Music
You
Good evening everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church. Thank you all for coming
We're gonna go ahead and get started
As soon as you find your seat go ahead and grab a hymnal. We're gonna start in song number 31. He lives
Song number 31 he lives
3
Song 3 1 sing it out together
I serve a risen Savior in the world
I see
I
Christ Jesus
Oh
In all the world around me I see his loving care
And though my heart grows weary
I never will despair. I know that he is
All the stormy
Will come
Christ Jesus
He walks and talks with me
A long life's there away
Salvation to impart you ask me how I know he lives
He lives within
My heart
Rejoice rejoice, oh
Christian
Eternal
So good
Oh
You
He
Is
Great singing everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for steadfast Baptist Church and everyone that's gathered Lord
God help Pastor Shelley to preach an edifying sermon so we can all walk out better Christians for your honor and your glory Lord
It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen
All right for a second song. We're gonna go to song number 75
It's maybe a newer one to some of us
So if you know it sing it out nice and loud on Jordan's stormy banks
Song number 75 on Jordan's stormy banks
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wretch for life
To Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie
I am bound for the promised land
Oh who will come and go with me
I am bound for the promised land
Follow those wide extended plain shines on eternal day
There God the Son forever reigns and scatters night away
I am bound for the promised land
Oh who will come and go with me
I am bound for the promised land
No chilly winds nor boars this breath can reach that helpful shore
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death are felt and here no more
I am bound for the promised land
Oh who will come and go with me
I am bound for the promised land
On the last
When shall I reach that happy place
Empty forever blessed
When shall I see my Father's face
And in His bosom rest
I am bound for the promised land
Oh who will come and go with me
I am bound for the promised land
Great singing. Thanks so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, you'd like one, you can lift up your hand real quick.
One of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin on the front.
Do we have more bulletins? Maybe we need to print a few more. I don't know.
Also we have Jonah chapter 2 verse 2 we're working on.
And then on the inside is our service soul winning times.
Make sure you're turning in your church stats.
To our captains on the right is a list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
Also we have our prayer list.
Please be in prayer for our church family.
I'm going to go over that in just a moment.
Below that we have the baby announcement.
Congratulations to the Vila Reels and the birth of Adam Pablo.
He was born on the 10th, 301 AM, 7 pounds 9 ounces and 21 and a quarter inches long.
Congratulations to them.
Also if you had quoted the verse, I'm sorry the chapter from last time Psalm 59
and you did not already get your prize.
You can come on down and there's a couple different options here.
You can come and pick a prize if you'd like.
So if that's someone, is anybody?
Okay, we got some down here. Alright, come on down.
I'll just keep going through announcements real quick.
But come on down and get you a prize.
And then also on the back we have the upcoming events.
The Heritage of the Lord Conference is October 4th through the 6th.
And then we have, I actually kind of put down below a tentative schedule
as far as what those events are going to look like in those times.
And so if you want to have some kind of idea of what events we're going to be doing.
Also October 31st is our Texas chili cook-off.
It's at 6 PM as far as when we're going to start eating.
And if you want to participate in the competition portion,
you just need to show up before 6 AM with your chili.
So that way we can get samples and everything like that.
And we can have them ready to be judged.
And we end up giving prizes out to those who place in our top results and everything like that.
So they are going to be judged though.
And so if your feelings are going to get hurt, you just don't make it.
Alright, there you go. Alright.
But we'd love for you to make one.
We're also going to have just a time of fellowship.
So if you'd like to bring a game or cards or anything like that
that you would like to bring, that would be great.
November 16th is a Miami soul winning marathon.
And so if you want to participate in that, just at least mark that down on your calendar.
As far as our prayer requests, we'll go over that quickly.
We'll continue to pray for the Naim's grandmother.
We've been praying for the Carlson's mother.
We've been praying for Miss Miller's friends.
A lot of health prayer requests here.
Another one for the Scotts' parents as well.
We've been praying for Garcia's daughter who's pregnant, which is exciting.
We've been praying for Brother Sam and his fiancé.
We've been praying for Brother Guzman's father for health as well.
And then also Brother Jimmy had a prayer request for his sister-in-law
who also is struggling with cancer.
And so a lot of prayer requests there.
We'll just go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this evening and so much for our church.
I pray that you would just please bless all these ladies who are expecting.
Please help them during their pregnancies.
I pray that you'd help them give them a timely birth.
I pray that you'd also help their children's development.
I pray that you'd please be with these members of our church
that are struggling with cancer or with health issues.
I pray that you'd also bless those who are not with us
but are just our friends and our family members.
I pray if possible you could just give them a miracle.
Please help them with their health issues.
I pray that you would allow us to come alongside and provide them comfort.
I pray that you would also just bless our church family that needs favor
and their relationships and their jobs.
I pray that you'd help to just continue to use our church to reach the lost
and that we could be a bright and shining light in such a dark world.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
That is pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We're going to sing our special song of the week.
Typically it's a psalm, but this one's going to be just a special hymn.
It's called Where the Spirit Blows. Sing it out nice and loud.
All right, Where the Spirit Blows.
Sing it out nice and loud.
When we get to the go, go, go, I want to hear it really loud, all right?
Jesus told me over land and sea
Red, black, and white
Sweet in His sight
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Go, go, go
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Yellow and brown
To every town
We are just the Jews
Let's go and choose
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Go, go, go
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Father, Spirit, Son
These three are one
Holy Trinity
Always with me
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Go, go, go
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
We by sin fell
Sin cries to hell
But He arose
Trushing our foes
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Go, go, go
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
He heals the lame
Call on His name
Faith of old saves
Emdies the graves
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Go, go, go
Where the Spirit blows
We will go
Great singing everybody.
Is the offering place being passed around?
Please turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter number 6.
Great singing everybody.
Ecclesiastes chapter number 6.
The Bible reads,
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun,
and it is common among men.
Man to whom God hath given
riches, wealth, and honor,
so that he wanteth nothing for his soul
of all that he desireth.
Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof,
but a stranger eateth it.
He is a man of the soul,
and he is a man of the soul.
He is a man of the soul,
and he is a man of the soul.
Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof,
but a stranger eateth it.
This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
If a man beget a hundred children
and live many years,
so that the days of his years be many,
and his soul be not filled with good,
and also that he have no burial,
I say that an untimely birth
is better than he.
For he cometh in with vanity,
and departeth in darkness,
and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Moreover, he hath not seen the sun,
but more rest than the other.
Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told,
yet hath he seen no good?
Do not all go to one place?
All the labor of man is for his mouth,
and yet the appetite is not filled.
For what hath the wise more than the fool?
What hath the poor that knoweth to walk
before the living?
Better is the sight of the eyes
than the wondering of the desire.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which hath been is named already,
and it is known that it is man.
Neither may he contend with him
that is mightier than he.
Seeing there be many things
that increase vanity, what is man the better?
For who knoweth what is good
for man in this life?
All the days of his vain life,
which he spendeth as a shadow?
For who can tell a man
what shall be after him under the sun?
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this chapter of the Bible,
and thank you for allowing us to be here in church tonight.
Amen.
Ecclesiastes chapter 6 is kind of a shorter chapter.
It really kind of has one main thought
that's being communicated through it,
and I think that we sometimes have to be careful
when we're reading through
some of the Book of Ecclesiastes
because the author is a little bit
kind of just jaded, in a sense,
towards life,
and I think that the author
of the book of Ecclesiastes
is kind of the author of the book of Ecclesiastes
because the author
is kind of just jaded, in a sense, towards life,
and he's understanding that everything's kind of vain,
and he doesn't really kind of conclude
the book of Ecclesiastes
until the very end,
where he gets to chapter number 12,
and I've kind of already covered this
in a few other chapters,
but just as a reminder, again,
that the emphasis of the book of Ecclesiastes
is saying everything's pretty much vain
in a carnal sense,
but in a spiritual sense,
there's still value in serving God,
and of course, that does not mean that our lives are vain,
but rather,
you could live a vain life,
and that a lot of aspects of this life
are ultimately vanity
from an eternal perspective,
and so the author is kind of giving us
a lot of the
negative aspects
of the world that we live in.
He's trying to help us
understand from an eternal
perspective why most
of the things that are happening in this world
don't really have much value,
but it almost seems like
in isolated portions
you could accuse the author
of kind of black-pilling, you know,
and I think that, unfortunately,
our society, many people
are succumbing to this mentality.
Many people are kind of struggling
with an idea of just thinking
that life doesn't matter,
or that everything is pointless
and everything is meaningless,
and you'd want to be careful that when you're reading
Ecclesiastes that you're not
leaving with that conclusion, that you're not
simply saying, no, everything's just meaningless,
there's no point of living, there's no point
in even trying to accomplish
anything, and
what he is saying is
true, but it's only true
in a sense and in a context, and so we have
to be careful about some of these
passages that we are reading,
and I think that another
good rule of thumb is when we're
going to establish doctrine, we want
our doctrine based on clear
statements that are in context.
We want clear statements that are in context,
and when you look at a book like
Ecclesiastes, you look at a book like
Job, sometimes there's a lot of things
that are being said and communicated that are
difficult on the surface
to really understand what they're saying
in an isolated, small
portion of text. So I
typically prefer
using things like Proverbs
or using the Gospels
or using the pastoral epistles
to get more isolated
clear statements that we can form doctrines
on, as opposed to just
trying to isolate a particular
small verse here and there, because
you could sometimes miss the boat, you can
sometimes get a little off, you can sometimes
be imbalanced, or not really
have the full picture, and so
we want to make sure that when we're establishing
clear doctrine, that we're
not just running with the book of Ecclesiastes.
This is especially true in the next chapter,
and I might even re-emphasize this again,
but some people might take some of
chapter 7 and really
run with some of the statements in there
about women, and it's like a totally
bad view of women,
and it almost seems like
the men going their
own way, like the book of Ecclesiastes
would be like their favorite book or something.
And I just say that because
they have just such a bad outlook on life
and they think that everything's just vain
and pointless and kind of this woman-hating
attitude, and it's just like
I don't want you to walk away
from the book of Ecclesiastes
having an imbalanced view.
And chapter 6 is
a very heavily slanted
chapter that's very
negative, but
it's not that it's not true, it's just that
we don't want to just, we wouldn't want to
just read chapter 6 and then walk away
and then just be like, okay, that's, you know,
that's how life is, okay? So
as we study this, I don't want
you to get the wrong intentions
of this chapter. It says in verse 1,
What is he communicating? Well, he's saying that
some people
have everything you could ever want,
but in some sense they
don't have the health
or the timing or
perhaps there's another explanation here
to enjoy that
which they have received. And
he's just saying, man, what an
evil to get all the money
you wanted and to have all
the power and all the authority
and all the things that you were hoping to get
and then you get cancer or something
or then you get struck
with some evil disease or
it's stripped away from you or you just
die. There's a
parable that Jesus
puts forth of a rich man
bringing forth plentifully
and he ends up building greater
barns and he stores all this
food and he says, I have much
goods and my soul
can now rest easy.
I have much goods and he's just like
basically praising all the money he has and then
God's like, thou fool. Why?
Because that night his soul is going to be
required of him and he's going to die and then
he doesn't end up getting to enjoy
any of the money and the riches
and all the stuff that he had acquired.
He basically came to great riches
came to great power, came
to great wealth, came to great honor.
You know, there's individuals that
I could think of like
you know, I played golf in college
and
we struggled for coaches
but we ended up getting a coach
his name was Ryan Leaf and I don't know if
anybody knows, does anybody know who Ryan Leaf is?
He was a former NFL quarterback
but he's kind of
unfortunately infamous because he's
known as one of the worst NFL draft
busts of all time. So he
was in the same draft class as Peyton
Manning and a lot of you were arguing
whether or not who would be the better
quarterback in the future, Peyton Manning
or Ryan Leaf and I think most of you probably
know where that was headed, okay. Even if you don't
know much about football, Peyton Manning ended up being one of the
greatest quarterbacks to ever play
the sport, won multiple Super Bowls
highly praised,
is on national television
Ryan Leaf unfortunately
went through a slew of teams and got cut
shortly after a few years of
basically not succeeding very well in the NFL.
He ended up becoming my golf
coach, it's a weird story, okay.
But you could say at one
point and he always kind of
like he would tell this story and it was kind of
sad when you say like the greatest night of his life
was he was actually nominated
for the Heisman Trophy in college
he knew he was going to go pro
he got to go on SNL
so he got to go on the TV show
SNL, he's in the top
picks, Charles Woodson ended up winning the Heisman
that year so he didn't get it but he was in
the top three running but then he gets
drafted number two pick
by the San Diego Chargers, he
ends up getting a lifetime
contract with Rolex which I
believe this was the last lifetime contract
they ever signed but
he got like a lifetime contract with
Rolex, he got paid millions and millions
of dollars before he'd ever done anything
essentially, just on the hype
just on the potential and look Ryan
Leaf was a very
sizable athlete, I mean he was
6'5, 6'6, very tall
very athletic build, strong arm
he had what appeared to be
the make up to be a great
athlete, he had the
honor, he had the
power, he was there but then
shortly after it's ripped away and he gets to enjoy
none of it, married
he had married one of the San Diego cheerleaders
she ends up divorcing him after he
is not as hot as she thought
he was going to be and then his life kind
of spiraled down and now
he's my golf coach, you know it's like
that was a pretty low step
down right, then he got arrested
for abusing drugs and
fled to Canada and I think he's tried
to clean up his life, I
know that he claims to be a
Christian and I don't know his testimony
personally but
you know it's kind of an evil
that happened to him in a sense where he was in
a position to
have a lot of power, have a lot of wealth
but then it gets stripped from him
and I think for most of us we've probably never
really gone through that where we were put in a position
of great power, great
authority, tons of money and
then had it stripped from us that would probably
hurt, that would probably
not feel very good
and then what is the author saying?
A stranger eateth it, so somebody
else gets to enjoy it, I mean we could
toil really hard, we could build a business
we could save all this money
and then just someone takes it
I've had
you know in my life where I've
saved a lot of money, I've worked really hard
for it and then someone just ripped me
off for large portions of money and it was just
gone overnight and it's just like
man it just seems so vain
all the effort, time, energy
wasted on this and
and so it's just like
sometimes we could be thinking like oh
life's great, I have all this money, I have all this wealth
I have all this power but it could be stripped
from us in a heartbeat
and sometimes I don't think that we realize that
it isn't that much value anyways
it's vain anyways, having a bunch
of money, having a bunch of wealth
having a bunch of power, having a bunch of honor
it's really not that worth it anyways
and most of the honor that's
in this world is a carnal honor
it's not really a spiritual honor
the world's praising you, the Bible even warns
that you're probably a false prophet
yea, woe unto you when all men shall speak well
of you, right, I mean that's what the Bible says
keep your finger and go to Proverbs 13
go back a little bit
I think that unfortunately
in America
a lot of youth, a lot
of us have this idea of trying
to get rich, trying to get famous
trying to get money
trying to get wealth and the Bible is
basically saying like it's not
worth it, it's not worth it
it's vain and in fact
many people that even
acquire those things, they get them stripped away
from them even after they acquire them
and so it's just not even really
worth it to strive
for that, the Bible tells us in
Proverbs 13, look at verse 22
a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's
children and the wealth of the
sinner is laid up for the
just, notice there's a stranger coming in
and enjoying the wealth of that
sinner, what's a perfect example of this
would be the Canaanites and the children of Israel
the children of Israel
get to just walk into the promised land
and inherit a great wealth
that had been built for them, had been
procured and developed for them by
the Canaanites and so they got to enjoy
a land flowing with milk and honey that they
had not even labored for, they had not even
toiled for and of course I'm not
against someone acquiring
wealth, the Bible doesn't say that that's wrong
did you notice the first part of this
verse, a good man
leaveth an inheritance to
his children's children
that means that this individual has so
much money that it's not only
gonna flow over to his children, it's gonna
flow over to his grandchildren
that's the type of inheritance that he would
leave and I believe that it doesn't
it's not limited to financially
it could be in many cases, right
having a Baptist heritage
that is passed down from grandfather
to son to grandson
I don't really hope that my children
are Baptist when they grow up
I hope that they raise their children to be Baptist
too and
we should, the Bible
talks about Paul saying he doesn't have
the children lay up for the parents but the parents
should lay up for the children and
I don't believe there's anything wrong
with parents saving up money
or leaving their children with inheritance
in fact that's a good thing
now if your parents didn't have a lot of money
but they still raised you to be a godly
Christian or they raised you to have good morals
you could still love your parents and appreciate them
even if they don't leave you a dime
but what does the Bible say?
a good man leaving an inheritance
unto his children's children and yet
even if you did that
this is the sad part, this is the bad reality
that we're reading in Ecclesiastes, you could
leave an inheritance unto your children or your children's children
and they're fools and they squander it
and then you're like, what was the point
of even doing it anyways?
so again, we have to make
sure that when we read the Bible
we're always balancing ourselves
there's always a key to balance
and I think we could take any verse
and run with it. What if we just lived our
entire life based on only the first half of this verse
a good man leaveth an inheritance
unto his children's children
so then your entire life is just aimed at just raising
as much money as you can and saving it up to leave your children
but you're not considering the fact
that your children could be a fool and squander it
well that's an important
balance because we're saying, you know
instead of spending all my time just acquiring wealth
from my children, maybe I need to slow down
spend some time with them
and teach them the things of the Bible
and try to help them
to also not just be a fool
we want to make sure
that we're balancing both
I don't want to just necessarily
only leave them one thing
or just say, well, we had a great time
but I was really lazy
obviously I think you should also provide and work hard
and try to make sure that you're
doing your best to give your children
the best chances for success
I think we need to make sure that we're trying to provide some balance
if we go to Proverbs 23 though
we have a clear statement in the Bible
and again, this is what I'm saying
we can get some good ideas
we can come alongside
and have supporting texts
two verses that we have
but sometimes the Bible just gives you clear statements
and we should make sure that we're living by clear statements in the Bible
what's a clear statement in the Bible?
Proverbs 23, look at verse 4
labor not to be rich
that's just plain
it's clear
that we should not be working
with a goal of getting rich
now, here's the thing
if you work really hard
and then God blesses you and you become rich
God bless you
but you know what, you should not be laboring to be rich
and it's a mindset
because the person that is only laboring to be rich
will cut corners
will take advantage of people
will cut people off
will do unethical things
because it's more important to them to be rich
than to make sure that they're right with God
and so when we're laboring
we should be making sure that we're laboring
and doing a good, honest job
and make sure that we're not cutting corners
not doing deceptive things
not taking advantage of people
saying, you know what, if I'm not going to be rich
but I'm going to do that which is right
I'm going to do that which is right
and making sure that our heart is not on riches
and making sure that we don't have a love of money
the root of all evil is coming from the love of money
and evil can be defined there as harm
and really when you look at all the harm
the evil, the wars
the conflict in this world
you can always trace it back to a bank
and we all know who owns the banks
now, if you keep reading
it says, cease from thine own wisdom
that is an important statement
because the whole world
and even your own intellect
will say, no, no, the whole reason
why I'm working is for money and to get rich
but that's not the right mindset
don't let yourself
be tricked and deceived
by your own heart, your heart is desperately wicked
it's deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked, who can know it
is what the Bible says
so when we work, we need to try our best
to make sure that we're not laboring to be rich
but we're laboring to be pleasing unto God
to provide for our families
and ultimately we're working
and serving our boss as if it was the Lord
not just, well, how can I get an extra buck
or how can I get ahead
verse 5
wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not
for riches certainly make themselves wings
they fly away
as an eagle toward heaven
doesn't that kind of fit with the context that we've been describing here
and as an Ecclesiastes, this idea
of somebody having riches
but then all of a sudden it's gone
or you had it, and now you can't have it
or a stranger has it, or you're gone
and the Bible is saying
you could work really really hard
and acquire all this wealth, and then it'd just be gone
overnight
just taken from you, just like that
and so what would be the point
if you knew
everything that I make, all the money that I make
is just going to be gone tomorrow
you'd kind of be like, I don't want to waste all this time
I don't want to work all this overtime
I don't want to belabor my soul
I don't want to miss sleeping
and missing hanging out with my family
and missing going to church, just to make all this money
for then to be taken from me anyways
and unfortunately
I don't know what's going to happen in the future
going back to Ecclesiastes 6
I don't
I'm a pretty optimistic
person about a lot of things
but I think I'm also pragmatic
and frankly speaking our country is headed
towards some really dark
potential outcomes
it's not unreasonable
to think that our country could go into communism
and if it went into communism
all the money that you have would be worthless
and I hate to say that
because I don't want that to be true
but I'm just saying
I would hate for you
to spend the next 3-4 years of your life
trying to acquire all this wealth
and not spending time with your family
not going to church
for us to become communists and you lose it all anyways
and I'm not saying that's going to happen
I have no idea what's going to happen
maybe we're going to have an economic boom
maybe
God's going to turn things around
maybe we're going to have a great revival
I have no idea
I'm going to hope for the best but plan for the worst
but this is what I know
you're not going to regret serving God in the future
but you could regret serving mammon
you could regret
wasting a bunch of time
trying to make so much money
that you neglect the things of God
now again since we're talking about balance
when I'm at work
I put the work hat on
work hard, make money
maximize revenue
build my businesses
play my employer's business
hey I'm not saying be lazy
I'm not saying don't have your own business
I'm not saying don't work hard
I'm saying I'm not going to make that
become so much a priority
that now I'm no longer going to church
I'm not going to make that so much a priority
that now I'm not going to go soul winning
I'm not going to make that so much a priority
that now I'm not going to read the Bible
so much a priority that I'm going to neglect my wife and not have a relationship with her.
You know, if you notice that you're slipping in an area, try to change it. Try to start
getting it right again. And you know, I myself, I'm a very busy person. I have a lot of things
going on. I sometimes notice myself, I say, you know what, this situation or this area
of my life isn't doing very good right now. So I need to work on it. And sometimes, you
know, I feel like I'm just plugging holes, right? It's like, well, this area is bad and
this, like I start working on this area and this area starts going a little bad. So it's
like, okay, go over here. And then you're kind of over here. And you know, then it starts
becoming balancing, right? But you just never want to get to a point where you just stink.
Well, this one I'm just going to stick on and just let everything else go really bad
and just get completely destroyed and ruined. You want to make sure that you're always considering
all the different aspects of life and realizing, hey, God can give you riches, could give you
wealth and honor, and then you don't even get to enjoy it. Notice what it even says
in verse 2, and of all that he desireth. Hey, you got literally everything you could want.
You got that car and then someone came out of nowhere and totaled it. Wouldn't that be
just so frustrating? You get that car and then, I remember when I was 16, so my dad
told me, he said, if you get pulled over, I'm going to take the car away for a month.
If you get a ticket, if you get, you know, if you do something wrong. And the first night
that I went out, I got pulled over. I was just like, no. And so I couldn't drive for,
you know, it was like, I mean, I just, I was like, you turn 16, you can drive, you get
the keys to the car. The first night I got a ticket. And I wasn't even trying to do anything
wrong. Basically, I was following somebody home and I just, they turned out and I turned
out behind them and the light just happened to turn green and the cop was going really
fast and he kind of had to slow down a little bit, so he just pulled me over, said, you
aren't yielding on a left turn or something. I was just like, what in the world? You know,
so it was so, it was such like a frustrating experience, but it's just like, it was just
so quickly, you know, within hours of being able to drive, I immediately lose my ability
to take, you know, drive my car around. And you know, I didn't get mad at my dad. That
was a good rule. I was mad at myself. I was kind of, I kind of blamed the situation a
little bit, but at the end of the day, I could have been a little bit more wise about that,
but a little bit more careful. But at the end of the day, it was kind of just time and
chance happened to me. I wasn't trying to be, I wasn't trying to do anything bad. I
wasn't trying to speed or anything. I was trying to observe the laws, but it was just
kind of an awkward situation. And look, sometimes when you drive, you get in an awkward situation
and you get caught and the cop catches you and you get a ticket. You know, you just roll
through a stop or you were just going a little faster than you thought you were or just whatever.
It can happen, right? Mistakes can happen when driving. That's just life. But things
can change like this. Your life can change like this. And that's why it's so important
to make sure that your priorities are correct. Why? Because one moment you have it and then
the next moment it's gone and then it's all vanity. And in verse two it says, it is an
evil disease. It's just like, it is going to like, it's kind of like a disease in the
sense that a disease lasts for a while and you're suffering. And so it's just like, just
sitting there thinking about the money you lost, the fame you lost, the honor you lost,
the car that you can't drive, you know, you're just, just all, just all the things you had
and then they just, you lose them. Some people were really popular in high school and then
they're not popular anymore. They're never popular again. And they just sit there and
they just reminisce about high school for the rest of their life. Or they reminisce
about college for the rest of their life. Or whatever great accolade or their 15 minutes
of fame. They just all, they're always just thinking about that 15 minutes of fame and
it's just kind of like this evil disease just eating away at them of how they don't
have it anymore. And he's just saying it's all vain anyways. If you didn't care about
money, if you didn't care about wealth, if you didn't care about honor, then you wouldn't
necessarily fall victim of this when it comes and goes. You know the Apostle Paul talked
about how it's important to be content whether you have poverty or riches. That he had both
and at different stages of his life he kind of experienced having a lot and then other
stages of having nothing and he's like, hey, I've decided whatever state I find myself
in, I'm going to be content. And so I think that's the real message that we're trying
to communicate here even though the author is just basically describing really bad situations.
Look at verse 3. If a man beget a hundred children and live many years so that the days
of his years be many and his soul be not filled with good and also that he have no burial,
I say that an untimely birth is better than he. He's just saying, man, if you don't even
have a good life, not even living is almost better in a sense. And, I mean, this guy had
a hundred children which, you know, for most of us we're thinking like that sounds like
a nightmare. But it's actually a positive thing. You know, we kind of live in a brainwashed
society where people think that having a lot of children is a bad thing. But especially
throughout history and most times past, having a lot of children was a blessing. It was a
honor. It was looked at as being a good thing. And so he's basically saying this person
had a hundred children. What an honor. What a privilege. What an accomplishment is what
people would have thought. And he's saying even if he had that and he lived a really
long time, it says that his days be many but it says and his soul be not filled with good
and that no one really cared about the fact that he died. Well, then I say an untimely
birth is better than the end. You know, I think there's some people throughout history,
you know, like Genghis Khan and some other kings throughout history that have had over
a hundred children where they basically had a lot of wives and they had procured a lot
of children. Now, again, for women, the max that they pretty much had, I can't remember
off the top of my head again, it's like 60 or 80 or something crazy, okay, is like the
most that they've ever had. But for men, it's like a thousand or something crazy, you know,
that the most man that's ever had. And there is actually a whole list. I remember looking
this up in the past, like several men have had well over a hundred children throughout
history because they were a king, had a lot of wives, and so they had a lot of children.
But you know, if you're a king and you have all these wives, you have all these kids,
but you're just living in misery and you're constantly in conflict, you're constantly
suffering problems, you have health issues, and then no one even really likes you, and
then when you die, everybody's just kind of glad that you died. He's just saying, like,
what was the point? What was the point of even doing that, of going through that process?
And you know who really fits this? Solomon, because Solomon is the guy that we're talking
about. I mean, this guy has a thousand women in his life, this guy has a lot of children,
and he has a lot of wisdom, but his soul's not filled with good. Towards the end of his
life he's turned away from God, his wives are convincing him to murder his children
and to sacrifice them under the altar, under Moloch. Now, I've read that carefully a lot.
I don't believe that the Bible says that Solomon killed his children, but I believe it's saying
that Solomon was consenting or basically allowing his wives to sacrifice their children
under Moloch. So, you know, still, I'm not trying to excuse it, it's horrific, it's terrible,
but at the same time, like, this guy is just, like, destroying his life, causing all kinds
of great evil, of course he begets a fool, and his son, Rehoboam, who ends up destroying
the kingdom, and ten tribes are taken away from Rehoboam, and in fact, when God gives
the two tribes in Rehoboam, he doesn't even give them for Rehoboam, he gives them for
his father's sakes. So, you know, it's kind of a complete ruin, it's a complete failure
at the end of his life. The Bible says that many strange women had turned the heart of
King Solomon away from the things of God, and of all the wisdom that he gained, it actually
made his life even worse, more sorrow, and I think for a lot of people, they would think
like, man, I would love to have been Solomon, king of basically the world, every nation
was subject unto him, he had unlimited gold, unlimited women, unlimited power, peace through
his entire kingdom, yet this guy is saying in previous chapters that he hated life. This
guy in previous chapters is talking about how vain and meaningless everything is, and
how he constantly was giving himself over to wine and giving himself over to madness
and giving himself over to folly, and yet he just hates his life. Because there's not
fulfillment in that which is carnal. There's not fulfillment in that which is carnal, and
you know, even having children, there's not going to be necessarily fulfillment in that
just having a bunch of kids. It's not going to be fulfillment in anything that is carnal,
living a long life. He's trying to say that there's so much stuff that is just meaningless,
and of course this person is not filled with good, could be interpreted a couple ways.
Maybe he's a bad person, maybe it's just that he had bad health or had bad issues or had
things taken away from him. It says that he had no burial, kind of implies that a lot
of people didn't really like him. And you know, maybe you have to ask yourself this
question, what kind of legacy are you going to leave? Because having no legacy in this
context is better than having a bad legacy. Having no legacy in this context is better
than having a bad legacy. And I think that some of us have to understand that it's important,
you know, the decisions that we make because they're going to affect others. And he's saying
this child that was never even born is better off than this person that just lived a life
that wasn't really meaningful, didn't do good things, obviously didn't really build many
relationships for no, I mean I've seen some pretty wicked people, people are coming to
this funeral. I mean for no one to come to your funeral, I mean that's a pretty sad day.
That must have been someone that nobody really, really liked at all. And so it's important
to think about the decisions that we make. And you know, it's kind of morbid, but it's
like think about like, who would come to your funeral? Do you even have people that care
about you and like you? And again, sometimes you think like, well I feel isolated. But
you have to ask yourself this question, are you investing in other people? Because if
you only invest in yourself, who's going to show up at the funeral? Well you'll be there.
But you know why people come to a funeral? Because you invested in them. Because you
were kind unto them. Because you had a relationship with that individual. And just having children,
you know children sometimes won't show up at their parents' funeral. That's a sad thing.
That's kind of disappointing. But maybe if you didn't really even care about that kid,
I mean if you have a hundred, if you have a thousand wives, I mean that's going to be
kind of difficult to manage all of that. Obviously the Bible does not teach having
multiple wives. You know, someone asked this the other night, and they were like asking
about questions about multiple wives. Look, multiple wives is always a bad thing in the
Bible. It was never a good thing. Don't become a Mormon. Don't become a Muslim. Of course,
false religion loves this doctrine, right? But even some of God's people got mixed up
in that. And today it's kind of the same. It's just they're not wives. They're just
my ex-wife, right? They still have four wives, just not simultaneous anymore. If you think
about it, a lot of people just get married, divorced, married, divorced, married, divorced,
and then they even have a string of hookups in between that. So it's just the labels that
are different today, but it's typically the same scenarios that we still see played out
in this world. And, you know, there's not fulfillment in jumping from spouse to spouse,
having all these children with all these random women, and then nobody even likes you. This
also implies, you know, an interesting thing that kind of implies is that untimely birth
is somehow better than something. You know, other passages in the Bible kind of imply
and give the point that if a child or a young baby died, that it would go to heaven. David
talks about his son dying and that his son can't come back to him, but that he will go
to him. And Job kind of talks about how an untimely birth would be better than his situation,
which if the untimely birth went to hell or ceased to exist, that wouldn't really make
it better. But if it goes to heaven, well then yeah, that would make sense. Also kind
of helps imply, you know, Jesus Christ said when he's talking about children of such as
the kingdom of heaven, maybe heaven just filled a lot of babies and a lot of kids.
And you know, some people get really upset about this. It doesn't really bother me that
much but, you know, when God would have the children of Israel come through and just wipe
out the entire heathen nation and thought it was like really bad for those little kids,
but it's like, well, they all went to heaven and they weren't raised by these really ungodly
people from an eternal perspective, it really wasn't that bad, was it? Now again, I'm not
trying to justify like killing babies. Someone's going to like twist this and be like, Pastor
Shull, I think it's cool to kill a baby. I'm not saying that, obviously I'm not for that.
God's not for that in the New Testament. There's no, there's nothing that implies that whatsoever.
But you know, if God says, hey, this entire group of people need to be disposed of properly,
well then yeah, you know, that's what you're supposed to do. But a timely birth, while
grievous, while sad, it's not entirely sad because of the fact that, hey, they still
go to heaven, you can still see them when we get to heaven, and in fact it's better
than people that lived a cruddy life. Death is not the worst outcome. The Bible often
implies that there's much worse outcomes than just death itself and even for a young child
in this scenario. There's a passage, and I'm not going to remember it, but the Bible is
talking about how there's going to be a curse on the land and how God's going to greatly
judge the land and that he's going to kill certain people as a mercy because he doesn't
want them to go through the evil that's going to happen. And you know, for some people,
the end times or some of these extreme events, they might be so bad that God could cause
them to perish quickly and then it's like merciful so they don't have to go through
the torture or the pain or the evil that's going to be associated with that coming judgment.
And so sometimes God knows better than we do. Sometimes death can even be a mercy. People
that are in great pain when they're elderly and they're suffering with maybe extreme
cancers or Parkinson's or Alzheimer's or whatever, in many cases sometimes death's
a mercy unto them that they're finally out of that pain and they're in heaven. So
sometimes we have to think about things with an eternal perspective in mind. The Bible
says in verse 4,
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered
with darkness. Moreover, he hath not seen the sun, nor known anything, this hath more
rest than the other. Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen
no good, do not all go to one place.
So the next few verses are kind of commentary on what we just discussed.
For he cometh in with vanity. This is talking about this guy that lives many years and has
a hundred children and he departs in darkness basically. He ends his life in ruin. His name
is also in ruin. And that's talking about the legacy that we talked about. Verse number
5,
Moreover, he hath not seen the sun. This is talking about the baby. So now it's kind of
switching over to the untimely birth. He never got to see the sun, okay, and he didn't even
know anything. But he still had more rest than the other in the sense that, you know,
it's a little bit less disappointing to not get a chance at something than to have had
the chance and just fail. Because at least if you didn't have the chance, you could think
like well maybe I would have done well or we just don't know. But just knowing you failed
is just some way like a little bit worse. And so I think what he's trying to imply is
like this person is going to suffer more at the judgment seat of Christ because, you know,
in the context of two people being saved, this guy would suffer more at the judgment
seat of Christ than the baby who didn't really have, you know, he's not going to have all
this wood, hay, and stubble burned up. The guy that has all this wood, hay, and stubble
burned up, well, yeah, he's going to suffer loss. But the person that just didn't even
have much to do, it's like okay, well, you know, this one technically has more rest than
the other. Obviously what's ideal is to have a long blessed life and to have gold, silver,
precious stone laid up and you're going to rejoice for the reward that you've earned.
And for those of you that I'm talking to, you weren't an untimely birth. So you can
thank God that you've been given this opportunity. But just because you weren't given an untimely
birth doesn't mean that they wouldn't have been better. You've got to actually live your
life for God and make good decisions so by the end of the day you say, okay, that was
better than me doing nothing. That was better than me not having a chance. I actually did
something with what God gave me. He didn't give me a talent and I buried it in the ground
but rather I used it and I profited the Lord with what he had given me. Verse 6, yea, though
he live a thousand years twice told, yet have ye seen no good, do not all go to one place.
Contrasting back to the rich guy, even if he lived two thousand years but he didn't
do anything good, didn't see any good, what's the point? And then it kind of makes this
interesting statement here, do not all go one place. At the end of the day, they're
all in the grave. So if we go back far enough in time, it just doesn't really matter anymore
whether it was an untimely birth or a Genghis Khan or someone that lived to be a thousand,
at this point they're all dust. What's the point? What does it matter? Verse 7, all the
labor of man is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not filled. You know, we work
and we enjoy food but it's just never enough. We always need and want more food. And I think
that he's trying to, with this particular parable or this particular metaphor, he's
trying to help us understand the concept that life is vain. Because as soon as you eat,
you need to eat again. Well that's vain. Instead of laboring for the meat which perisheth,
we should be laboring for the meat which does not perisheth. And Jesus is constantly
emphasizing this, right? Why? We should be unsatisfied with the fact that we always keep
needing drink, we always keep needing to eat, we keep needing to sleep, we keep needing
all these things, realizing that they're not really eternal. What is eternal? Eternal life,
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being saved. What is eternal? Working for the Lord
Jesus Christ and going out and preaching the Gospel and getting people saved, this has
eternal value. And so not necessarily focusing all of our effort and energy on what we eat,
you know, physically, but more importantly what we do spiritually and what we eat spiritually.
Verse 8, For what hath the wise more than the fool? What hath the poor that knoweth
the walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the
desire. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. So again, he's just looking at
it from a carnal perspective, at the end of the day, you know, what's the difference
between Jordan Peterson and the dumbest plumber that you've ever met? You know, it's just
like, what's the difference between Jordan Peterson and a flat earther? You know, that's
the fool, right? He's just saying, like, what's the point in one of these really intelligent
people, Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins or some seminary professor or Elon Musk or
Donald Trump and the poor beggar and saying, at the end of the day, does it even matter?
He says in verse 9, Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.
I think that, you know, an application we can take from this verse, which I think is
a kind of an interesting verse, is that seeing something is better than wishing you had something.
And it's more like having something is better than wanting to have something. Now, here's
an application I thought of. What's better is to have a wife than an imaginary girlfriend.
Your wife is better to look at than whatever you can dream up in your head. You know, there's
a lot of men, again, in this world that they dream up, this woman that they want to be
married to, and then they're overlooking actual women. And the Bible is saying, hey, the sight
of the eyes is better than the wandering of the desire. Meaning, like, having a wife is
better than daydreaming about it and constantly just imagining it, and you know what, it looks
way better, too. That's what he's saying. The sight of the eyes, what you get to actually
see and what's actually real. And I think that one of the applications we can take from
this is, you know, and this is kind of a programming term, maybe it's not limited to programming,
but it's like don't let perfect get in the way of good. Who's heard this? Has anybody
heard this? Okay, a few people. So it's not programming, but it's used in programming
a lot. It's like don't let perfect stop you from enjoying good, or getting in the way
of good. And what does that mean? It means that sometimes people have so much of an idealistic
viewpoint, an idealistic want list, that they're not willing to accept something that's good.
And so they can't even enjoy something that's good, or have something that's good. Well,
that's not good enough. Or that's not perfect enough, and it kind of stymies production,
but it stymies your ability to actually make decisions and do things because you're a
perfectionist. And look, perfectionists are good people. We need them in our lives. They
help make things better, but nothing will ever be perfect. Nothing will ever be exact.
And so sometimes we just have to recognize and step back and say, you know what, this
is still good though. This is good. There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, can we make improvement?
Sure. But this is good. We should apply this to our relationships. We should apply this
to our wives and to our husbands. And here's one thing. Don't wait to enjoy your spouse
until they're perfect. Don't wait to enjoy your spouse until they're perfect. Just recognize
they're, even though they're not perfect, they're good right now. So why can't I just
enjoy what good I have right now? And does that mean that we shouldn't improve? No, we
should improve. Does that mean that we can't offer to our spouse loving and gentle correction
and saying, I wish you would improve in this area? No, of course we should. But you know
what, we should still enjoy the good that's there than the wandering of desire. Hey, just
enjoying the wife that I have is so much better than imagining I wish my wife were like this.
Here's another one. How about your church? You know what's better than an imaginary new
IFB church in your area? The IFB church in your area. You know, or like some people might
even have this attitude of like, well, I wish I went to this church. I only have steadfast.
You know, but I wish it was this church or I wish my pastor was this pastor. Then I would
really listen to the sermon. Then I'd actually bring my Bible. Then I would actually show
up on Wednesday night. Then I wouldn't sleep during the service. Whatever it is, it's like,
you know, we're not a perfect church. We'll never be a perfect church. I'll never be a
perfect pastor. But you know what's better than your imaginary perfect pastor, an imaginary
perfect church is steadfast Baptist church because it's a good church. It's a good church.
And you know what, there's also good people here. Stop worrying about a perfect friend
and make friends with the good friends that you have in this option. I think that we just,
we sometimes get trapped in this idea of, well, I'm waiting for it to be perfect and
we ignore things that are good. We want to dream up all kinds of stuff and we ignore
the stuff that are just real. And it's saying the stuff that is real, the stuff that we
can see, hey, this is what we need to live for. Instead of worrying about all the things
that you don't have, why don't you focus on the things that you do have. Get excited
about the King James Bible. Get excited about the church that you have. Get excited about
the relationships you have. You know, get excited about the family that you have. Say
like, man, I wish I had a different family, said everyone at some point in their life.
I wish I had better parents or I wish I had better siblings or I wish I had more siblings.
Strangely enough, I actually had a roommate, was an only child, and I remember I asked
him, I was like, do you ever wish that you had like a brother or sister? And he's like,
no. So then I would have to share. I was like, what's wrong with you? I think he was an anomaly
I hope, okay. But even myself included, like I had a brother and a sister. They were much
older than me and so they were out of the house at a very young age. I didn't really
interact with them that much. But I would have loved to have had more siblings and especially
ones around my age and gotten to have more fellowship with them and hang out with them
and that sounds great. That's wonderful. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have wanted more
brothers and sisters. You know, instead of, well, I wish I had this awesome brother, why
don't I love the brother that I have the best that I can and love the sister that I have
the best that I can and love, you know, the car that I have. A lot of people like to look
online at all these cars that they wish they had. I know. I know you're out there. Okay.
Just enjoy the car that you have. And you know what? Driving any car can be fun. You
know, even, I mean, a lot of us when we were 16, the cars that we had were junk in comparison
to what we drive now, but we loved it. We were just like, this is awesome. This is a
hot rod, right? This is $2,000 worth of metal junk, but I love it. You know, my first car
was a $2,000 Honda Accord. It was teal, had like 250,000 miles and I loved it. Okay. It
was great. It was so much better than the imaginary car that I didn't have. You know,
of course, in my mind, I'm driving some, you know, Ford GT that costs like a half a million
dollars. Never going to drive that probably. But you know what? My Honda Accord was so
much better than me just daydreaming about the car that I don't have. You know what's
better is to have a job than the job that you wish you had. Oh, I would just love going
to work if I had this imaginary job that I don't have. Okay, great. But why don't you
just enjoy whatever job you do have? I mean, couldn't we apply this to almost everything?
And I think that we all struggle with this from time to time where we start thinking,
I wish I had this house. But you know what? The house that you have I guarantee is better
than your imaginary house. There's a lot of homeless people living in some imaginary houses
and I guarantee they would way rather live wherever you're living. They'd way rather
have the things that you have. You know, maybe you wish you had a different body. A lot of
people wish they were taller. I mean, I was that my whole life. They're stronger, bigger,
you know, slimmer, more attractive, whatever it is. More facial hair, less hair. I don't
know. People are always, you know, wishing basically the opposite of whatever they have.
It's like girls that have curly hair by straightening irons and girls that have straight hair by
curling irons. It's like, how does that even make sense? Wouldn't you think, like, objectively
would just be like, well, straight hair is the best. And so everybody wants to straighten.
The people that have straight hair, they're just lucky. But no, the girls that have straight
hair are so mad that they don't have curly hair and all the girls that have curly hair
are so mad that they don't have straight hair. And you're just thinking, like, what in the
world? And you know, every guy is like, I like your hair how it is. You know, it's just
like, what's wrong? People wish they had a different color hair. People wish they had
different clothes. People wish they had all kinds of different stuff out there. I'm just
telling you, people could wander and wish for anything and everything that could possibly
be imagined. But you know what's better? Whatever you have. Whatever it is that you have, you've
been fearfully and wonderfully made. Just enjoy what you have. Enjoy the reality of
your life. Be focused in on what's actually going on. Because, you know, whatever you
dream up, well, it's vanity and it doesn't matter. It's going to vex your spirit anyways.
Because you probably won't have it. Daydreaming doesn't really accomplish much. Look at verse
number 10. That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man. Neither may
he contend with him that is mightier than he. You know, verse 10 kind of reminds us
of another passage that's been brought up in Ecclesiastes about how there's no new thing
under the sun. What it's saying is there's no new situation. Of course, I think some
people would say, oh, the Bible's wrong because we have technology. We have computers and
stuff. Sure. I do not believe computers have always existed. Don't believe the reality
deniers out there, okay? Some people would love to tell you that all the technologies
we have always existed or something. They're weird. Stay away from that person. But of
course technology has changed, but situations haven't changed. People were able to gossip
before Facebook. They were just writing notes to each other. They were just whispering in
each other's ear. I mean, if you think about a lot of the things they have in like the
social media lingo, it's just situational stuff. It's like you get poked. It's a private
message. You know, it's just they're whispering. You know, it's all the same kind of stuff.
And it's just different vehicles that carry your pigeons. That's your tweets. You didn't
think that Twitter was invented back then. Twitter existed. It was just you were waiting
for the bird to show up with their little tweet. And of course there's 140 characters.
They have all their different methods. Of course the methods have changed. But look,
people were washing clothes and growing crops and eating food and making drink and hanging
out and going to church and reading the Bible and not reading the Bible and playing sports
and putting on makeup and going shopping and abandoning their kids and committing abortion
and committing murder and lying and stealing and playing all kinds of music and dancing
and dating and adultery and fornication. It's already happened. And you know what's interesting?
You cannot dream up a scenario that the Bible does not cover. Doesn't that validate everything
the Bible says? I mean, think about it. If the Bible wasn't the Word of God, you'd be
constantly inventing all these scenarios and you're thinking, like, what about this? The
Bible doesn't ever address this. It doesn't address this. And it's like, no, the Bible
really does address everything. Now, albeit it doesn't necessarily give express detail
to every nuance of every situation, but it addresses every situation from at least a
high level perspective. And sometimes people come with you with, like, really nuanced doctrine.
I remember somebody's, like, telling me, so I have this Sunday school teacher, this lady
Sunday school teacher that's teaching heresy. Does the Bible address that? And it's like,
well, not that specific scenario, but it says that women shouldn't be preachers. Case closed.
You know, it's like, yeah, sure, it doesn't maybe address it the way you want it to be
addressed. It doesn't address it in that nuance, but sure, it gives an answer to that scenario.
It's like, how do we solve, you know, whether someone's transitioning from a male or a female?
Well, it says to put sodomites to death. It doesn't matter if they were transitioning
or not. They're transitioning into death. That's what they're transitioning into. Saves
a lot of medical headache. I mean, it's just like, people just get so concerned, like,
ah, the Bible doesn't address it. Yes, it does. It addresses literally every single
situation, scenario you could ever dream up. It's already happened. It already will
happen. You can't come up with something new. Which, if that's true, of course I believe
that's true, if every scenario, if every situation has ever been thought of or ever could happen,
has already happened and already been declared in the Bible, then who am I to say that I
have a better idea than what this says? Who am I to suggest that I have greater wisdom
than this book which has already told us how to handle every single situation? We must
submit ourselves to the Bible and recognize, look, this book existed before I was even
a twinkle in my Father's eye. Every word, every line, every page, maybe not this physical
one I'm holding, but the King James Bible sure did. And so who am I to come along and
then say, I'm smarter than this book or I'm smarter than God's wisdom or I have a different
way? You know, we should always submit to whatever this says because it's always right.
You can't come up with something better. It's already been named. And then by doing this,
what do you do? Well, in the latter part of this, you're contending with Him that is mightier
than you. Who's that God? How can I sit here and contend with God and accuse God or tell
God He's wrong or suggest that I have a better insight or, well, God, you probably just didn't
think about this. And this is what many churches are doing today with their modern culture
where they say, well, the Bible's a little antiquated. We need to update it to come up
with the times. Well, now you're contending with God because the Word of God is a timeless
classic and everything you can dream up has already been named. Yes, there were already
freaks just like you in the times past and we already know how to deal with you. You're
not coming up with some new situation, some new event. Yes, Sodom and Gomorrah has already
existed, buddy. Yes, Pompeii has already existed. And you know what? He nuked both of them.
Not in a nuclear warhead, but he rained fire and brimstone down from heaven and he consumed
them. I don't know how he did it in Sodom, but in Pompeii, he did it through a volcano.
And it was literally raining fire and brimstone and destroyed those individuals for their
wickedness and for their evil and they were just like Sodom. And to think that we're smarter
or we'll escape that judgment is a fool's errand. Oh, well, who cares what two people
do in private? Well, I think you're going to care when it's raining fire and brimstone
down on your head because we are God's creation and he does not like sin and he gets mad at
us for tolerating sin. In fact, when we hide our eyes, as the Bible describes in Leviticus
chapter 20 when it starts out with all of its really hateful rhetoric, it's saying when
the land, when the people hide their eyes, well, God's going to cut those people off
too. You can't just ignore sin. You can't just ignore serious issues. You know, we'd
love to just ignore things. Hey, Achan stole the Babylonian garment. Let's just ignore
that and go and inherit the promised land. Oops, not going to work out. God's not going
to let you win the battle when you just ignore sin in the camp. You have to deal with sin.
You have to deal with issues. You have to deal with problems. And we're not smarter
than God. Every situation that could ever be dreamed up, God already has the solution.
And so if we find ourselves in a scenario that's uncomfortable, that we don't like it, that
we may not even agree with what the Bible says, it doesn't seem like a positive outcome
when you just do it anyways. When you just do whatever the Bible says and it's not like
God is like, you know what, I didn't think about that one. Oh, man, you're right. That's
a better idea. No, he already figured it all out. He already knows what's the best situation
and we just need to always just do whatever it says. Good, bad, ugly. He's always going
to bless what's biblical the best and we just need to do that. Verse 11, seeing there be
many things that increase vanity, what is the man the better? So everything's brought
up in the last few verses, plus you include the other chapters, he's just saying the things
in our life, most of them just increase vanity. Having more money, having more wealth, having
more children, having more length of days, having all these different things in our lives,
eating and being rich and being wise and knowing what to do. It's like, what is the point?
How does that make anyone better? The answer is it doesn't. Verse 12, for who knoweth what
is good for man in this life? All the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow,
for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? So again, he kind of just
ends this chapter with a lot of questions and this is why I want to say again, chapter
six is just not a very uplifting chapter. Okay. That's why we want to keep reading and
we're going to study the rest of these chapters, but it kind of just ends like what's the point?
And it's like, he's kind of like alluding, like there is no point, you know, and you
don't even know what's going to happen afterwards, right? Who knoweth what is good for man in
this life? All the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow. Life's going to go
quickly, it's vain, and we can't even tell what's going to happen after. But there is
one aspect of this that I still want to focus on in verse 12, for who knoweth what is good
for man in this life? I think that this to me is an interesting phrase and the concept
is we don't really know what is good from an eternal perspective. We don't know what
is good from an eternal perspective. Now, I want to go to one more verse, go to Romans
chapter eight. Let me explain my thoughts here. In some ways we can think like, man,
I just wish we had peace, and prosperity, and money, and wealth. But you know who had
that? Solomon. And here's the question, did Solomon's life really end up well having all
those things? You know, does having a lot of money and having a lot of wealth and having
all these things, is that really going to be good in the greater scheme of things? You
look at somebody that kind of has the opposite, how about the Apostle Paul? Stripped away
from his position, loses his money, beaten, scourged, he's kind of hated of all men, deserted
of all men, thrown in prison often. But who really accomplished more in their lives? I
mean, again, I don't want to take away from Solomon, he had some good accomplishments
in the early part of his life, but he kind of ends his life in ruin. He ends his life
in shame. It doesn't appear that he's getting a lot of people saved in a personal capacity
towards the end of his life, especially when you're allowing your wives to sacrifice your
children under Moloch. What does the Apostle Paul gave? Well the Apostle Paul starts churches
all over the world and gets a lot of people saved, yet he has to go through a lot of evil
in his own personal life. And I think that for some of us we may think like, that we
know what's best for us in the future. We know what would be the best outcome, where
the best places to live, the best occupation, the best spouse, the best, all these things
that we kind of haven't planned out, we kind of think what's best. But maybe God's going
to throw a wrench in your plans at some point. And we have to sometimes think about, maybe
God is going to throw a wrench in because He knows better than we do. And to not get
discouraged when wrenches are thrown into our paths. Look at what it says in Romans
chapter 8 verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to His purpose. I guarantee that the Apostle Paul didn't really
appreciate getting thrown in prison and taken captive in Jerusalem. I don't know that he
thought that was going to turn out well. But you know it ended up working okay, he still
got to Rome, he still got to minister to some of those people, he still got to preach to
some of those people. I'm sure that Jonah didn't really understand how it was going
to work when he was in the whale's belly. But eventually he gets vomited out and gets
to walk to Nineveh, you know he preaches a message of doom, and then God throws a wrench
in his plan. Because he's just like nuke these people in his mind. He's just like, yet 40
days and God shall overthrow. And then he doesn't. And you know what, he's kind of pissed
about it. He's upset about it. He hates that decision. He disagrees with God on that decision.
But you know what, God knew better. And I guarantee Jonah in his perfect state, in his
sanctified state, he appreciates that God spared Nineveh because I'm sure some people
got saved out of that too. And so he's probably still rejoicing with those Ninevites that
got saved, even though in the flesh, in the carnal, he may have really despised that decision
in the moment. Job at one point wished that he had died. He wished that he could die.
But do you think after he was recovered, after he'd had 10 more children, and he got to enjoy
his children and he's rejoicing, do you think in that moment he's like, you know what, I'm
glad God didn't kill me back then. And I think that sometimes we may have moments in our
life that God's going to throw a wrench. That God's going to do something and it's going
to make no sense to us. It's a curve ball. We don't like it. Hey, how about when your
pastor is resigning? I mean, Steadfast Baptist Church literally had to have a moment where
their pastor was resigning and that was probably pretty devastating for a lot of people. I
mean, who was here when that happened? Yeah, a lot of people. A lot of people were here
when that happened. I'm sure that that didn't feel good. But you know what, I bet in hindsight
they're saying like, well, even though it wasn't that pleasant and I didn't enjoy that
period in my life or I had some hardship, you know, I'm glad I still stuck with church.
I'm glad I still stuck with God. And you know, I think that God still blessed, you know,
a lot of the people in this room, given them opportunities to go soul winning and to grow
spiritually and maybe they've even grown their family physically. And so I guarantee they
can look back and say, you know, I didn't didn't make sense at the time. I was discouraged.
It didn't look good. But somehow God brought good out of that. You know, there's been a
lot of times in my life where I haven't gotten it. It didn't make sense. There's still things
in my life that I kind of look back and I don't even see how it was good. But it's probably
just because I don't get it. But this is what I know. All things work together for good
to them that love God. Amen. All things. I believe that. And you know, time typically
shows us how that's true. You know, I've lost things. I've had I've been stolen, ripped
off all kinds of bad things. You know, there was an example where I got ripped off really
bad and I've always wondered, like, why? And it's really been a mental anguish for me.
But then I reflected on it. I'm like, you know, even though I lost out on stuff like
that, I think it gave me better character as a person. And it makes me a little bit
wiser as a person. And like, how much money can I put on that? How much money can you
put on wisdom or having more character or being a little bit more humble of a person?
You know, maybe God brings evil in your life just to humble you. And then you're just a
better person because you're humble as opposed to just staying prideful, doing things and
thinking that you're better than you really are and just being a jerk. You know, I'm like,
if God had made me a little bit taller and and I had had made a few different decisions,
maybe I would have played, you know, quarterback in high school or something. Well, that sounds
cool. But you know what? If I had played quarterback in high school and done really well, I might
have thought that I was pretty hot stuff. I might have thought that I was a pretty cool
dude, like, oh, man, I'm awesome. And I might have really relished in that. And I may have
not really pursued God the same way in my life because of my physical prowess or because
of the accolades that I have. You know, maybe God sometimes causes us to not have the things
we want because he has a better plan for us and a better desire for us. And we don't
know what's necessarily good in our life. Maybe we even just need a lot of evil in our
life to allow us to be empathetic to other people. There's going to be someone in your
life that you can have compassion on. Some people have bad situations. Some people have
parents that abandon them or they were adopted. My grandfather was adopted. And you know what?
I'm glad that they adopted him and raised him and I exist. My parents were pretty much
done with kids, but then they decided, I don't know, somehow they had a kid. Like, my brother's
eight years older than me. My mom was like 43 when she had me. I'm glad she had me. I'm
glad I get to exist. Sometimes you have that whoops baby, right? Sometimes you have weird
things happen. But you know what? It could still be good. You could have a bad relationship.
Maybe learn stuff from that relationship. I'm just throwing stuff out there because
we're going to all probably have a few wrenches in our lives. We're going to have disappointing
days. We're going to have things that didn't go the way we planned them. And I want you
to realize that all things can still work together for good. Maybe your marriage didn't
turn out the way you were hoping. Maybe your job or your career isn't going the way that
you wished it was. Maybe your health isn't going the way you wished it was. Maybe your
finances aren't going the way you wished it was. Maybe you don't even live where you want
to live. Maybe you had a friend and now that friendship has changed. And that's frustrating
to you. But don't be discouraged. We don't know what's actually good. We don't know what's
really good. But you know what? We can learn from all the life situations that God puts
us through. And we can try to use them for His honor and for His glory. And recognize
that life is sometimes messy. Life is sometimes ugly. Life doesn't always go the way we wish
it would. But then a lot of times it ends up turning out better than we would have planned
it anyways. Or, even if it's not better for us, it's better for Christ. It's better for
the cause of Christ. More people get saved out of it. And I just throw this out there.
What if someone had a bad relationship and they don't have a great family life but then
they spent more time soul winning in their life and got more people saved? And so through
your misfortune, other people got saved. I've always thought this. If something bad happens
like your flight gets delayed or something bad happens. I'm always thinking like, maybe
I'm supposed to go give the gospel to somebody right now. And I wouldn't have gotten that
person saved because I would have just been on the flight and not caring. But because
of this misfortune, maybe I can take this opportunity to turn it into something good.
And so, maybe just have the right outlook on life and say, I don't know what's going
to happen. I don't even know why this is happening. It doesn't even make sense to me.
I'm frustrated with them missing my flight. But, you know, like Paul and Silas, they're
thrown in prison. This is a good opportunity to sing praises and get somebody saved. Aren't
you glad they had that attitude as opposed to just sitting here complaining against God
or something? Because when they sing praises, the door is slung open, the Philippian jailer
falls down, serves what must be to be saved. We should just always be ready for God to
turn a situation into good and take advantage of the opportunities we have because the sight
of the eyes is better than the wandering of desire. This goes in perfect. Thank you, Heavenly
Father, so much for what you have given us. Thank you so much for the Word of God. Thank
you for this church. Thank you for the relationships that we have. Thank you for the experiences
that we've had. I pray that you would help us to realize that you know better than us.
We shouldn't contend with you. I pray that you would just help us to have the right outlook
on life and try to have more of an eternal perspective. And even though we may not understand
what's going on, that you would still allow us to have the right attitude and try to make
the best of every situation we have. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, for our
final song we're going to go to song number 134, my anchor holds. Song 134. Song 134,
my anchor holds. Sing it out. Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul,
my anchor holds. My anchor holds. Though your wildness then o'gale, all my barks are small
I shall not fail, for my anchor holds. My anchor holds. Mighty tides around me sweep,
pharaohs learn within the deep. Angry clouds or shade the sky, and the tempest rises high.
Still I stand, the tempest shark, for my anchor grips the rock, and it holds my anchor holds.
Though your wildness then o'gale, all my barks are small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds. My anchor holds. I can feel the anchor fast, as I'm each sudden last.
And the cable though I will see, bears the heav'nly strain between. Through the storm I safely ride,
till the turning of the tide, and it holds my anchor holds. Though your wildness then o'gale, all my barks are small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds. My anchor holds. Don't last, trouble's all around us all.
Griefs like billows o'er me roll, tender sea to lure us straight. Storms that's pure the light of day,
but in Christ I can be bold. I've an anchor that shall hold, and it holds my anchor holds. Though your wildness then o'gale, all my barks are small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds. My anchor holds.