
and you're just like, oh I hate this house
you hire a contractor
and you just hate your life forever
okay, I mean
I know what that one's like
okay, you're just throwing
money away
and you know, you buy that new car
and then your kid throws up in it
and you're just like
you know, the next car
you're not allowed to ride in
you get that, I remember I bought
a brand new pair of sunglasses
I kid you not, it was like one hour later
I show up at church
and I'm kind of like, what do I do with them?
I set them on my seat and then I forget
and I just literally sit and just squash
and just smash them
and I was like, one hour?
just one hour?
what's the point of buying these glasses?
you know, and it's just
life has its travails, it has its sorrows
it has its ups, it has its downs
but you know, at the end of the day
all of it's vanity anyways
enjoy the moments that you have
but keep in focus
the point that we're supposed to fear God
and keep His commandments, that's the only thing that matters
the eternal stuff is the only thing that matters
and we get, we all get just
so hyper focused and stressed out
about all this other stuff, but
you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter
God gave us our portion, hey, we still get some
joy in this life, you know, this isn't really
the time to enjoy, that's
in the new heaven, that's in the millennial rain
that's in, you know, when
we get to rule and reign with Christ
and there's joys evermore
you know, you want to keep in that joy button, but that's
heaven, there really isn't
you know, the joy button now
and it's all meaningless now
so we might as well hit the work button as much as we can now
and not just the work for money
but the work for Jesus
the work for things of
eternal value and consequence
because pretty soon
we're going to all
be there
time flies
time is going by so quick
things are constantly evolving, constantly changing
and who knows, pretty soon
we might have a communist, you know, dictator
in leadership
and we'll all lose all of our possessions
anyways
you know, or maybe it'll never happen
it doesn't, but it doesn't matter
it won't even be remembered
we won't remember the communists
because we're rotting in hell
all of them
we'll be enjoying in
the new heaven and the new earth
and so that's why we need to make sure that we're keeping our focus on
the things of God
preaching the Gospel
raising our families to fear God
and to love God
that's going to give you the only real
true eternal joys in this life
is by fearing Him and keeping His presence
let's close in prayer
thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this perspective
on our lives so that we know what we're supposed to do
and sometimes just reminding us
of all the silliness
and all the vanity that exists in this world
so that we don't
we don't lose track or sight
of where we're supposed to go
that we are supposed to live our lives
according to the scripture
that we're supposed to make church an important thing
we're supposed to make preaching the Gospel an important thing
and raising our families to love God
I pray that we would
always really think about
the decisions we're making
and making sure that we're actually making spiritual decisions
and I pray that you would just help us
to have the right mindset
until we take our last breath
in Jesus' name we pray, amen
alright, in closing, let's go to song number 50
song number 50
peace
perfect peace
song number 50
everybody sing out together on the first
peace
perfect peace
in
this dark world
of sin
the blood
of
Jesus whispers
peace
within
peace
perfect peace
with sorrow
surging
ground
on
Jesus
bosom
not but
calm is
found
peace
perfect peace
our future
all
unknown
Jesus
we know
he is on
the throne
peace
perfect peace
death shall
be us and
ours
Jesus
has vanquished
death and
all is
ours
it is
enough
earth struggles
soon shall cease
and
Jesus
calls you to
our perfect
peace
great singing
everybody, we're all dismissed
you