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Alright guys, we are done with our study in the book of Ecclesiastes with this sermon. We're gonna cover chapter 11, very short chapter, and then obviously get through chapter number 12. And we're gonna call this full circle. So basically, Solomon's gonna leave us in chapter 12 with an exhortation to follow the Lord and to trust Him. But, before we get there, Solomon gives us some great information on how to manage risk in our lives. And so basically, what I'm gonna wind up saying here is that if we regard risks too much, we're gonna reap that which is cheap. But, if we regard risks responsibly, that is going to open up a lot of possibility in our lives. And so hopefully, this blesses you guys, gives you some encouragement, some things to think about. A lot of Ecclesiastes can just seem kind of down and dreary and just bring up the inevitables in life. Okay, but that's not what this book is designed to do. This book is designed to give us encouragement, hope, and understanding that when we get our wisdom from above the sun, it makes life under the sun so much better. Enjoy the sermon. God bless you guys. All right, amen. Well, we're gonna be done with this book tonight. We're gonna make it through chapter 11, obviously, and chapter 12. Because of the style in which a lot of this book is written, remember, this is part of the poetry, the wisdom of poetry, I guess you could say is the style that this is written in. It's gonna flow pretty fast once we get into it. But, before we start, I just want to kind of get you focused on three words. And these three words are going to help you to basically get a better grasp, I think, as you read through it and as you study it. Let's look at those now. So, look down at verse number four. So, you're in Ecclesiastes chapter number 11. Look down at verse number four. So, Solomon says this, He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. So, I want you to have that word right there, regardeth, in your mind. What does that mean? It means to, obviously, to pay attention to. What are you taking heed to? Are you worried more about risk or reward, responsibility, and things of that nature? So, that's gonna be really the first thing that we talk about, starting in chapter number 11, is what are we regarding and what does that mean for us? Now, the second one is gonna be found in chapter 12 right off the bat here in verse number one. So, if you go over to chapter 12, look what he says. He says this word here, remember. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. So, we've got regard, okay, and then we've got remember here in verse number one. Now, the last one that we're gonna look at is all the way down here in verse number seven. Look what it says. Then shall the dust, now look at this word, return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. I'm gonna try to do the best I can to tie these three words together this evening, and that's gonna really just basically solidify and kind of compact chapters 11 and 12, what they mean for us. And I titled the sermon Full Circle. The reason why I titled this Full Circle is because we've spent several weeks now looking at all the avenues that Solomon has taken. So, remember we started this study off by saying basically what Solomon has done here is essentially, as the preacher, is basically set aside the word of God. Remember in Solomon's early days, right, he took the kingship pretty early. We don't know the exact age that he was when he took the kingship, but he was very wise even before God gave him all his wisdom. And you say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, remember when God asked him in a vision what he desired, he asked the Lord for wisdom to lead his people. And so that kind of exposed his heart. He had a heart for the people. He was a giver, not just a taker, not just a receiver. And so God gave him all of this wisdom, so much so that there's never been anyone more wise than Solomon. So what happened later on in life? Well, he marries 700 wives, has 300 concubines, all pagan, and as he gets older, what did they do? They turned him into a piece of bread. A piece of bread is soft and pliable, and that's basically what he became. And during that process, he's examining life through the lens of a lost person, a person without hope. And so he starts to go down these different avenues. You know, maybe wealth will make me happy. Maybe material wealth will make me happy. Maybe the combination of the two. Okay, maybe accomplishments will make me happy. Maybe women will make me happy. No, that didn't work. So he just goes down all these different roads, and they all lead to this one thing which we've talked about numerous times, which is the word vanity, emptiness. And today, we're actually going to see him come back full circle to where he first started. And you go look this stuff up in Bible scholars and go read their commentaries, and they'll say, well, just because Ecclesiastes chapter 12 ends on a good note from Solomon doesn't mean that he inherited eternal life because he did a lot of bad things. And his life ended, you know, very bad, and it's just like, stop, stop. Once saved, you're always saved. It was true back then. It's true today. We know this. And so finally, we're going to be left in chapter 12 with like a really good edifying message, and it's just going to be good. So remember those three words. We've got regard, remember, and return. So with that word regard in mind here, okay, let's start off in verse number one of chapter 11. Try to see what this means, what's going on here. So look what he says. He says, cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. Now, what in the world is he talking about there? What happens if we go down to Lake Powell, we just take some slices of bread and just throw them in the water, come back five days later. Is that bread still going to be there? Probably not. Okay, so that's probably not what he's talking about here. Now let's read verse two and then we'll kind of come back and I'll give you my thoughts here. So verse two says, give a portion to seven and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon earth or upon the earth. And so in verse two here, we see his wisdom and he says, Hey, you know what? Give. Okay, give a portion. Now, just because we have a giving heart, doesn't necessarily mean that we're always going to get something back in return. However, it does increase the possibilities. And so what you're going to find verse one to verse four here, he's talking about taking risks. And there are a certain amount of risks that we need to take in life. So verse one, think about it like this. Okay, cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days. And if you go through the Bible and you just kind of study farming and farming techniques and the way that they used to farm back in the day, what I believe he's trying to say here is what is the ingredient of bread? Well, it's grain. It's this wheat product here. And so what I believe he's saying here is, hey, if you have a resource, if you have some grain, you know, it'd probably be best not to just consume the whole thing, but maybe cast that upon the many waters. And you say, why are you talking about farming? Well, because in the Bible, we see seasons in where people farm. Obviously, you see in the spring, you know, it's a good time to plant and to water. And we see kind of in the summer months, there's drought. The ground gets very hot or very hard, rather, because the sun is very hot. And then what happens after that? Like, let's say, let's just equate it to our time. What happens like in October? We start to get waters, puddles of rain. And when you understand that concept, and I don't have time to go through the entire Bible looking at every farming reference here, but basically, if you were to cast some of that grain, which makes bread on those waters, it's going to return for you. It's going to produce a increase for you. Now, something bad could happen and you wouldn't get a harvest, but the chances increase greatly if you're not just this type of person that says, oh, you know, somebody gave me a bonus here, I'm just going to consume it right away. That's the kind of society we live in. We live in a consumer-based society where we just want to consume everything at once, all the time, we have the disease of now, and very few of us ever think about the repercussions of that. And so what he's saying is, hey, why don't you take a risk and actually invest some of that so that you can get return? Now, of course, all of us in here being soul owners read this and probably think, you know, hey, you know, if we take the bread of life, the word of God, and cast it upon many waters, upon, you know, in the Bible, this is true, often you'll see waters as described as nations, it's going to come return to us again, right? But let's just talk about that, okay? Context of soul winning. Every door that you knock, does somebody get saved? No, right? But eventually somebody does. Eventually somebody gets it and eventually somebody wants to be discipled and it comes back to us. So there's a lot of different ways that you could look at it, but the point is, in life, there are a certain amount of risks that you ought to take. Now, look down at verse number three, he says, if the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. And if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. So in life, there are facts, things happen, okay? Life happens, the cycle of life goes on and on and on, we can't do anything about that necessarily. But look at verse four, and this is like the main principle here. He says, he that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. Now there's two different ways that you could read this, okay? One way is like, okay, well, I'm a farmer, okay? If it's really windy, if it's, you know, really cloudy, or if it's really raining, you know, right now might not be the best time to go out to the fields and do this work. You might be wise to wait until conditions are better. I get that, I understand that, okay? Definitely a wise thing to do. However, okay, there are seasons, there are times when planting and watering and things of this nature are just gonna have to be done. You're just gonna have to face the elements, you're just gonna have to face reality and go out and take a chance and do it anyways, okay? And so what he's saying, he that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. So there's another type of person that I see in this verse, and that's the person that is just hyper concerned with what ifs, okay? Well, I know I've got, I've been blessed with all this grain here, but there's a cloud right there. And if that cloud decides to turn into two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, a bunch of different clouds, you know, and the wind increases, man, it's just gonna blow my seat all over the place, okay? That's a lazy person, that is somebody full of excuses. And so what I wanna say is, if you regard risks too much, you're gonna reap that which is cheap, okay? But if you regard risks responsibly, you're gonna reap a better or an equal possibility, okay? You have a better chance of reaping what you sow. But if you don't sow, you're never gonna reap, okay? Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Remember Solomon the preacher, he's the preacher here. He has sought out to find words that are acceptable, words that are easy to be understood. And I think the concept can relate to all of us, okay? We all get it. If you don't work, you don't eat. If you don't reap or if you don't sow, you don't reap. It's just what it is, okay? And so he's saying, hey, what do you regard? Do you regard the result or do you regard the possible what if more? And if you do, guess what? Don't expect to reap great possibilities. Expect to reap something that is cheap or something that is vain, okay? So what are we regarding, okay? What are we afraid of? What are we like, wow, you know, I would go and do this and I would read the Bible more but then I might miss. You know, we're always faced with these challenges. We're always gonna be faced with observing the wind and observing the clouds, you know? And in all of our lives, the clouds, the wind, they represent different things. It might be people. It might be money. It might be anything that is holding us back from taking that chance, taking that risk to actually go out and invest in the future, to take the word of God and say, you know what? This might hurt someone's feelings but I'm gonna have to do it anyways because this is the right thing to do. This is the truth from God. I'm gonna have to tell you this is how I feel. This is what you're doing that is wrong or whatever the case may be and just understand, okay, that sometimes it's gonna seem like we're doing this for naught but other times, guess what? We're going to have this come back to us. We're gonna have that result, that harvest from casting our grain on many waters. Now look at verse five. He says, as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. And so because there are so many unknowns in the world today, there are so many unknowns like what he's talking about here, okay? We shouldn't allow those unknowns and those uncertainties to paralyze us and to just be like, oh, I'm not gonna leave the house today, okay? I was looking at different statistics before I decided to write this sermon out and give it its title and, you know, there's all kinds of stats and they always change, right? Like, well, you know, you've got a one and 200,000th chance of dying on a plane and I don't know if I'm just making this up, okay? It's something really high, you know? Or you've got like a one and 500 chance of getting bit by a shark, so don't be afraid of the waters in Florida. I don't know, man, I'm not taking that chance. Every time I turn my phone on, there's a video of somebody getting chomped out by a shark down there. I don't know who's doing these statistics here, but what I'm trying to say is there's all kinds of stats, okay, of this and that. There's some pretty frightening stats about people getting killed by people texting and driving, drinking and driving, but we all still got in a car today and came to church, you know what I'm saying? So we all take risks every single day. We just have to be responsible with them, right? We have to just understand that God has our backs and as long as we're serving him, you know, it's okay, right? And when we learn to take these risks, we learn to take what God has given us and say, you know what? I'm gonna give back. I'm actually gonna give back in some way, shape or form. When we do that, you know what? You know what that does? That tells God, hey, here's somebody who's not afraid of the world. Here's somebody who's not afraid of loss, okay? Which translates to more fear of the Lord, which is where he's gonna give us basically a conclusion at the end of chapter 12. Verse six, in the morning, sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. So again, we don't know if we're going to reap, okay? But don't let that stop you from even trying, okay? Because if you do that, then your end is gonna be worse than if you had tried because you're gonna be sitting there like, oh man, I could have done this. What if it would have worked out? It's always better to just try. It's always better to just ask and be told no, things like that. And that's really where he's going with this. Now look down at verse number seven, who says, truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. Verse eight, but if a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many, all that cometh is vanity. And so again, that's kind of another statement about life under the sun, okay? If we want life under the sun to be illuminated, to be bright, we have to understand that we get our light from above the sun, from God himself. Now we're about to transition here from regard to remember. And before we do that, I just wanna give you some things to think about here from Proverbs. So go to Proverbs chapter number one real quick, Proverbs chapter number one. I'm just gonna give you three quick Proverbs to think about. I like to do this when I read through Ecclesiastes because obviously Solomon wrote both of these. And so it's always good to kind of cross check and go back and forth and see the thought process here, okay? Look down at verse number 24. So Solomon says this, because I have called, okay? And this is being spoken of here as wisdom is crying out, as wisdom is saying, hey, come to me, I can help you. He says, because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand. Now look at this, and no man regarded. That's the problem today is we have a lack of people regarding wisdom, a lack of people regarding knowledge, people would rather just be told the vision, told what to believe, told how to feel, okay? We are not that type of people, okay? God said my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And so we have to be sanctified like we talked about this morning. We have to be separate from that and actually be cognizant of what we are regarding. Are we regarding the word of God or someone else's opinion, okay? Now go to Proverbs chapter 13 real quick, Proverbs chapter number 13. And I'll give you another one about regarding here. Look at verse number 18. So same book, chapter 13, look at verse number 18. The Bible says this, poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction. Now look at this, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. And that's the goal of these books of wisdom. It's to provide us with reproof, with correction, okay? And if we allow that correction in our lives and we make the adjustments, our path is gonna be better. It's gonna be straighter, okay? And we're gonna be more successful. We're gonna have better possibilities in the end. Now, one more for you real quickly. Just go over to chapter 15. Again, same book, Proverbs 15. Go over to chapter number, chapter 15, look at verse five. So Solomon says this. He says, a fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. I talked about this on Wednesday. What is prudence, okay? A person that is prudent is somebody that looks well to their going. It's somebody who says, okay, if I make this decision, this, this, and this could happen, okay? They don't just on the fly, boom, I'm gonna do this, okay? Now, sometimes that's obviously necessary. Sometimes we have to make quick decisions, but the more we make decisions with a prudent heart, with correction in mind, the quicker you're gonna become able to make better decisions faster. So hopefully that makes sense. All right, go back if you would to chapter number 11 of Ecclesiastes, and let's move on here. So again, the first point of Solomon's poetry here beginning in chapter 11 is what are you regarding? Okay, are you regarding the possibilities and the uncertainty more so than the reward? If so, you're gonna reap vanity, okay? Look down at verse number nine. He says, rejoice. Well, there's that word again. You're gonna get a crown if you do what I tell you, okay? It's a real physical, tangible crown. Rejoice, and I'm just kidding, by the way. Rejoice, oh young man in thy youth. You know, the young guy's gotta listen up to this, okay? Cause he just kinda throws this out there and this is like a one, two combo here and it's not very nice. He says, rejoice, oh young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Now, does that sound like a good thing to just go ahead and walk after your own heart, walk after your own eyes? No, we're supposed to use the eyes that God has given us inside of our heads, and I've done sermons on that in the past, right? We're supposed to walk according to wisdom, okay? The word of God is what? It's a light that shines into our path, right? We've talked about that extensively lately. And so what is Solomon's point here? He's like, you wanna regard what you wanna regard? Go ahead and do it, live it up. Enjoy your time, pal, but just know that God will bring you into judgment. You wanna go ahead and ignore reproof, ignore correction, ignore the word of God? Go ahead. He's like, hey, go ahead. You know, sometimes I feel like that. Like people will call and I need your help. I need your help. Please call me back. I'm like, all right, I got like three more jobs. I'll give you a quick call, right? Since you called me like five times. And I wanna help people. It sounds bad, but I do wanna help. It's just sometimes when people say they want help and I give them a formula, and they're just like, well, I can't do that. It's like, I can't help you. Prepare for disaster, you know? And I've had to have that conversation, I feel like, in my life with people more than I've been like, hey, you actually follow that advice and it worked out well for you? Great, amen. You know, when people will call and, hey, I need help in this situation, about this job, about this person. I'm like, all right, here's what I, I've had that experience. Here's what I think is wise here. Try this out, okay? Call back. Oh, it's still going on. I'm like, did you do it? No. You know, live it up, pal. Do whatever you want to, okay? Just go ahead. Do whatever you want. Live it up. You know what? God's gonna bring you into judgment because you have failed to understand reproof. You have failed to make the necessary corrections into your life. And that's basically what Solomon's saying here. Hey, you want to just rejoice in the fact that you're young and you're never gonna be old and nothing's ever gonna come your way, no harm. You're on top of the world. He's like, that day will end. It ends for all of us, okay? Verse 10, therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh for childhood and youth are vanity. And of course he means it's vanity apart from God, underneath the sun. That's what he's saying here, okay? Now, that ends basically our portion for regarding, okay? What do we want to regard? We want to regard God. We want to regard a little bit of risk with prudence because what that's going to do is give us better possibilities to make better decisions and to reap a harvest, okay? Now, how do we do that? How do we keep that as part of our daily navigation in decision-making? Well, right here, verse one of chapter 12. Look what he says. Remember, now remember what? Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. I don't know who it was. I was talking with somebody recently. We were like, life was so much better even in school. I can remember being in school and like, this sucks. You know, this sucks. All these people don't get along with anybody. You know, always fighting and just bickering with everybody. It's just terrible. I can't wait to get out and join the military. I'm going to meet real people. I'm going to have a better life. And then I get there and I'm like, this sucks. Please God, get me out of here. This is terrible, right? And then all of a sudden, adulthood just crashes right into you. Oh, I got to pay my bills now? I got to pay this? What in the world's going on here? You know, there's people act like this. What in the world? You know, it sucks. That's what Solomon's saying here. Hey, remember now thy creator in thy youth. So start now. His cry is to the young people. Hey, don't put this off. Don't delay. Hey, remember him now and don't be in a rush. Oh, I got to move out of my house. Parents suck and this and that. It's like, hey, you better understand something here that when that adulthood comes knocking on your door and kicks that thing wide open, guess what? Trouble comes. Life is not going to be this gravy train that you might think it is in your mind. Okay. Remember now the days, I'm sorry, he says, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shall say, I have no pleasure in them. Now for us that are savior, obviously, no matter what your age is, you're going to have trouble, but you have the Lord. You have the privilege of approach. And so obviously that makes it much better for us here, but he's rebuking people that are just saying, I don't need to worry about this. I'm 20 years old. My testosterone is through the roof. My opportunities are through the roof. It's like you have no idea what could happen to you tomorrow. Don't act like that. Okay. You are not the prophet that your flesh is telling you that you are. And so beginning here in verse two, okay, this kind of gets gloomy and this is basically poetry about aging. So we're going to just read this and I'm just going to kind of do my best to translate what this is talking about and just remember at the beginning of each verse, what I believe the preacher wants for us is to say, despite these things that are coming, remember your creator. That's the key. Remember your creator. So let's start it off here. Look at this here. Verse number two. While the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened nor the clouds return after the rain. So again, this is adding upon what he said in verse one. Hey, you know, remember the creator now while you're young, because when the evil days come, guess what? This is what they're going to start to look like here. The gloomy season sets in. Those bills are coming. The unjust people at work are going to get promoted over you. Your brother and sister are going to be talking trash about you. There's going to be all these different problems that you have to face. Hey, verse number three. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the window be darkened. Okay, what is he talking about in the day when the keepers of the house, okay, he's talking about your legs. He's talking about your arms. He's talking about what keeps your body up. So we're going from youth to aging here. And he's basically saying, hey, when your keepers of the house tremble, okay, and this is true with aging as people get much older, sometimes their arms start to tremble. Sometimes their legs, the things that keep up our body, they start to tremble. And he says, and the strong men shall bow themselves. So what does that mean? They're just going around bowing like this? No, but older people, when their legs become weaker and their arms become weaker, their shoulders begin to stoop and they begin to be hunched over. Well, what's the next thing that we often see after that? Well, the grinders cease. You got a Milwaukee grinder out in your garage and it just don't work no more? No, that would be nice, but he's talking about your teeth, okay? The aging process, what happens? Your body begins to break down and you're no longer that youthful, strong person that you once were. So your grinder cease, your teeth are falling out of your mouth. He says, because they are few and those that look out the windows be darkened. So what happens with age? Your eyes begin to go dim. Verse four, and the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, okay? So what is this? The doors shall shut in the street. So basically when people get older and they start to lose their teeth, and I saw this with my dad, what happens is their mouths kind of close and they begin to not have the appetite that they once had. Their body no longer requires that same amount of nutrition because it's dying, okay? And he says, verse four, the doors shall be shut in the streets. That's what he's talking about. When the sound of the grinding is low, the chewing of food, okay? And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird. Well, what is it with people that are elderly? Have you ever noticed that they rise up early, they get up early? Okay, there's a reason for that. He says, and shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. So, and this is true, and maybe this is just because I see this every single day of my life out here in the community, is that when people get like to 80, even 90 years old, not all of them, of course, but most of them, they start to rise up early. They get up early and music is no longer interesting to them. The sound of the birds is no longer interesting. Why? Because they can't hear as well as they once could. And so you start to talk to them about these things. I can't hear it. Life sucks anyways. I can't wait to die. You know, that's typically what I get told by people out here. And so that's what he's bringing up. Verse five, he says, and he says, also when they shall be afraid of that which is high. And that's actually smart. Okay? Because what are older people afraid of? They're afraid of falling down. Okay? So they're not going to want to go hiking with you necessarily, climbing up stairs and doing all of these things. They start to become more fearful of things in life. Look what he says next. And fear shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish. And what is that? Let's just stop right there. Anybody ever seen a full blown flourishing almond tree? What color is that? White. Like my hair. White. White. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about age here. This is a picture. This is poetry of the aging process here. Okay? And he says, where are we at here? Verse five, he says, also when they shall be afraid of that which is high. And fears shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail. Grasshopper, you ever think about how a grasshopper works, or walks rather, you know, they have their bent arms, legs, whatever you wanna call them, that's how older people are. He's trying to paint a picture for the youth to grasp in their minds and say, wow, you know, that is definitely coming to me. So, you know what? I better take a little risk and just fear God. Just remember God and regard right things because this is the end of life. Process here. This is what is guaranteed if God allows you to even live that long. And then he says, shall be a burden and desire shall fail. Okay? Well, remember, Abraham's wife had said that, you know, when they were told that they're gonna have a child, it's like, shall I have desire, you know, my heart being old, you know, for my Lord. So he's talking about the physical relationship there shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets. And oftentimes, you'll see that with the elderly, you know, they, for example, it was not too long ago, I went to a person's house and actually this time, and I've seen this a lot lately, a lot. This person just turned 101 years old. 101. And this person's talking to me about how the dishwasher motors work. I'm like, dude, this guy's pretty smart. But one of the things that he was bringing up was about how all the neighbors suck. These people, these darn kids. I'm like, these kids running around all over the place, huh? I'm looking out there, he's talking about kids 70 years old on golf carts racing down, you know, Mountain View Drive over here. I'm just like, I'm like, whoa. And he's like, you're a baby. I'm like, this is kind of, that just kind of popped into my mind there. And I did ask him, and I always try to tell you guys this, you know, I said, all right, dude, you got to tell me what's the secret, you know, you know what he said? You got to keep that mind active. You need to be around people and you need to try to maintain your strength, your muscle. And he's showing me his dumbbells. He's got these like Richard Simmons, 1980 style dumbbells. And he's like, I sit down here in my wheelchair. He's like, I got to use one of the, yeah, and that's sad. He's like, I didn't want to take it because I don't want to be here anymore. And he's like, here I am having to witness my own kids dying. I'm just like, man, yeah, terrible, man, terrible. But yeah, think about that and regard, right things and remember your creator. And you know what? You won't have to go through life burdensome like this guy did. Verse six, okay, wherever the silver cord shall be loose, that's a reference to your spinal cord right there, okay? Having spinal problems, having a problem standing up and walking. And he says, or the golden bowl be broken. What's the golden bowl? That's your dome, man, that's your skull, your head, okay? More susceptible to injury, obviously, as we age, this is or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, probably a reference to your lungs and your breathing capacity. And then of course he says, or the wheel broken at the sister. And of course, the wheel being the heart which pumps circulation and blood throughout your body, okay? Now, during all this process, you're so much better off. Remember your creator, you're getting a new body. Remember what we talked about this morning? Glorification. That's why I had to preach that to, so that when we study this, you're not just like, lie, oh, this is where I'm headed, okay? No, it doesn't matter. This is temporary for the believer, okay? It's a temporary number for the believer. That's it. So when people start making fun of you, oh, you're old. It's just temporary. At least they ain't gonna burn in hell because you're gonna be hot for eternity. Okay, maybe you won't, you don't wanna say that unless it's something you're really close with, but you get the point here. What's the solution? Regard risks responsibly, okay? Don't be afraid to sow. You will reap. And during that process, if you remember God, your life is not gonna be vain. It is going to be filled with rejoicing. Verse seven, he says, then shall the dust return. And this takes us basically full circle here to the next point. So we've got regard, we've got remember. Right here he says, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. And obviously, that is a reference to judgment, which we also talked about this morning, okay? So return. We want to regard right things, and we're gonna do that by remembering our Creator in every thought, okay? Keeping God at the forefront of our minds and all of our decisions because we know we will return to Him, okay? And that keeps us straight in life. Look at verse eight here. He's gonna start to wrap this up. He says, vanity of vanities saith the preacher, all is vanity. And of course, we know by now he's talking about life under the sun without wisdom from above the sun. Right? Because when we take that wisdom from above the sun and we bring it under the sun, we're a different creature. We have different results, and life is going to be better despite what happens, okay? Now for the conclusion here. Look at verse nine. He says, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yay? He gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. So obviously, he's actually recording the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost here, okay? But this is definitely good advice for those of us that preach. We wanna take good knowledge from the word of God. We wanna set it up in a way to give people information to remember, right? Like I'm trying to do tonight. You regard, remember, return, and we can sew a thread through that, okay? It's easy to remember. It helps you with your understanding here. That's my job to hopefully give you some things to think about, to go home, read these chapters, study the word of God with these things in mind, and make you better. That's what this is. This is a ministry of giving, okay? That's why it's called ministry, to minister to others. So he says, again, one more time, verse nine, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people. So despite the atrocities, despite all the tribulation, the persecutions, the backstabbing, just the circumstances of life, the preacher says, you know what? I'm still gonna go forth. I'm still gonna preach. I'm still gonna teach people no matter what happens, okay? No quit. Why? Because you have no idea when God's gonna open up a door that no man can shut and things get so much better and it just takes a different turn. You have no idea when that day will come, and I've got a lot of stories about that. Look at this here in verse number 10. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, okay? What preachers do today to find out acceptable words is they go to what's called a concordance, and they pretend that they know Greek or they pretend that they know Hebrew, and then they'll take a word and they'll say, this word means this, this, this, this, and this, and by the time they're done with this, this, this, and this, what do you have? You've got a completely different Bible. They've completely changed the word of God, and what I started telling people is this. Hey, if you want to change the word of God, I can make it real easy for you. All you gotta do is just go grab a thesaurus and just start looking up synonyms and down the line, you'll have a completely different meaning. Just do that. It's easier. You know why they don't want to do that? Because it doesn't make them look as smart, right? It makes them look smarter if they can correct the word of God, but the real preacher, the wisest man to ever live, what does he say? The preacher sought to find out acceptable words. Where did he find these? Oh, it says right here, and that which was written was upright and even words of truth, okay? So again, we go to the word of God and find out these acceptable words. So, I try the best that I can, that when I say something, hopefully I got it from here. Now, there are times where I say stuff and I'm like, why did I say that? I get my verses crossed, you know, it happens, okay, I preach three times a week, I'm studying for my job outside of here every single day, okay, I've got a lot on my plate, so it happens, okay? But the point is, the word of God is where we go to find words that are going to be acceptable to God, not to your concordance and not to the thesaurus, okay? Verse 11, and let me just say this, you guys are preaching, there's nothing wrong with going to the thesaurus to kind of get ideas and different ways to say things, okay? But not to get your absolute truth or to change the word of God and everybody knows that. Verse 11, we're almost done. It says, the words of the wise are as goads. What does that mean? What does a goad do? It moves, it moves an animal, okay? He's not equating us to animals, but he's saying the words of the wise are as goads. They inspire, they inspire application, okay? It's not just straightly information. And I told some of you guys this before, information without application is literally death, okay? It's frustration is what it is. It leads to frustration because you got all this knowledge, but okay, what do I do with it? And that's what we're all seeking. What do I do with this information? How does, how do I use this in my life? Do I give this to somebody else? Do I do something? It's to goad people, to get them to either think a proper thing or to make a change in their life for the better or something, okay? It's to goad people in the right direction, in the right way to regard, okay? So verse 11, he says, the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And of course, you know what that's a reference to in today's age. Who's the shepherd? Well, it's Jesus Christ and so we wanna go to those because that's what moves us. It's the word of God and the Holy Spirit that's gonna get you to make a change. But the world says, no, no, no, you gotta find the most eloquent, flowy speaker with charisma and aura and that's how it works. That's not how it works. You can take somebody that can just Joe Biden a whole sermon or a whole passage of the Bible. If he's saved and the Holy Ghost is here, guess what? There's gonna be some goading. There's gonna be some movement. There's gonna be a revolution. This isn't further. Buy these, my son, be admonished of making many books. There is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh and I'm here to testify that is definitely true. Anybody's gone through school, you know, much study is a weariness of the flesh, which is why the public school system often tries to overwhelm you with homework. I don't know if that's why they do that, but it sucks. It drains ya. of the whole matter. So again, right, we want to be a people that listens to everything, that gathers facts. And like I always say, we want to, if we're trying to find out something we don't know, what do we do? We start with what we know, what is factual, and then we move from there. Sometimes we can get to the unknown. Sometimes we hit a roadblock and we got to park it. Okay. But our job is to hear the conclusion of the whole matter. And here it is, fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. So after all of Solomon's life, he comes right back to where he started. Fear God. Why? Because it gives you knowledge. It's the beginning of knowledge. And then what else is it? It's the beginning of wisdom. Okay. And so I want to say this. You say, well, because a lot of people will ask, well, how do you fear God? Well, let me just say this. A healthy fear of God depends on a healthy view of God. If you have this view of God that God's just waiting to pound you every second of the day, every time you make a mistake, every time you do something wrong, okay, it's going to be hard for you to fear God. And it's going to be hard for you to want to approach God in prayer. And then what happens? Oh, your prayer life starts to slack. Your Bible reading starts to slack because you just got this, this attitude. Well, God's just coming after me because something bad happened. Okay. And that's not how we want to be. Obviously, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Okay. Think about all the people in the Bible like David. David was a man after God's own heart. David had another man's wife. He stole another man's wife and had that guy killed. And guess what? He's still in heaven. I'm not saying you go out and do that, but I mean, look, if God loves him and can get over that, look, I'm sure we're good. Okay. We're good to go here. We've got rejoicing in our future. That's the admonition here. Then we're going to end it right here. Verse 14, for God shall bring every work into judgment. So all those things that we're trying to figure out, okay, and it's good. We got to try to figure these things out. Known to the unknown. Okay. Guess what? Look at what this says, for God shall bring every work into judgment. Someday, we're going to see the judgment on those things. Now, look what he says, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. You got questions. Well, who shot JFK and, you know, what specific groups were involved in all these conspiracies? You know, we're going to get the full answer. A lot of us already know, but we're going to get the details that we may not know at some point in time. It's all going to be put out there for the whole world to see because there's coming a day, like I said this morning, okay, out of Isaiah chapter number 11, we are headed to a time when Christ comes back and the whole earth is going to be filled with knowledge of the Lord. And so that is definitely something to look forward to. So just real quickly, okay, remember your three Rs, your regard, remember, and return. So what do you mean? Regard risks too much, you're going to reap that which is cheap. Regard risks responsibly, that equals a better possibility. And finally, a healthy fear of God depends on a healthy view of God. And of course, I just got done talking about that, but what I mean by that, I think that's very important for us to understand and to remind each other at certain times of that because when you have a good, healthy view of God, which you're only going to get from the acceptable book, here, guess what? You're going to be more apt to go and ask the Lord for things, you're going to be better off with a brethren, and you're not going to have this crazy view of God just coming after me because I did this last week or I flipped somebody off or whatever the case is, okay? You're going to know, hey, we're God's children, we're royalty, that's what it says, we're kings, we're priests, and you know what? Though our physical bodies decay, that's okay, we can remember the Lord, we can still regard right things. And we know where we're returning to, okay? We're going back to God who gave us life, and all is going to be good at the end of the day. So hopefully that helps. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this book and for allowing us to reap so much wisdom out of it. I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service and bring us back again safely next week. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, we're going to have one more song and then we'll be dismissed.