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All right, we're in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and we'll finish up chapter 12 here today with a second sermon, kind of make an application from the first sermon. And what the first sermon was basically about was about the evil days, the aging process of man, the aging process of people, and how your body breaks down. And then we ended with verse eight, where it said, vanity of vanity, say the preacher, all is vanity. And the reason why it says that is because it's talking about your body getting older as you go, and everything in this world, your physical life, it's basically vanity. It's kind of meaningless, okay? It's not bad to have hobbies, like I like to work out and try to stay in shape. But look, no matter how good of shape I ever become in, no matter how strong I am or how fast I am, it means nothing when you're dead, okay? It's all vanity if that's what your life is about. And so some people would look at that and say, you know what, then what's the purpose of even living? Now as Christians, that's a stupid attitude because we have a purpose, okay? But the world out there, they do think like that. Now notice what it says in verse nine, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. And the Bible says that the preacher, understanding that your life is ending, you're getting older, he still chose to teach knowledge. He still made it a point to preach the truth, okay? So back to Luke chapter 12, Luke 12, you say, well, wouldn't it be obvious he preached the truth as a preacher? Well, I mean, just think of Hezekiah in the Bible. Hezekiah was a good man of God and he had this attitude, well, I don't care what happens after I die. He didn't train up Manasseh and Manasseh became wicked as a result. He's like, well, it's good if it's peace in my days. And so a lot of people, they take this attitude, well, if it's not going to benefit me, what's really the purpose? My life's coming to an end, I don't really care, okay? Well, notice what it says in Luke 12 verse 16, verse 16, and he spake a parable onto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room to where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. So we're looking at a man who has lots of food and he doesn't have anywhere to put it. I mean, that's a good problem to have is that you got lots of food, you got all the money in the world. I don't even know how to spend this money. I got so much stuff. And he's like, you know what? I'm just going to basically pull down the barns and build a bigger one. Just store up all of the stuff I've accumulated. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou has much, much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. There are a lot of people in this world, they will not tell you this is their philosophy on life. But this is their philosophy. Eat, drink and be merry. Just live it up in the flesh. Have fun. Just do whatever you want to do. Well, Solomon, didn't he try that? Solomon said, I'm going to please the flesh. And then what did he say? Vanity of vanities said all is vanity. It's a waste. It's a pointless life, you're doing that. And this man builds up, I've got everything in the world, all big, great, build great barns so I can have everything. Notice verse 20. But God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou has provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. He says, you know what? You're a fool. You build up everything in this life. And then once you're gone, what's the purpose? You're leaving it to nobody. It's a waste. Okay. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't work hard. I'm not saying you shouldn't make money. I'm not saying it's sinful to have money. In fact, the Bible says you should pass on to your kids. That's a principle taught in the Bible. But what I'm saying is if your life is about money, you are wasting your life. There are no eternal rewards for how much you make it your job. No eternal rewards for that. You know, if you go back to the Egyptian culture, what did they do when they died? The Egyptians, when they died, they would bury themselves with their stuff. They'd bury themselves with gold, bury themselves with silver, with earrings and everything. And the purpose was, I can take this into the next world with me. That's what they believed. And so Egyptians would make lots and lots of money. They would bury them. So pharaohs that accumulated all this money in the grave would be all this gold with them. Because somehow they figured they're going to take it to the next life. Man, what a fool, right? I mean, they might have been a very smart person in terms of secular wisdom, but what a fool. I mean, you're wasting that gold. You have it in the ground. Nobody's going to have it now. You didn't pass it on to your kids. But look, if we just live it up in this life, it's a waste. You get no rewards in heaven. You don't take that with you, okay? So look, there's nothing wrong with making money. There's nothing wrong with working hard, but there's something wrong with living your life just for now, when this life is just over in a moment. Turn to Psalms 90, Psalms 90. You know, when I got saved, I realized what the meaning of life was, what the purpose of life was. You know, now that I was saved, I realized I need to lead other people to the Lord. Now, I didn't fully understand how I was going to do that or what that meant or the implications. I didn't understand that, but I understood, well, this is the purpose to life. I don't understand Christians that haven't figured out what the purpose to life is because I figured it out right when I got saved. When I got saved, I immediately realized, what can I do to get other people saved? And yet there's a lot of Christians, they believe on Jesus, and they don't seem to understand that the purpose of their life is to lead other people to the Lord. I don't get it because I figured that out when I was 18 years old. I didn't know any Bible verses, just the verses that were quoted to me when I got saved. I didn't know any Bible verses, but I knew what the meaning of life was. And yet it seems like a lot of Christians, they think the meaning of life is to build a big barn with lots of fruits, just like it is in Luke 12. Notice what it says in Psalms 90, Psalms 90 verse nine, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Now what does that mean in Psalms 90 verse nine where it says a tale that is told? Well, think of a fairy tale. A fairy tale is a story, a Disney movie or whatever, where it's like this fake story that basically is entertaining or whatever, and basically it's a tale, it's a story. The Bible says we live our lives, we spend our years as a tale that is told. Basically, look, when you die, okay, people will tell stories about you. You won't be able to stop that, right? When your kids or your cousins or nephews or whatever, they will tell stories about your life and who you were. You cannot prevent that. You can't stop them from talking about you. But what you can do is you can live your life in a way where you know what they will be talking about you about. Do you understand what I'm saying? Your life is like a story that's going to be told, and you get to write that story. You don't get to tell that story. It's going to be told whether you like it or not. You get to write that story, and if you're a soul winner that spends all your life living for God, the story they're going to tell about you, well, you wrote it. The story's going to be, man, what a great soul winner, or I hate that guy, Scott, because he was always talking about the Bible. It's going to be one or the other, right? People that like you, people that are saved, though, they're going to tell a story, and they're going to talk about all the great things you do, right? They're going to say, man, I remember that time he got that person saved. He was so zealous. He chased that guy down in the street. He gave him the gospel. He ends up getting saved. They're going to tell stories like that. You are writing your own story. You're not telling your story. You spend your life. The way you spend your years is the story you are writing, and then somebody's going to tell a story about you. They're going to talk about that, okay? So what is the story you want to write? Do you want people to say 20 years from now, man, brother so-and-so, man, he made a lot of money. Is that the story you want told about your life? Or sister so-and-so, man, she really loved this hobby. She spent a lot of time on Facebook. Man did she love Facebook, okay? Man did she like to gossip, okay? What story do you want people to tell about you? Because the way you live your life, you are writing that story. It's going to be told whether you like it or not, okay? It's like, you know what? People from your past, you know, my granddad, well, three out of my four grandparents are passed away, and you know what? Every once in a while I think of their names and I tell a story based on how they chose to live their life. I've said before my granddad on my mom's side, he died an atheist. So it's like, you know, I'm not telling stories about him being a soul winner. It's like based on how you live your life, people will tell stories, they'll tell tales about you. You write that story, and then they're going to tell it about you. So you have to ask yourself, how do you want that story written? What do you want said about your life? We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet is their strength, labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Now, score means twenty, okay? So three score is three times twenty, that's sixty, and ten, so sixty plus ten is seventy years. And if by reason of strength they be eighty years, four score years. So basically you live about seventy years, and if you're basically in pretty good shape and the silver cord isn't loose too early or whatever like that, you live to be eighty years old, it's like, you know what, that's a pretty long life. Today nothing's changed in thousands of years later. People live to be about seventy, eighty years old. Sometimes people live longer, like my grandmother's ninety, ninety-five I believe, you know, she's a lot older than that, but in general you live seventy, eighty years. Some people live less time, some live more time, but look, you're only going to live a certain amount of time, okay? If I live to be seventy years old, half of my life is already gone. More than half, because I'm thirty-five years old now, okay? And look, you don't get that time back because it's like clouds don't return after the rain, the Bible said in Ecclesiastes chapter twelve. And so realize, you're going to live about seventy or eighty years, okay? Verse eleven, who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The Bible says, teach us to number our days. And if we would actually number our days, it would actually cause us to apply our hearts unto wisdom. Me and my friends in college, we took this literally and we really wrote down how many days we had left to live based on seventy to eighty years. And what we found was it was a lot less than we thought. It's like when you really look at it, you're like, man, this is really flying by. It's not as much time. And that was like fifteen years ago. It's like time flies. And look, if you literally, and I'd encourage you to do that, go to Microsoft Excel or get out a calculator, just multiply seventy times three sixty-five or three sixty-five point two five, and you'll see how many days you live in your entire life. And then realize and count away all the days that are already gone. And you're going to see it's actually not that much. And if we realized how short our life is, that it soon cut off, the Bible says, it would help us apply our hearts unto wisdom. Okay. Turn back to Ecclesiastes chapter twelve. Actually turn to Ecclesiastes one, no, no, Ecclesiastes twelve, Ecclesiastes twelve. And look, this sermon series, so to speak, these two sermons, this is not meant to depress you. It's meant to be completely honest with you though, because I don't want you to waste your life. This is reality. Okay. It might not be the most, man, it's not the most exciting sermon Brother Stuckey's preaching. It's reality though. And the reality is your life's not that long. Okay. The reality is it's going to soon be cut off. It's going to be gone. And look, that should not depress us as Bible believing Christians. It shouldn't depress us because you can live for God when you're forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred years old. Okay. And look, you know what's funny is pro athletes, you know, their whole life is about sports. Okay. People that are pro athletes and look, pro athletes, I don't really think by and large they're lazy people because they literally will spend hours and hours and hours just practicing and getting better at throwing a ball through a hoop or kicking a soccer ball or whatever. They spend hours and hours and hours. But you know what happens to those people once they reach thirty five years old and they're losing their ability and they have to retire. A lot of them go into deep depression. A lot of them commit suicide. Why? Because their whole life is over. Because their life was about sports. Their life was being great at sports. And look, you're not going to be a great basketball player when you're forty five years old. You're not going to be in the NBA when you're forty five years old. Right. Because you lose the ability. You lose your strength. You lose your speed. You lose the ability. I mean, you get sore. You don't, your muscles don't recover as much. You're not going to have that ability. And if your life is lived based on something that's going to pass away, it's meaningless. OK. But if your life is based on leading people to the Lord, you can be a soul winner till you're 100 years old. You can still get people saved and your life always has a meaning. And you know, what I hope to do is teach my son and my daughter the importance of living for God. And even when I'm 60 years old and I don't have all the same abilities and I can't spend four hours out soul winning, maybe just an hour and I don't have as much energy. Look, I hope, though, I can still look at my kids that are soul winners and man, I'll be excited every time I hear they got somebody saved. Not only do you partake in that reward if you help train them, but realize you realize your life has a meaning. It has a purpose. If you're not a soul winner, I'm not sure what the purpose of your life is. It's a pretty vain existence, to be honest. That's the reality. Ecclesiastes 12, verse nine. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. The wise person will look at how short life is and say, you know what? Since it's short, I'm going to do as much as I can to serve God during that time period. The foolish person would say, well, it's short. I might as well just have fun and waste my life, right? The wise one will say, you know what? I'm still going to teach the people knowledge. I'm still going to make sure I'm teaching and helping people out. Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. It says he sought out, seeking out, okay? And you know, honestly, the sad thing is most preachers, they don't seek out much at all when they write their sermons. When it's saying seeking out, it's basically saying spending a lot of time working on that sermon and learning what that passage is about. Not just, well, I just kind of wrote something down in 10 minutes, I'll just kind of wing it. Look, that is not how you preach sermons. The wise preacher is going to spend a lot of time on their sermons, okay? Now, look, I'm not the greatest preacher in the world, but I do spend a lot of time on my sermons. These sermons weren't just, oh, five minutes, it's done, I'll just, what does an almond tree mean? I'll just look it up and just write something down. It's like, no, I put some real heart and soul, I put some real time and energy into this, okay? And I want you to realize there's a lot of preachers, they don't seek out much at all because all they do is read a commentary to come up with their sermons. See the wise preacher will actually read the Bible, look at it. I mean, last night I looked at my sermon and I made changes because I was looking through it and I said, you know what? I think I could word it better like this or explain it better, add this example. And that is what a wise preacher is going to do. The sad thing is that most churches, yeah, preachers don't really care that much. Why? Why I'm saved and on my way to heaven, I still get my paycheck no matter how much time I spend on my sermon, so why even spend a lot of time? Now they're not going to tell you that, but that's actually how they feel. It's like I'm going to heaven, I'm saved, I'm full time in the ministry, no big deal if I don't spend a lot of time. That's the reason why you're not at those churches right now. Because of the fact you're at churches that didn't teach you anything. That's the reality. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth. And so verse 10 is really highlighting basically going to the Bible to find those words, right? Obviously the Bible is always acceptable words and what was written was upright even words of truth. There is no errors in this book. These are words of truth. Commentaries are mostly filled with errors. I'm not saying they're wrong on everything, but they're certainly wrong on a lot, okay? And I'm not saying you can never go to another preacher. Like if I was going to preach a sermon on a chapter, I might go and listen to a pastor I respect to get another opinion. You know, during the Revelation series, like I'm memorizing the chapters in Revelation, I'm searching it out and then I'm also listening to some other sermons to see is there anything that I missed from this passage? You know what I don't do is just listen to a sermon and write down everything they say and say, well, I don't really care. You know, I'll just repeat what they say. No, that's not how you preach a sermon. And what the Bible says here is the preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth. And so look, when you preach sermons, if you get a chance to preach here or in Pampanga, and even if you never want to be a pastor, the rule still applies. You make sure you studied out what you're talking about. You make sure what you're saying are words of truth. Okay. And let me tell you something. What that means is you actually look at every passage you're preaching and make sure this is not just something I heard preached by a pastor I respect, but I actually searched it out myself and I know it's true because here's something I know for sure. Any preacher you respect, any of the godly pastors out there, any of them that I respect, when they preach things, they sound like they're correct and they're usually are correct. Ninety whatever percent of the time they're going to be right. Ninety whatever percent of the time I'm going to be right. But they're not going to be right 100% of the time. You have to understand, nobody has studied deeply every chapter of the Bible. Okay. You know, if I preached a sermon on Ezekiel, I've never done a deep study on Ezekiel. So if you ask me my opinion, I'll probably have an opinion because I've heard things preached. I may have looked at it a little bit, but I could easily be wrong. And when you hear things preached in sermons, I'm sure every pastor you respect, I'm sure myself, I've said things that weren't quite right and it's something I heard another preacher say and it sounded right, but it actually isn't quite what it's talking about. And so when you preach sermons, make sure everything you're saying is not just something you've heard preached before, but when you looked at it, you said, this is what it seems like to me. This is what the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of truth inside of me is saying. And look, sometimes you're going to find it doesn't always line up with what you thought it was. Make sure whatever you're preaching is correct. And here's the thing. When you preach sermons, if you are not sure about something, either don't preach it or say, this is my opinion of what the almond tree is, okay? Don't act like this is for sure what it is if you're not sure, okay? Make sure what you're saying is true and if you're not sure about it, you don't preach it. And look, when you go verse by verse in a chapter, here, I'm not going to necessarily give you an opinion on every single verse because I don't understand every verse, right? I don't need to give you an opinion on every single verse. To the best of my ability, I will. But look, as we're memorizing Romans, I'm sure there's going to be verses I still walk away and say, I'm not quite sure what he's trying to tell me, okay? And if you're preaching through that, you know what you do? Just don't preach on what you're not sure about because there's plenty in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 I am sure about, okay? There's plenty in any book you're going to be sure about. Preach what you know. In the Revelation series, I'm preaching a lot of different things, but there's a lot of revelation I'm not sure about. And I'll kind of give my opinion. I think this is what it's talking about. And then some things I just kind of skip over because I'm like, I just don't know what God's trying to say, okay? Make sure whatever you preach out are acceptable words, words of truth, upright words, no errors in what you're saying. Then it says in verse 11, the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assembly. Now let me explain what each of these things is, and I'm going to tell you exactly what God's trying to tell you in this verse. So a goad is a sharp stick used to push or urge a cattle forward. So basically poking a cattle. And the words of the wise is going to be basically the words of God, you know, someone who's saved, someone who's a soul winner, someone who has the word of God. And so basically the word of God, it's going to push you in the right direction. Okay? It's like a goad. It forces you into a direction you don't want to go. See cattle don't necessarily want to go in this direction, but you basically force them to go that direction whether you want that, whether they want to or not. Okay? And that's kind of how the word of God is. There are times we want to go down a certain path and the preaching of the word of God kind of forces you to go down the right path. It's like you feel so guilty about doing this that you say, you know what, I'm just going to go this direction. And see, that's the way the word of God is. That's why you need to read the Bible all the time. Why you need to pay attention when sermons are preached and learn new things. Because the word of God will force you into going to the right direction. Here's the thing. When the word of God forces you in a direction, sometimes that can kind of hurt. Sometimes it can be difficult. The easy way is this way. But the word of God is like a goad that's going to push you in this direction. Okay? We're like cattle that are being pushed by the word of God. That's what the Bible is saying here. Okay? Then it says, and as nails fastened by the masters of assembly. And so what it's saying is the words of the wise are as nails fastened by the masters of assembly. So they're as goads and as nails, which are both fastened by the masters of assembly. Now a nail is a sharp object, right? You got a hammer, you got a nail, right? We know what a nail is. Masters of assembly, you say, what is that talking about? That's saying somebody who's good at working with their hands. They're a master. They're very good at assembling things together. They're very good at building things. They're a master of assembling. Okay? That's what a master of assembly is. So the Bible is saying this, basically the person who assembles a goad together, or a person who basically fastens a nail. Okay? The picture I want to put in your head is this. Let's say you have an object, and you basically hammer the nail into the ground. Once you hammer it, is it easy to pull out? It's not very easy, is it? Especially if it's someone who knows what they're doing. Okay? A master of assembly is someone who's very good at putting things together. And it's very hard to undo what they did because they did a good job putting it together. What the Bible's saying is the words of the wise, it's like they're fastened by a nail fastened by the master of assembly. Basically what it's saying is basically a sermon is preached, and it's hammered so much into you that it can't be removed. You know what the Bible's saying. You know what's right. Why? Because the words of the wise are as nails that are fastened, that are hammered by the masters of assembly. Okay? Look, the unsaved world, they don't know and understand the dangers of fornication and alcohol and things like that. But when you're at a church like this, it's like the word of God is being hammered into your heads. Right. And you can't remove it. You know what the Bible's saying, right? Because it's basically fastened like a master of assembly would fasten when the word of God is being preached. Okay? Now, in a lot of churches, you go to them and you learn some things and you might know something and yet it's very easily removed because they didn't really pound it in with a hammer. It was basically built by someone who didn't know what they were doing. But when it's fastened by someone who's a master of assembly, it's like a nail being hammered into you and basically you can't remove it. And look, at this church, if you backslide and leave this church and are not right with God, you can go out and do whatever you want, but that nail has been fastened in. And you know you're sinning by not going soul winning, by not reading the Bible, by living a worldly life. Why? Because that has been hammered into you. Okay? And that's why it's so important to read the Bible and to hear good preaching, because when you do, it's like a hammer that's just hammering in a nail into you. Okay? That's what it's saying there in verse number 11. And it's also like a goad was pushing you in the right direction and it basically forces you to go down the right direction. And the truth is, if I didn't hear good Bible preaching in my life, if I'd never heard it, I wouldn't have gone down the path I did. But hearing good preaching basically forces you to go down that path because you know what's right and you don't want to sin against what you know is right. Okay? That's what it's saying in verse number 11. Then it says, which are given from one shepherd. Okay? Now the Bible spoke about the preacher, but then it says given from one shepherd. As it's talking about the word of God, I believe it's referring to Jesus Christ here with given from one shepherd. Turn back to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. And so the Bible refers to Jesus Christ being our chief shepherd. And so at the end of the day, even anything I preach, any sermon I preach, these are not my words. It's God's words. Now I might give explanations on verses, but the wise words are not the ones coming out of my mouth. Because didn't Paul say he made it a point not to speak with wisdom of this world? He made it a point to basically just preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, right? Christ and him crucified. Just basically the basics of the Bible. Okay? And when you preach sermons, your goal is not to sound intelligent. Your goal is to explain so people can understand and make changes in their life. Okay? If I made it a point to try to be like a Calvinist and stand up here and just use all these big theological terms, it might make me look pretty smart, but it's not going to help you out any. And look, there's a lot of preachers that do that. I mean, instead of just saying, hey, we're studying the end times on Wednesday, it's like we're studying eschatology. It's like, eschatology? It's like, I mean, if anything, just say Armageddon, say the rapture, I mean, the Lord's wrath. I mean, why would you say eschatology? Because you're trying to sound smart. That's the reason why. And I get it. Eschatology is the study of the end time. So look, there's nothing wrong with me using the word eschatology as long as I make it explain, hey, we're studying eschatology, which means we're studying the end times. Okay? That's what it means in simple terms. Okay? And so, look, there's no point of trying to sound intelligent because your goal is to just teach the word of God so people can make changes. Now it says in 1 Peter 5 verse 4, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. The chief shepherd is referring to Jesus Christ, because one day he will appear, and every eye shall see him, the Bible says. Okay? And so that is Jesus Christ, and Jesus is referred to as the word of God. So the wise words, I believe, are referring to Jesus Christ. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes 12. And so in verse number 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 12, the Bible reads, And further by these my son be admonished. Okay? Now, these is plural, not by this, but by these. Okay? So he's speaking about multiple things. He says, my son, by these, by these multiple things, be admonished. Admonish means to be taught or rebuked from the word of God is what it's saying. Okay? And you'll notice at the end of admonished, you should have a colon in your Bible, not a semicolon, but a colon, which means two dots. A semicolon is one dot and then this comma thing. Okay? Whatever it's called. And so basically, here's a colon at the end of admonished. And so basically, I want you to understand, I don't believe there's any errors in the Bible. I believe that everything, every jot and every tittle is just like God wanted it. Okay? So it has a colon and a colon is used multiple ways. But what it's saying is that what follows is going to be a further explanation on what he just said. By these, my son, be admonished, then he's going to explain things. That's why it has a colon to explain what was before the colon. Okay? So what are the things he's talking about? One thing is this, of making many books, there is no end. Okay? So who wrote Ecclesiastes? Solomon. Did anybody write more than Solomon? I mean, Solomon wrote quite a bit, didn't he? I mean, he wrote poems, he wrote proverbs, he wrote lots of things. He talks about that. He wrote songs. And so look, Solomon would understand that making many books, there is no end. He's like, man, I could have written 100 books on biology or 100 books on this topic or this or this or this. There's no end to the books that you could write. Okay? There's no end to the books that you could read. You could study any manner of subject under the sun, and there's millions of subjects you could learn about. And I'm not saying it's a waste of time. You want to become an expert on computers, there's a thousand books you can read to become an expert on computers. There's a thousand books on history, just of the Philippines. Much less, you know, the worldwide history, all kinds of books that you could read and learn. And look, there's no end to it. There's no end. There's always ones you can learn. But also, not only of making many books, because right after that, you're going to have a semicolon and the other thing that ties back to of these which were mentioned are much study is a weariness of the flesh. Okay? Now, basically, Solomon talks about writing books and also studying. And these are things where he's basically admonishing them. And so look, you can study and study and study and the Bible says it's a weariness, it will tire out the flesh. This does not mean it's wrong to study. But what it means is this, make sure that what you invest your time into to study is profitable and not a waste of time. Because there's any manner of books you can read and you can study some other topics and learn stuff. But look, if you spend all your time just investing in something with no eternal value, what a waste. Why? It wears you out. You only have so much time and energy. Look, if you only have one hour a day to read, I would just read the Bible for one hour a day and read nothing else. Now, if you have four hours to read, then by all means, read the Bible, read something else. If you only have one hour, that should all be on the Bible then. Okay? There's no point to read all these other books if you don't have time to spend time with God first. And you figure out in your own mind how much time you have and how much you need to read the Bible. But look, if you're going to study all these other topics and know nothing about the Bible, there's a problem there. Much study is a weariness to the flesh. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter one, Ecclesiastes chapter one. And so look, if you work a job and you work 70 hours a week, quite honestly, you should probably just spend any free time you have in terms of reading or whatever, not on Facebook, not on whatever else, but just reading the Bible. Now, if you have lots of free time, then by all means, you can do a lot of different things. But if you have less free time, then you've got to choose to forsake some things. Okay? For me, probably my favorite hobby outside of playing sports would be to work out. I love to work out. And I've had seasons of my life where I'm able to work out a lot. And then I have some time periods of my life where, honestly, I just don't have much time and I just don't have time to read the Bible and work out. So what do you have to do? You have to say, well, I'll just get in worse shape and just start eating healthier. Right? I'll eat more gouli and less sugar. Right? That's what you got to decide to do, because something's got to suffer. And in life, you're going to have to make a lot of choices of what you're going to do. Okay? I had a lot of friends of mine in college that did a lot of soul winning. Lots of soul winning all the time. We used to hang out and go soul winning together all the time. Most of them don't go soul winning at all anymore. And I remember somebody asked me one time, someone who's a pretty wise person, they said they thought it was surprising how they were living for God and why they dropped out. And I said, well, I think the reason why is because in college they had a lot of free time. So it's like, well, five hours free time, I'll devote two hours to soul winning. But then what about when you have less free time? And what I found is a lot of people chose to cut out the things of God. It's like, well, I don't have time to read the Bible anymore. I don't have time to go soul winning anymore. I don't have time for church anymore. Now, they wouldn't say that out loud, but that's honestly what was in their heart, because they didn't stop going hunting. They didn't stop watching basketball games. They didn't stop playing basketball, but they don't go soul winning anymore. So basically it showed what was actually important to them. So look, by no means am I saying that you can't have hobbies and do things. I still have hobbies. Here's what I'm saying. If you're at a time in your life where you don't have time for this and this, you get rid of the thing without any spiritual value. Okay. You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, when does this happen in my life? Well, the truth is that once you get married and have kids, you'll find out how devoted you are to the things of God, because you will not have as much time. That's the reality. You won't have as much time. So what are you going to cut out? Okay. Now, for me, what I chose to cut out was sleep, okay, because I still had hobbies I wanted to do. So you can ask my wife when we got married, I'd wake up at four in the morning was my alarm and I got a lot of stuff done before I went to work. And basically, even at nighttime, I was still reading the Bible on my phone because I wanted to get through it a certain amount of time. And I said, I'm just going to let sleep sacrifice for a while. And that worked for a while. But eventually you have kids. It's like, you know, your sleep schedule is all over the place. You need to get some sleep here and there. Okay. But the reality is that when you go to different stages in your life, especially when you have kids, I've learned that's when a lot of people that want to be pastors no longer want to be pastors. Why? Because they have to make a choice. And it's like, are you willing to cut out things that don't actually have eternal value? And they might be fun. There's nothing sinful or wrong about them, but you got to make choices in life. And what I found is a lot of people, when life gets busy, they cut out the things of God. And that's why you hear preachers talk about that the determination of living for God is not judged by years, but by decades. Why? Because over decades, the proof is in the pudding. How much did you really care about the things of God? Okay. And so the Bible says, you know, much studies awareness of the flesh, but in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 8, notice this, all things are full of labor. Men cannot utter it. All things are full of labor, the Bible says. The eye is not satisfied with seeing. Okay. Now, obviously, if I had talked to Solomon about YouTube, he wouldn't know what I was talking about. But I'm going to give you an example with YouTube. Let's say you watch an entertaining video on YouTube. Do you realize your eyes not satisfied with just that one entertaining video? Why? Because you've got 10 choices to the side of videos that you might like as well. Guess what? Your eyes going to like one of those too. And then you watch that video. It's only three minutes long, right? But then you watch that one, oh, this one looks funny too. Then you check out that and check out that and check out that. I mean, even sermon clips, you can literally spend two hours just watching cool sermon clips. Okay. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying the eye is not satisfied with seeing. There's always going to be something that you want to see. And so look, make sure that you set your eyes on things that actually have value. Things that have real value and are not a waste of time. Okay. And it's great that there's a lot of good godly preaching out there, but I'll be honest with you. If I would recommend to you what sermons to listen to, listen to sermons that are practically going to help your life, not just, oh man, here's a sermon like I hate the sodomites. I'm going to check that out. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that sermon and we preach those sermons too. I'm just saying you only have so much time. I think it makes a lot more sense to find out how to be a good husband than, you know, basically why you hate the sodomites. Okay. And I preach those sermons too. I'm not against those. I'm not criticizing preachers because I do the exact same thing and those need to be preached in the world we live in today. But I'll be honest. When I listen to sermons, I'm like, you know what? I got time for a sermon. Which of these do I think will actually teach me something or be practically helpful to me in my life? Okay. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. And the Bible says the ear, it's not satisfied is what it's saying with what it hears. An example could be somebody who's trying to get rid of, you know, worldly music. And you say, man, I just want to listen to this one song. You know, I really like this song. But then after you listen to that song, your ear is not satisfied. Then there's this other song. I'm just going to cut out 95% of ungodly music. But there's just this little music I'm going to keep. Your ear is never going to be satisfied. It's the same thing with movies you watch. You say, man, there's just going to be one more movie I want to watch. This movie coming out. And then guess what? After that, oh, there's this other movie I want to watch. There's this other TV show I want to watch. The eye will never be satisfied. Neither will the ear be satisfied. That's what the Bible is saying. And so, look, you better make sure that you set your eyes and your ears on things that actually have real value. Okay. Next week, we're preaching the lust of the eyes and the lust of the ears of the two sermons. Okay. So that'll be very applicable next week. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I'll give you an example of something I enjoy doing that I think is a good thing to do. It's fun. It's a nice hobby. But, you know, if I don't have time, I don't have time. I enjoy writing poetry. Okay. And I used to write more poetry. And, you know, I feel it's something that I enjoy that I'm able to do. And I really enjoy writing poetry and I've written a lot of like Bible type poems. But here's the thing about this. Even though there's nothing wrong with doing that, if I don't have time to do my Bible reading and write poetry, what do you do? You just do your Bible reading. Okay. There's nothing wrong with not being able to have as many hobbies. And the reality is you must make a choice when you get older. When you're raising kids, you're going to have to make a choice. And there's a lot of things you want to do. You've got to decide what's important in your life. And that's why I always say, wake up early in the morning and serve God right at the beginning of the day. Okay. The things that are most important early on. Say, man, I want to get on Facebook and just talk for a little while. We'll do that once you're done with things that actually matter. Amen. There's nothing sinful with being on Facebook. Get on Facebook when you're done with what actually matters. Okay. Don't say, well, get on Facebook and I'll do my Bible reading right before I go to bed. You know what's going to happen a lot of times? You didn't do any Bible reading. Right. It's like, oh, I'll just listen to the audio Bible while I'm sleeping and subconsciously I'll just wake up and be like, oh, that's what Ezekiel chapter 17 is talking about. It's like, it doesn't work that way. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Okay. I don't believe this is just concluding chapter 12. I think what he's saying, the entire book, let us hear the conclusion because the whole book is just tying together about the vanity of life, not just chapter 12. The first chapter is talking about the vanity of living like a life that doesn't matter. I think he's saying, let us hear the conclusion of everything I've said in the book of Ecclesiastes. What's the conclusion? Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. It's pretty simple, isn't it? Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. It means if you fear God and you keep his commandments, then what you're doing is right. That's what it says. Okay. What are some examples of this? You're commanded to read the Bible every day. You're not commanded to read the Bible for two hours every day. You say, what am I trying to say? Here's what I'm trying to say. You have other responsibilities need to get done. For example, you know what, you might read the Bible more before you're married than after because when you're raising kids and things like that, you still need to raise those kids. Now you still need to read the Bible, but look, you know, you might not read the Bible as much as someone else. You might not have as much free time. You know, an example is let's say somebody gives like 15% of their money to church. Hey, praise the Lord. That's great. But what is your commandment? 10%. Not 11%. 10%. Not 10.1%. 10%. Plus first fruits. No, just kidding. Just 10%, right? That's all you're commanded to do is 10%. And so look, obviously we love it if people donate more or people do more reading or more soul winning. But look, you're obligated to go soul winning. It doesn't mean you have to go soul winning seven days a week. Okay. And I'm not trying to basically, you know, try to make you do less. I'm just saying make sure you do the minimum. And if you have time to do more than go for it. Depending on how your life is, there might be other things you need to do. And someone who's going soul winning once a week, that does not mean they're less spiritual than someone who goes soul winning two times a week. It could mean that, but it might just mean someone who's going one time a week actually has a really busy schedule. They work a lot of hours and they don't have time to go as much. Why is that important? Quite honestly, within our movement, a lot of young people that first start going soul winning, they basically, you know, act like if you don't go soul winning five times a week, you're not right with God. I've even heard it preached before, you know, at preaching conferences, people preach where it's just like, people think it's okay to go this much. No, if you don't go this much, you're not right with God. It's like, well, you're just adding to the word of God. Because where did the Bible say that you must do this much? And see, I don't do that. Like I tell you, you need to read the Bible. But look, I'm not going to stand up here and say you must read the Bible as much as near as much as somebody else. Okay. If somebody at our church reads the Bible more than me, praise the Lord for that. Somebody goes through Romans, and I'm planning 16 weeks to get through this. Somebody's just extra zealous and does it in five weeks. That's great. Okay. I think that's awesome. So I'm not trying to make you do less. I'm just saying, you know what, fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty. Anything you do above that, you'll get rewards in heaven, and that's great. But you have a minimum of what you must do. You must read the Bible every day. I think what is practical is try to get through the Bible once a year. But I'll be honest, the Bible doesn't directly say that. I definitely don't think spending five seconds reading the Bible a day is very much. But it's up to you how much time you have, but you need to read the Bible every day. Okay. Now, look, if you spend more time on Facebook than reading the Bible, I do think there's a problem with that. I think your life is a little bit out of balance, but you know what? Make sure you're reading the Bible every day. Make sure you're praying every day. If you want to go above and beyond, try to memorize the Bible. Make sure you're going soul winning. Make sure you're coming to church. You give your 10%. This is the whole duty of man. If you go above and beyond, that's great, but that's the conclusion of the whole matter. And here's the thing. If we would just fear God and just do what we've learned and do what he says, God will be happy with us. The problem is not that people aren't going above and beyond. The problem is people hear the word of God and they don't keep what they hear. That's the problem. The problem is not, well, then people need to do this much reading. Look, it's not a problem if somebody is reading the Bible every day, but they're not reading three hours. The problem is 90% of people hear the word of God and they just don't do what they hear. That's the problem. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. And so then it says after that in verse 14, for God shall bring every work into judgment. So everything we do in our lives is going to be into judgment. Now, I don't have time to go into this or I'm choosing not to for sake of time, but I want you to understand there are two different judgments that are in the Bible. There's the judgment for believers, and then there's what's called the great white throne judgment. These are not the same. Now, the judgment for believers, you can find that in first Corinthians chapter three and then go to first Corinthians three. We got extra time. First Corinthians three, there's always my voice is not satisfied with speaking. There's always something more to say. First Corinthians three. And first Corinthians three kind of gives us a passage on basically getting rewards in heaven and what it says in verse 10, first Corinthians chapter three, verse 10, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Now, six different things are mentioned here. Okay. Now, if you were to throw these things into a fire, someone lasts and some wouldn't last. Hay is not going to last very long, is it? Wood will probably last longer than hay, but it gets burned up as well. Stubble is probably going to be even less than hay. It's just dust or whatever. It's going to be burned up. And so gold, silver, and precious stones, those are going to last through the fire. And what the Bible speaking here is a saved person that all their works come into judgment and some works they've done are for God and those abide the fire and they get a reward for it. Others are burned up. That doesn't mean that's sinful though. I mean, there's nothing sinful about hay. There's nothing sinful about wood. There's nothing sinful about stubble. There's nothing sinful about working out. There's nothing sinful about reading a non sinful book, right? There's nothing sinful about having a hobby, but it doesn't mean you get a reward in heaven for doing those things. Okay. The Bible speaking about some things in our lives we do, they have a reward and some things have no reward whatsoever. Okay. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire in the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. Yet so as by fire. Now some people try to go to verse 15 and they say, well, see, you can lose your salvation because it talks about fire and being burnt up. Look, it's using an example that we can understand. Okay. You're not literally going to throw wood in a fire when you're at the judgment. Okay. You're not literally throwing hay. That is an example we can understand because we know wood, hay, and stubble get burned up, whereas gold, silver, and precious stones don't get burned up. What it's basically saying is soul winning is gold, silver, precious stones. Reading the Bible is gold, silver, precious stones. Volunteering at church is gold, silver, precious stones. Having a hobby is wood, hay, and stubble. Doesn't mean it's sinful. It just means you don't get a reward in heaven for it. Okay. That's the judgment for believers. And then with unsaved people, and look, for us as believers, God does not say he's going to show you your sins. Okay. Your sins are gone as far as the east is from the west. Look, you don't have to worry about the sins and the mistakes you made. Like Christians that are afraid like, oh man, I'm so scared to die because I don't want people to find out what I did when I was 10 years old. I stole that piece of candy from that store and I'll be embarrassed. My mom never found out. Look, that's not going to happen. Okay. The Bible doesn't say that. What the Bible is saying is you're going to find out what rewards are you getting. And sadly, there's a lot of Christians that are living their lives and they think they're going to get rewards for their actions. And the reality is they're actually not. Okay. With unbelievers, they have the great white throne judgment and every sin they ever do will be seen. Every single sin will come into judgment and they will pay for every single sin. Okay. When you receive salvation, what you receive is a gift, which means any good works you do for God after that, you're not helping pay back the gift at all. You're getting rewards for that because a gift means it's free. Look, if somebody gives you a gift that costs 1000 pesos, you know, you don't have to basically volunteer, you know, to pay back 20 pesos a week for 50 weeks. No, it was a gift, right? That's what eternal life is. It's a gift. Not only do we not have to pay it back, we can't pay it back because the gift is sparing us from the judgment of hell due to our sins. Okay. We can't pay for our sins. And so we're being given the gift of eternal life. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. And so we cross reference to first Corinthians three. So we see that with believers, as you go and your works are given to judgment, it doesn't mean that they're sinful because there's nothing sinful about wood, hay, and stubble. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Okay. So basically, whether you get a good reward or you get no reward for what you did, okay, it's going to be thrown in the fire and you're going to find out. Now I want you to understand a few things that when it comes to rewards, we do not know how many rewards we're going to get in heaven. And when you try to compare yourself to someone else, that's a foolish comparison because God says, you know, every work you do is going to be brought into judgment and you will find out how many rewards you get. It might be more or less than you think. Other people in this room, they might get more or less than you think. It's a foolish thing to try to compare lives because quite honestly, the Bible doesn't necessarily give us a lot of information of how many works. He doesn't say if you spend this... It's not like with the Catholic church where it's like they basically were paying to get their relatives out of purgatory. Say two Hail Marys and it's worth this, okay? It doesn't work that way. Basically you live for God and you find out basically what rewards you get. Because here's the thing, if you do things for the wrong motive, you might have no reward waiting for you, okay? And so some people go soul winning or read the Bible, but it's not actually for good reason. It's just because they want credit for man. So don't compare yourself to somebody else because what the Bible is saying is your whole life, you fear God, you keep his commandments, and then your works are going to be put at judgment one day and you will find out what rewards you get. We honestly don't know with other people how many rewards they're going to get. Now go to Ecclesiastes chapter one. So why do I need to serve God when I'm young? Well, because you can probably get more rewards at a young age than at an older age. You have more time and energy to do it, okay? That's the reality. And I do believe as you get older, you can get rewards for things that aren't necessarily just soul winning. If you're teaching and training your kids and things like that. I'm just saying when you're young though, you have a lot of free time and you have the ability, you have that zeal, you have that desire. And the truth is that will probably start to fade in your life as you get older, okay? When I was younger, doing all day soul winning marathons, I remember when I was, it was probably in my late 20s and me and my friends, we were single at the time and we did some crazy soul winning marathons. We basically drove through the night to do a soul winning marathon in Boston, which was about a 10 hour drive or something. We just took turns driving, took turns sleeping and everything. And it turned out that two of the people with us couldn't sleep through the, they just had to sleep through the night. So I did half the driving. My other friend did the other half of the driving. We just kind of took turns sleeping. Right when you're about to fall asleep and crash, you're like, all right, hey, it's your turn. And we just took turns. We went soul winning all day. We got there early. It was like 4.30 in the morning. We showed up. We miscalculated. We got there early. We just kind of slept in the car. We went soul winning all day. And guess what we did? We drove back through the night to come back. Why? Well, we had to work on Monday. Okay. But that's something I did when I was younger and I didn't have a family. I'm not going to do that now. But I had the ability when I was younger. Okay. So when you're young, you have the ability to go without sleep if you need to. You have the ability to do some pretty crazy things and serve God and have that zeal. And that's great. You have people that come to this church, they're kind of new to soul winning, and that zeal really motivates you. I think it's great because I remember when I first got saved and I had maybe a bit more energy, a bit more time, and I was like, man, I was crazy zealous. And it's kind of hard to recreate that because you're at a different stage in your life. That doesn't mean that you're doing less for God. It just means you're at a different stage. And quite honestly, when those people come along, man, that is exciting to see at a church. You have somebody who's young that comes along and they're just going soul winning to everybody with no fear. That is great. And that's why you need a church where you're helping motivate each other. Okay. And that's why you should serve God when you're young while you have the opportunity. Because the reality is desire shall fail as you get older. Quite honestly, it's more difficult. And look, we still do lots of soul winning. We do the all day soul winning on Saturdays, and I join it, but I'll just be honest, it's a little bit easier when you're younger. And as you get older, it's just a little bit more difficult. Okay. That's just the way it works. So serve God while you're young. Make sure you serve God when you're older, but I'm just saying you can do a little bit of overtime when you're young, and you might not have that ability when you get older. Okay. Ecclesiastes chapter one, what's the whole purpose of the book? Well, Ecclesiastes chapter one verse 17, and I gave my heart to know wisdom. That's a good thing, right? To know wisdom, the wisdom of God's word. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. And I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. What is Solomon saying? Basically, I decided, you know what? I've done the thing of trying to live for God. What I want to do is take the best of both worlds, live for God, and then enjoy madness and folly. And what does Solomon do throughout the entire book of Ecclesiastes? His heart desires this. Well, sure. You know, she's pretty. I'll marry her too. It's like, before you know it, you have a thousand wives. Okay. It's like he just said whatever his heart wanted, he kind of went after. He said, I'm going to live for God and live for the world. And you know what? It's vexation of spirit. It's vanity of vanities throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. That's what it says in your life. As you go on serving God, the thought will creep into your head. Maybe I'd be a little bit more happy if basically I toned it down a little bit and I was a little bit worldly or I kind of calmed things down. Look, why don't you just read Ecclesiastes and see what Solomon says to see if that's a good idea? Because, look, life gets busy. It gets stressful. You're tired. You're in a bad mood. You're grouchy. But let us just look at Solomon and realize that if you decide, well, maybe I should just live a little bit of a worldly life. Look, the world has nothing to offer you as a believer. Serving God is how you get happiness. Well, the Bible says that if you know these things, happier ye if, if you do them. But that's your choice. And let me tell you something. At this church, you hear the Word of God preached. You know what you should do, but it's up to you if you do it. And if you don't, don't be mad at me when you hate your life, because you will hate your life. You'll be like Solomon. And look at Solomon. Lives for the world. Is he happy? No, he's not. Let's close the word of prayer. Thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to read your word in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. And it's such a great chapter. And this is something we all need to apply to our lives, because if somebody as godly as Solomon would end up going down this road, then it's possible for any one of us in this room, God. And help us never to do that. And, you know, help us, most of us in this room, you know, we haven't really been serving God for decades. And help us to, no matter what stage of our life we're in, to say, you know what, I'll forget about the excitement of this world and just spend my time for the things of God. No matter whether I'm going through a tough time, that I'm going to last through the fire and just keep serving you, God. Help us to apply this to our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And remember, after the last song, we'll turn off the live stream.