(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you the men's you you you you you you you you you you you and and and and and and and and let us pray father god thank you for your word thank you for the unadulterated bible god allow for pastor burzins to speak with boldness and to preach the word of god to all of those for our ears to be able to hear let us hear and also understand and take note and god that we can be able to take in whatever is needed from this word god we praise you and thank you in jesus name amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen think they're saved because I don't know how else you're going to be able to know that other than what people profess with their mouth. So, that's what we do. But then you get the naysayers. Oh, you know, instead of rejoicing, oh, well, how many of those people did you baptize then, hmm? Look, we didn't, we don't baptize them all. We want to. We try to. Well, you're not discipling them. It's like you're just, you know, you're bringing someone to the birth and then there's a abandoning them and just, and just leaving them to die. No, we're not leaving them to die because they have eternal life. They can't die. People want to downplay and criticize preaching the gospel so much you say, oh, well, if you're not, you know, baptizing, discipling, doing everything, then you shouldn't even be going out and doing what you're doing. And that's ridiculous and stupid because people who are hellbound before are not hellbound anymore once they put their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even if they never get baptized and never step foot in church. And that's a world of difference for that soul to not burn in hell forever and make sure that they're in heaven. That is the most important thing. So we focus on the most important thing. We don't leave aside the baptism, the discipling, and everything else. We don't just forget about it. But that takes work. Getting saved is a free gift. That's easy. It's easy for people to get saved. It's easy to put their trust in Jesus. It's a little bit harder for them to actually show up somewhere and show up at a given time and start living for Christ. That's work. That's hard. But we don't forsake giving people the gospel and reaching them and trying to lead them to Christ just because we're not going to be there to hold their hand for the rest of their spiritual life. I thank God for whoever was all involved in my salvation, even though they never had a hand later on in my discipleship. I'll let someone else disciple me. That's fine. So this is what my point is, you know, people will rejoice with them that do rejoice. Don't just always try coming to criticize. And then weep with them that weep. So sometimes people are sad, they're upset, they're sorrowful, and they're weeping. And you know the perfect example of this would be of what not to do is Job with his friends. Job's sorrowful. Job had a lot of bad things happen in his life. He lost his family, his finances, his wealth, everything, just everything he had. All that he possessed in this world he lost. And then his friends come along and instead of just weeping with him, being there to support him, being there as a friend, being there to comfort him, what do they do? Oh, what sin did you do, Job? You must have done something really bad, Job. Man, the hand of God's against you, Job. What did you do? You must have done something wrong. Your kids must be wicked. What is it, Job? Don't you sit there and try to pretend like you don't know, Job. None of this would happen if it wasn't for you, Job. Bad friends. They didn't help them one bit. Hey, weep with those that weep. Be there to comfort them. Be there to strengthen them. That's what's appropriate. And you know in Job's life, that was a time to weep if there ever was one. That was appropriate. You lost your children. Yeah, weep over that. And I'm gonna get this a little bit later, but just keep this in mind as well. You know, we live in a society where everyone wants to focus on, well, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy, as long as you're happy. Well, you know what? No, that's not always right. It's not right just to be happy all the time. Now, being happy is a good thing. Laughing is a good thing. I like it. I enjoy being happy more than I enjoy being sad, but there's a time for everything. There's a time to weep. There's a time to sorrow. There's a time to mourn. There's a time to go through these things, because when you care about life and you take it seriously, look, problems come up, and it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you because you're weeping, because you're sad, because you're upset over things that go wrong. Now, I'm going to cover real quick, we started in Genesis 18, because I want to cover some things when it's a time, when things are appropriate, when they're not appropriate. There's a time to laugh and a time not to laugh. There's a time to weep and there's a time not to weep. There's a, in Genesis 18, we see an example here of a time not, not to laugh, right? And we see this with Sarah. Sarah is a great godly woman. She was a good example of a wife. She was a good example of a Christian, of a believer. She had a lot of good attributes, but she wasn't perfect and nobody's perfect, but here we see an example of, of something where she's reproved for laughing. Verse number 10 there in Genesis 18, the Bible says, and he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life, and lo Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in a tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying after I am waxed old shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also. So it's kind of amusing to her. I don't think there's a sin in her finding it amusing just in general that she's so old like, but the problem with, with the laughter here is the doubting, right? The laughing because well I'm so old, right? It's kind of like a joke. Like is this, is this just some kind of a joke? I mean this is impossible. I'm well past the time of being able to have a child. This must just be a joke and she kind of laughed within herself. It says, and the Lord said unto Abraham wherefore did Sarah laugh saying shall I of a surety bear a child which I'm old? You know the Lord speaking to Abraham and he's like hey why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. So he's saying look don't laugh at this. If I'm saying this is going to happen it's true. This isn't a joke. You're not being mocked. This is you know the Lord speaking. If I say you're gonna have a son you're gonna have a son and it doesn't matter how old you are doesn't matter how impossible it is is anything too hard for the Lord. Then Sarah denied saying I laugh not for she was afraid. I didn't laugh and he said nay but thou didst laugh. So we could understand why Sarah laughs right but it still wasn't the time to laugh when you're receiving a prophecy from the Word of God and obviously let's apply this broader and not just pick on Sarah here but at any promise of God and when you're confronted with the Word of God you know we ought not to ever laugh it off and you a lot of people will laugh off the Bible as like some kind of joke or some portions of the Bible oh do you believe that or why you know yes I do believe that and it's not appropriate ever to just be laughing at the promises of God and laughing at what the Bible says is just and true and righteous especially people that would like laugh to scorn and that's a phrase that's found in the Bible a few times people laughed Jesus to scorn when the remember the girl that he was called upon to heal had died and he said that oh no she's not dead and then the people laughed him to scorn it said they basically what they're doing is they're mocking and ridiculing him what do you mean she's not dead of course she's dead you know and Jesus is like no and heals her and she raises right so but they're they're laughing what Jesus is saying to scorn and just showing despite there's a verse about this in job 12 I'll read this for you turn if you would to John chapter 11 I'll read from job 12 for you verse 3 the Bible says but I have understanding as well as you this is job speaking to his friends look I have understanding as well as you I am not inferior to you yay who knows not such things as these he's like they're telling himself like I already know all this stuff you're not telling me anything new I'm not inferior to you I have this knowledge too but then he says this in verse 4 I am as one mocked of his neighbor who call with upon God and he answer with him the just upright man is laughed to scorn and he's saying I'm the guy that's calling upon God and God answers but then he's being laughed and mocked basically and laughed to scorn that's what his friends were doing to job because they were saying oh yeah what do you think you're right just because job was saying look I didn't do anything wrong I know I'm not perfect I didn't do anything wrong I didn't do anything to bring all this judgment upon me because he didn't he was living righteously he was doing what's right even according to God himself and as we know look nobody's perfect but God was lifting job up as the godly example and showing him off and kind of praising him even to Satan going like hey is there anyone like job in the war in the earth that do with good you know he's a shooing evil and he doesn't he's not sinning he's doing a good job he's doing what he's supposed to be doing there but his friends laughed him to scorn why because they didn't believe him even though he's saying what was true so let's look at some of the times to weep the time to laugh I think we kind of understand a time to laugh right when some when something's funny you laugh about it right it would be appropriate to laugh when when someone tells at least a clean joke or something that's that's uh that's funny or when you're just rejoicing and happy it's a good time to laugh and to enjoy that we're gonna look at a couple examples here just biblical examples of a time to weep John 11 verse 33 the Bible says when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the spirit and was troubled and said where have you laid him this is talking about Lazarus he went to visit Martha and Mary and of course they're real sad right and Jesus sees her weeping and then he asks hey where have you laid him they said unto him Lord come and see Jesus wept then said the Jews behold how he loved him so he's groaning in his spirit first of all now Jesus knows what's gonna happen he knows he's gonna raise Lazarus from the dead yet even Jesus still weeps right so I think one of the things we can learn from this is not to have such a lifted up holier-than-thou attitude you know if someone loses a loved one physically in this world even though they're saved you could say yeah well why are you crying I mean he's just in glory he's with Jesus you shouldn't cry well look you still can weep over that's appropriate I mean Jesus knew that Lazarus was saved and he knew that he was gonna bring him back to life but he still wept it was so appropriate for Jesus to weep he was still you know could feel he had the empathy in his heart towards Martha and Mary and towards the family over the loss or the departure of a loved one there's nothing wrong with that you know people ought to be able to weep when they lose someone close to them even though we know we take comfort in the fact that if they're saved hey this is just a temporary departure we will see them again someday and they are in a better place and they are with our Lord and Savior and that is good for them to be with the Lord but it still is hard and can make our hearts heavy with that separation with that loss for the time and that's of course totally appropriate to weep in that situation I mean some people weep even when you're departing without someone dying as in departing I mean it's that people live far away from each other right just being separated by a great distance can cause people to weep and you know what that's appropriate that's fine because you love someone you want to be able to have them near you and and just be around and you know they're not gonna be for a while and they're gonna leave it's okay to weep I'll read for you another couple a couple more examples turn if you would to numbers 11 first Samuel chapter 30 we see what David was on the run from Saul he's kind of doing some different things he had gone to help and win his victory and came back to the city that he was in to find it all the city was burned up and everyone in the city was taken captive so their wives and children and stuff were all taken captive the Bible says in first Samuel 30 verse 3 so David and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep that's a really grievous time really sad time to come back from this victory to find you have nothing left your city is burned and who knows what happened I mean they didn't know for sure what happened to their family they weren't all dead there in the city but they're all taken captive it's kind of like I don't know if I'm ever gonna see my family again my children my wife you know like they're all gone and they wept until they had no more power to weep it's extreme sorrow extreme sadness and that's appropriate another time that would be considered appropriate Jeremiah 3 verse 20 the Bible says surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband so have ye dealt treacherously with me O house of Israel saith the Lord a voice was heard upon the high places weeping and supplications of the children of Israel for they have perverted their way and they have forgotten the Lord their God so when people just get into a lot of sin and backsliding and turning from God that's an appropriate time to weep and you ought to be broken before the Lord when you just are sliding back and just going the other way and disregarding the word of the Lord in your life yeah you ought to weep that ought to make you sorrowful and that ought to make you sad you ought to be heavy-hearted and willing then to return back to the Lord and we're gonna I'm gonna get a little bit ahead of myself here but I want to point this out because we're gonna see this over and over again is that the good thing about the Christian life is that while yes there may be we may be compass about with many sorrows in this life there's always that hope and we get to carry that hope and we have that knowledge that God is good and then even in this passage in Jeremiah chapter 3 where it talks about the weeping and supplications of the children of Israel because they perverted their way because they forgotten the Lord because they completely got out of serving God and not doing what they're supposed to be doing the Bible says in the next verse return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings so when you have things going wrong in your life you could find yourself backsliding you're you're getting out of the will of God you're not doing we're supposed to be doing turn back to God he wants to heal your back so I didn't see once you going back the right way he will accept you back into the fold as it were not saying you ever lose your salvation what I'm saying is that you can go back and just get back in good standing with the Lord and receive mercy and forgiveness by just turning back to him so even when things go really bad and Mac man my life has gone sideways I don't know what happened is this terrible how'd I get so far off track how did I get so far away from Lord how did I stray so far turn back to God there's that hope it's not a you don't have a have to have a hopeless weeping a hopeless sorrow a hopeless mourning there's always hope with whatever grief whatever sadness whatever sorrow that you have facing in your life that's the good news now numbers 11 we're gonna look at a time here when it's not appropriate to weep so we saw hey losing loved ones they make sense to weep right losing your family getting out of God's grace in the sense that you're you're just living a wicked life you backslidden and and you've seen the you know the how far you've strayed from the Lord yeah that ought to they ought to grieve you in your heart there's all good times to weep and you know there's other times are appropriate to weep but what you need to do also is balance and take consideration over the things that make you sad or sorrowful and would cause you to weep because sometimes people weep over things that you shouldn't be weeping about I don't know if you've ever said this to your kids or heard it as a kid you know stop crying I'll give you something to cry about right because they're trying to explain like that is not something to be weeping over right now why do why do parents say that well oftentimes because kids are complaining about something something didn't go their way and you're telling look just stop crying about that right because I don't want to hear it I don't want to hear you complaining I don't want to hear your crying kids complaining and crying go hand in hand but you know and anyone has kids knows this you hear that there's a hurt like an injured cry and that sound is completely different than the complaining cry right you get you get the little child it's like oh I want something oh I want some milk oh I want a cookie oh yo and they might start crying it's kind of this complaining cry and you can discern the difference when you've had kids then it was the one where the kid falls off and cracks their head and goes oh you know like that's a different cry all together it's a different weep different sound different tone everything is different about it you come to learn that well because we want to teach our kids that hey it's not appropriate to be crying about that and when I say crying I'm using the common definition right of crying in the Bible crying is more like crying out or like yelling what we would consider to be yelling I'm trying to express weeping is what the Bible calls weeping is when you're shedding tears in crying right just to make sure on the same page here numbers 11 though we're gonna see definitely a time not to weep the children of Israel wept numbers 11 verse number one and when the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them there were in the uttermost parts of the camp and the people cried unto Moses and when Moses prayed unto the Lord the fire was quenched so here the chapter starts off just talk about hey the people of God are complaining and God gets angry because he's saying you have nothing to complain about all but we're wandering in the wilderness oh we don't have anything you know we don't have anything to eat don't you love that one when the kids say there's nothing to eat in this house and you've got a whole pantry full of food or refrigerator full of food there's nothing to eat yes there is I don't want to hear you we have food God has blessed us and look and this is gonna go to the right mindset in the right heart and why it's not appropriate to be weeping and complaining about things that you ought to just be thankful for and there's a lot of people these days that will weep over things that they don't have things they don't have that literally will bring them to tears and all that's gonna do is make God angry the children of Israel were weeping well in it we'll get to that in a second here they started with the complaining and how did God deal they got so angry some of them died like there was a fire that was burnt and literally consumed those that were in the uttermost parts of the camp and if this weren't just to oh it was a coincidence no the Bible's telling us this is what happened a result of God getting angry these people died and the people cried unto Moses when Moses prayed unto the Lord the fire was quenched and he called the name of that place Tabirah because the fire of the Lord burns among them look at verse number four right after he tells us about chastening and you know killing people because they were complaining verse 4 says in the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting and the children of Israel also wept again they're crying they're weeping and said who shall give us flesh to eat what does that mean we want to eat meat because in the wilderness what were they eating manna manna God fed them God gave them their sustenance in the wilderness they didn't have to go and plow fields they didn't have to raise cattle they didn't have to do any of the work involved that normally is associated with feeding yourself it takes work to grow crops it takes work to do all that you know to do everything involved in eating food God literally had it on the dew in the morning just all over the place outside hey just step out your front door and I've got food for you and it's manna it's right there but that's what they had to eat every day every meal of every day was manna I like variety probably do too okay I don't enjoy if I just had to eat one meal for like the rest of my life I would rather I would rather have choices and variety right I would prefer that but I wouldn't need that if I need to survive and God's gonna take care of me and God's gonna provide for me some food that we know had to be good for them it had to be nutritious because the Lord's giving it to them Lord's not giving them something bad for them and gonna cause them problems God's giving them good food to eat angels food but they didn't like that and they literally were brought to tears over the food that God was putting in front of them day after day verse 5 says we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely I love all that word freely is added in there because we're the children of Israel free when they were in Egypt or they in bondage because I seem to remember the Bible talking about them being in bondage and suffering hard labor and not being free yet now when they're thinking back about it is like oh man yeah I remember the fish that we ate freely no you didn't eat it freely in their minds they ate it freely now that they're complaining because they want to eat some fish but what are they doing they're thinking back to Egypt and they're complaining now look serving Christ serving the Lord is gonna come with some sacrifice and this is when we when we look at this we could apply this easily to our lives they were following God into the wilderness God was leading the way for them they were doing the right thing hey trust in the Lord he'll direct you he's not gonna steer you astray he's gonna give you what you need yeah it wasn't the fish and the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic that you had in Egypt and you know when you go to serve the Lord when you were in the world when you were living of the world and you're doing the things of the world you're living for the world and you're making you know maybe a bunch of money and you're just enjoying whatever you enjoy in this lifetime you might have these luxuries and other things but when you go to serve the Lord you know what you might lose all that stuff it's a good likelihood that that's gonna happen that the things that you enjoyed before you're not gonna enjoy them anymore when you choose to follow God so don't have a wicked thought in your mind or in your heart that's gonna think back to oh man I remember before you know how much fun I had going out to the bars and drinking and getting drunk and you know whatever and I would go out and I would eat this and I would eat that you know don't you better not be letting that bring you to tears thinking back on your bondage thinking back on a different life thinking back on a worldly life and going well I wish I had that no you got what God's providing for you God's leading you that should never bring you to tears and look sometimes you know there's so many examples of this I can't I don't have enough time to just go cover every single thing that might happen when you choose to serve God you might lose other things you might lose a career you might lose relationships with family members you could lose all kinds of things in the sacrifice of saying well I'm gonna stay true to the Lord that have a big impact on your life but don't think back don't have the foolish thought of going well you know what I wish I just hadn't done any of this at all I'd rather just go back to that life where you're not following God and God's not leading your steps suffer the things that you have to suffer for the Lord even if they're not what you would prefer in the moment because there is an far exceeding weight of glory that's laid up for you by serving God God's not gonna lead you astray you have that hope but what do we see are the children of Israel they're there they're it says in verse six now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes they got spoiled rotten by having food provided for them and literally were weeping because they had food they're weeping because they had food well would you rather not have food no no I want to have it look stop crying stop weeping Bible says number seven the manna was as coriander seed and the color thereof is the color of bdellium and the people went about and gathered it and ground it in Mills or beat it in a mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it and the taste of it was as a taste of fresh oil and another place talks about tasting like honey too so it's like it's not a bad tasting thing it's not like super bitter okay oil honey they figured out lots of ways to prepare it I mean they're baking it in pans they're grinding it you know what you know all this different stuff to just prepare this this great it's not like you just have to pick it off and just eat it as is you can prepare it other ways fine make cakes out of it it says when the dew fell upon the camp in the night the manna fell upon it then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families how crazy God's providing food it's falling literally when the dew falls manna falls on the dew and then Moses just hears people crying people weeping throughout their families every man the door of his tent and the anger of a Lord was kindled greatly Moses also was displeased yeah there's a time not to weep and don't weep over the things that God has blessed you with well no weeping over what God gave me I'm weeping over what he didn't give me that's wicked it's gonna make God angry don't weep over the things you don't have rejoice over the things that you do have there's a time to mourn there's a time to weep and there's a time to rejoice there's a time for laughter and and you have you have control over how you're gonna respond to your situation with the understanding of what's appropriate you control that and I'll tell you this much if you choose to complain if you choose to be upset over everything that you don't have you are gonna be a miserable person and God's gonna be angry with you you've been miserable anyways because you'll never be satisfied if nothing's ever enough for you if you're willing to cry over the things that you don't have one you just will never be content you'll never be satisfied it won't ever be enough which will in itself just vex your soul and make you discontent and bitter and angry and not enjoying life at all and also God will be angry with you it's a double whammy you don't want that because then God will take it out on you even further it's like the kid that complains about their food like this well you could eat it you don't need it now you could eat it for breakfast cold it's hot now you can have it or you could eat it cold tomorrow morning for breakfast or if you're still not hungry for it you can eat it at lunch and if you're still not gonna eat you could eat it the next day for dinner and you're not having anything else because that's what I gave you and that's what I made for you and that's the way of learning to appreciate what you have and what's been provided for you you know as a mother or father in the home you're doing work for your kids dad's going out and earning money mom's providing that food for you making that meal for you you know children you better you better respect that and be appreciative of what mom and dad has done for you it's not a time to weep that's not what you got be happy with what you got rejoice that you have food to put in your belly and this is what the children of Israel had to learn the hard way and when God got angry with their complaining people died and that's not just us like oh you're just a scare tactic right now look that's how God operated I mean this is what literally happened people literally lost their life they made God so angry with their complaining there is a time to weep you know what it's not when you're just not satisfied with what you have that's never a time to weep now the time to weep for Christians is now in this lifetime turn if you go to Luke chapter 6 but it's not because you don't have things that's not the reason why there is a time to weep and weeping now is the time this lifetime generally speaking is the time to mourn and weep for Christians it doesn't mean your entire life is going to be sad and full of misery but when we look at the Bible we look at things you know if you think about living a life of sacrifice what's sacrifice means you go without some things and it's not always the most pleasant it doesn't mean you can't have joy and comfort and peace you will have those things but it's also going to be a lot of time to weep the Bible says this Luke 6 verse 21 this is the parallel to Matthew chapter 5 called the beatitudes Matthew 6 21 the Bible says blessed are you that hunger now for you shall be filled blessed are you that weep now for ye shall laugh hey you're blessed if you're weeping now God's going to bring laughter he's gonna bring joy he's gonna bring that time to be happy about and then in verse 25 conversely woe unto you that are full for you shall hunger woe unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep you got there's coming a day when when everything is you know because this world so backwards that when God sets everything straight those that have all the riches and all the mirth and laughter and and partying and everything else they're gonna be weeping they're gonna be sorrowful many of them are be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and will be laughing and full of joy turn if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 1 I'll read from James 4 for you James 4 8 the Bible says draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up don't worry about having so much fun and everything in this lifetime hey mourn weep break your joy turn to heaviness because God will end up lifting you up in the end and God will bring you the joy and God will bring you the things that are good but allow yourselves to go through the hard times now because we know in the world to come we're not gonna have those hard times at all we also know that if we suffer for Christ's sake here on this earth we'll have so much more rewards in heaven it will be good for us we're gonna see a little bit more wisdom now of course the whole the teaching and the thought for this sermon came from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 so we're gonna look a little bit further into Ecclesiastes about sorrow and mourning and laughter because there's more wisdom to be found also in this chapter besides just there being a time to weep and a time to laugh look at chapter 2 verse number 1 the Bible says I said in mine heart go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doeth it now in this portion of Scripture Solomon is is kind of reflecting on because the position he was in first of all God granted Solomon just tremendous wisdom in this world just tremendous was right God God opened up his understanding gave him more wisdom than those that came before him and those that would come after him and also gave him riches so he was able to do whatever he wanted to do right he was able to dedicate his time for doing these great works for doing this doing that and he was trying to kind of get to the end and just figure things out and see well what good is this what good is this what good is this and even the book of Ecclesiastes itself can almost seem to be a little depressing because he's just all the stuff that you a person could spend their time doing his answer is like it's vanity vanity means it's empty it's meaningless it's just kind of like and in this passage of chapter 2 he's saying he said I said in mine heart go to now I will prove thee with mirth mirth is just happiness joy just kind of enjoying things therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity and look to some extent I can attest that I remember before I got plugged into church after I say before I got plugged into church before I got you know to doing the things of God I remember spending some of my times do it doing things like just laying out next to a pool or in a pool floating around or you know doing a lot of activities that you can say it's that's pleasurable but just ends up just being a big waste of time because when you're done enjoying when you're done just having pleasure it's like well what what did that really do what what did that accomplish nothing I mean really at the end of day nothing now am I saying it's sinful if you ever go to a beach and you know enjoy it no I'm not saying that it's just simple but the point is I mean there are people that just live to spend their time just indulging whatever pleasure that you can find and at the end of the day it doesn't really do anything or provide anything of real value it ends up just kind of being a waste of time like well what do you do through it well it's really nothing and there's a lot of activities like that that at the end of the day they don't really do that much right you kind of keep yourself busy doing something or doing nothing as it were and it doesn't really do a whole lot and here he's saying this you know when it comes to mirth and pleasure or laughter it's like okay yeah like it's fun for the moment and then but it doesn't it's really not good for anything can't we walk away with anything it's kind of vanity he said I said of laughter it is mad mad like it's just kind of crazy like it doesn't make sense and of mirth what do with it what good is it flip over to chapter 7 where he's gonna explain here that actually being in mourning or in sadness is better than being in laughter and and having that he said he's gonna explain why it's it's actually even better to go through the hard times than it is just always be living a life of luxury and vanity and every pleasure is just met for you please ask these seven verse two the Bible says it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better your heart your character who you are is actually going to be you're gonna be a better person when you go through the hardships and you go through the trials and you go through the grief and you have the mourning and you endure the sadness then if you just are always just everything's a life of pleasure because those that go through life just everything's all about the gratification of the flesh and this is laughter ha ha ha everything you have everything given to you you're one you're not going to be able to be empathetic towards other people you're not going to know what they're going through you're not gonna be able to help them out that well and to you probably won't care that much everything's going fine with me what do I care and so the less bad or negative morning type experiences you have you're not even know much about it anyway so you're not gonna care about those who are going through it your heart is made better though and you go through those hard times you really know what it's all about and then you have a lot more care and love for other people because you do know what that's about and it's gonna make you a better person it's more valuable to go through the hard times in the morning than it is just to have a bunch of laughter in your life Bible says in verse 4 the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth and to put it at a grand scale right and I'll go back to the to the to the bars or the pubs right the fools are just spending their nights spending their evening spending their weekends just going in oh I'm gonna have a little bit of fun I'm gonna kick back some beers or whatever and you know and and really do nothing with your life and just destroy your body and just you know live in sin and and just to pleasure your body a little bit that's the house of fools and it's supposed to be all it's so fun it's not though but the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning you're gonna do thing when you're wise you're gonna do things to help others to serve God to do the right thing and oftentimes it's gonna bring you into a it's a difficult place it's a sad place and you know when you're going like Jesus to seek and to save that which is lost you run into a lot of lives that have a lot of grief and you're gonna be dealing with a lot of sorrow now we're bringing joy we're bringing good news we're bringing a free gift we're bringing the love of God but you'll be spending your time in the house of mourning it's it's not you know there's a good balance here but it's explaining look if you're wise you're not just gonna be spending your time in the house of fools with the house of mirth right where it's all just about the entertainment it's better to be in the house of mourning livers number five it is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools it's you're gonna get improvement if you are told the areas where you're wrong and you can take a rebuke like oh wow I'm doing this wrong what I'm gonna I'm gonna learn from that and I'm gonna grow from that I'm gonna do what's right as opposed to just going around and everyone just singing songs and it's just about nothing and it's just kind of the song of fools and hey we can all feel good for a few minutes here and we'll all gather together and sing some songs and then but then no one's ever improved and nothing is ever bettered verse six for as a crackling of thorns under a pot so as the laughter of the fool this also is vanity but as I mentioned before and you know looking at all this too I don't want to skip over this I alluded to at the beginning I want to cover this real quickly I'm running out of time because we do live in a society that wants to focus so much on your pleasure on your juice like you have to just be happy all the time to the extent that doctors are prescribing pills just to make sure that people are kept happy oh you know you're grieving or you're grieving too much or you shouldn't be sorrowful you shouldn't be sad now there are times when people are sorrowing and weeping too much or over things that they shouldn't but that is much more a spiritual problem than a medical problem a lot of people need to get their perspective right need to get in the house of God need to read the Word of God and need to be counseled through the Word of God on what are you gonna allow to bring grief in mourning into your life and what are you not going to allow are you gonna be thankful for what God has blessed you with or are you gonna focus on the things that you don't have this goes to the crux of so many problems that people deal with with depression is that they end up focusing their minds on things that have either bad that happened to them or things that they don't have things that have been taken away from them and that this can't get off of the things that they don't have and are not focusing on the things that God has given them and definitely not focusing on well what can I do to help other people when you become self-absorbed and you're always focusing on yourself that is going to be miserable especially if you're focusing on all the problems that you have all the things I don't have all that you know whatever that is and it doesn't surprise me that there's so many people dealing with depression because the world is is inundating us with a spirit of covetousness you're being marketed to all the time of all the things that you need to have this and you need to have this iPhone you need to have this car and you need to have all these things and then the people don't have those things and they're going oh I want you know I want those things and they don't have them it's gonna make you sad don't worry about those things you won't be sad about not having them if you don't even care about them if you'd rather be thankful and rejoicing and and what, hey, look what God has given me. Look at where I live. Look at the freedoms that I enjoy. Look at the food that I can eat. No matter what that is for you, everyone in this room, I guarantee you, is able to eat a meal today. If you wanna eat a meal today, you can eat a meal today. And I can't say this too broad-brushed, but just about everyone in America, if they wanna have a meal today, they can have a meal today. Seriously. It's not that hard to get a meal a day in this country because of the abundance of blessings that God has bestowed here in this land. Seriously, like, we can't lose sight of that. Don't ever lose sight of what God has blessed with. Because then when you start to complain and mourn and weep over the wrong things, God's just gonna get angry. Like, what more do you want? Like a spoiled brat. What more do you want? I've given you what you need. Be content with that. With contentment comes the joy and the happiness. Being discontent with what God's given you is gonna bring sorrow. We don't need more antidepressants. We don't need any of those. People need to just get right in the Word of God, get right with the mindset, understand what is righteous and what's not. What should I be sorrowing over? What should I not be sorrowing over? And being content with what you have. And then finally, to top it all off, when you start helping other people, you will get joy. If you struggle with depression, seriously, now, if you didn't listen to anything else in this whole sermon, and if you are someone that struggles with having a lot of grief and a lot of sorrow and a lot of sadness, and you don't know what to do about it, start helping other people. It's so much, you get so much greater joy, it's so much better to give than to receive. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you need to start helping people more. Because it brings a joy that isn't taken away when you start to help people. That's lasting, and you know what that's gonna do? It's gonna bring you value. And I think one of the best ways to help someone is to lead them to Christ. And when you go out and win souls and show people how to be saved, and you know that there's a new creature that's born again now, nothing can change that. Nothing can undo that. That's a good joy that you're gonna have. That's why the Bible says, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. You may be sorrowful, you may be heavy, you may be mourning, you may be going through, but you know what? If you go and still just commit to God, do his word, do his work, live the way he wants you to, go forth, bring that seed, you are doubtless going to return again with rejoicing. Word of God's true, my friends, I believe it. If God's making a promise here saying, doubtless come again with rejoicing, you're struggling with being depressed, you're struggling with that, why don't you do something that will doubtless make you rejoice? No doubt about it, you will rejoice. It's guaranteed. Psalm 30 verse four, the Bible says, sing unto the Lord, you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, for his anger endureth but a moment. In his favor's life, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. We may have to go through some weeping, some sadness, some mourning, but joy does come. Wow, I made it through everything. One last verse, I brought this up earlier. You know, the time to weep in general is now. The time to weep and the things to weep over. Grief over loss of loved ones, you know, definitely backsliding, getting away from the Lord, things like that. But even just enduring the sacrifice, the mourning, the weeping of what you may have to go through in his life, the giving up of some of the luxuries, or the garlic and the melons and the leeks and the fish, as it were, in Egypt, you know, giving up that stuff. It's way better to weep now and rejoice later because there are those that are rejoicing now and they have laughter and they're in the house of mirth and they're singing the songs of fools, but their weeping is going to come later. And that is when they're cast into outer darkness where the Bible describes that place where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I mean, literally saying weeping, people will be weeping, but not just for a short time, like we would have to in this lifetime, and then rejoice evermore. Their weeping is going to be eternal weeping. Again, the emphasis on evangelism, on preaching the gospel, preaching the word of God, so that people don't have to endure a weeping for eternity. Let's endure a little mourning, let's endure a little weeping to bring the joy to others so that they don't have to spend an eternity weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth in the lake of fire. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, love you, thank you so much for the great gift of salvation, for providing all of our needs, Lord, and for your promise that says that everyone who is going to serve you, the promise that says that to seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, Lord, that if we would just dedicate ourselves to serving you, to seeking you, that you will provide for us in every capacity that we need. Not always our desires or the lusts of our heart, dear Lord, but our needs, that you will take care of our necessities, our food, our clothing. You've promised that to us, and we thank you so much for that, I pray that especially in a life filled with luxury and abundance, with so much blessing, dear Lord, that you would help us to keep the right mindset and know that we ought to be content with the things that we have and to rejoice over what you've blessed us with because it truly is great for us here and that you would help us to also just dedicate ourselves to doing what's right, whether that causes mourning, help us to mourn with those that do mourn, weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice, dear Lord, we love you, and we thank you for all the wisdom that you provide for us in your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed, and then don't forget, we're also having some baptisms after service right outside these doors over here, so stick around for that. Brother Peter, will you please lead us in our last song? Okay, open up your hymnals. Song number 356. Song 356, I Must Tell Jesus. Song 356. I Must Tell Jesus, All of My Spires. I cannot bear these burdens alone. Am I distressing, I'm new and healthy. He ever loves and cares for me so. I Must Tell Jesus, All of My Spires. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone. I Must Tell Jesus, All of My Troubles. He is a kind, compassionate friend. If I were asked him, he would deliver. Make up my troubles with within. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone. Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior. One who can help my burdens to bear. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. All my cares and sorrows but shared. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone. Oh, how the world to heal abhors me. Oh, how my heart is tempted to sin. I Must Tell Jesus, He will help me. Oh, will the world love victory to win? I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone. . . . . .