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

All right. Amen. Ecclesiastes chapter number four. So obviously continuing on here with Solomon's quest by experimentation. And again, without understanding that this is just another chapter and I know I say this all the time, but it's another one that can just throw people for a serious, wild loop. So apart from God, remember Solomon has essentially basically set aside the word of God and he's looking for fulfillment. He's got all the wealth, he's got all the acquisitions, he's got all the resources, he's got all the power. But in this chapter here, right off the bat, we see something that he knows that he cannot fix in and of himself and that is oppression. And that's what this chapter is about. It deals with oppression. We're going to look at a few different categories, but I titled this how oppression causes depression and we're going to look at that here. So I've got about four or five different things here or ways that people are oppressed according to this chapter. And so let's look at that here. So the first one is going to be found in the first three verses. We're just going to look at verse one here real quickly. So he says, so I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And then he says, and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors, there was power, but they had no comforter. So the first type of oppression that Solomon is describing for us is an oppression that is imposed rather by other people onto other people, typically by the rich. And you guys know how the story goes. People get money hungry. They start making a lot of money. They get very influential and they start to realize that they have certain powers with people. And then no longer do the finances satisfy their needs. They want more power and they will try to gain that power at the expense of other people's lives. So the first type of oppression that we see in this chapter here is imposed on by other people. So it's forced. Okay. Now the next one here is going to be basically, we're going to say a byproduct of doing what's right. Okay. That can also bring a form of oppression on people. Look at verse number four. So he says, again, I considered all travail and every right work that for this, a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. Okay. And we've all seen this before. Will you make a decision? You know what? I'm going to do what's right here in this situation, or I'm going to follow the word of God. I'm going to go to church. I'm going to do all these things. What typically happens? You lose your friends. You lose your family. You lose the respect of the world. Okay. But even apart from that, a lot of times you find yourself in a situation where you have a decision to make and you decide, okay, you know what? We're going to do what's right here. We're not going to cover this up. We're not going to sweep this under the rug. A lot of times you will find people in the world say, you know what? I don't really like that too much. Okay. And because you're not willing to compromise, because you're not willing to shove this thing under the rug, I'm going to oppress you. I'm going to make fun of you. I'm going to put the thumb down on you. I'm going to drive you literally insane. So doing right oftentimes can cause your neighbor to want to slander you and be a thorn in your side. Number three, the next one here is really being alone or self-inflicted. And you're going to find that down in verse number eight. So he says, there is one alone and there is not a second. Yay. He hath neither child nor brother. Okay. We're going to get into all of these here tonight, but going out life alone, driving people away is a way that we bring oppression on to ourselves and probably one of the worst forms all together. So let's look at something here. So verse number one, one of the things that we saw that Solomon says is he looked on the oppressors and there was no comforter. Okay. That's one of the things that really bothered him about this. He's like, nobody cares. As long as everyone else has theirs, has their money, has their things, has their goals. Okay. They don't really care about the people being enslaved, the people being oppressed. We see down here in verse number eight, we just looked at it, that going out life alone is definitely not good. Okay. It is a form of oppression. Now look all the way over here at verse number 11 and you'll begin to see the solution. He says again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And we'll break that down. That's actually a very important verse that you need to have on hand for a challenge that is often thrown your way by the sodomites. Okay. And so we're going to say this, how you handle oppression by day is determined by how you sleep at night. Okay. And the reason why I put it together like that is to basically reflect this chapter here. Okay. It reflects, you know, do we have people, okay, I'm not saying you need to just hop in a bed with, with anybody. Please don't misunderstand me. But basically what I'm saying here is when you lay down at night, have you done the best you can to edify people? Are you making friends? Are you making acquaintances? Are you building relationships? And if so, no matter what the world throws at you, okay, you have the comfort of other people to fall back on. Okay. So how you handle oppression by day is determined by how you sleep at night. And so when you think about it like that, it should cause you to say, you know what? I don't want to be the type of person that just drives everyone away and have this Rambo type mentality. My dad lived that way and I firmly believe that that is the number one ingredient that caused him to have dementia and Alzheimer's because once he retired, he did not like people at all. He just wanted us to come by and now, you know, just, just kind of be in the background and watch TV. Okay. And I heard this said, I don't know who said this. I didn't make this up, but I find this to be true. Somebody had said one time to retire is to expire. And we talked a little bit about that this morning that a lot of older folks that I have met out in the community, they say that if you slow down, if you cease to move, you know, basically if you don't use it, you're going to lose it. And of course my dad ceased to use his mind, just sat down in front of the TV and just let that programming just go on and on and on. No interaction with other people, no conversation. So once he left work, it was just a downward spiral and he literally lost his mind. So we're going to be talking about all of that this evening, 16 verses, not going to keep you too long. So let's get started here. Let's look at that first form of oppression here, the one imposed by other people. So verse number one, again, the Bible says, so I returned and considered all the oppression or all the oppressions that are done under the sun. Okay. And so he's basically saying, I've contemplated all of this evil, all of this enslavement that's done under the sun or on the earth rather. Okay. And he says, and behold the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comfort and on the side of their oppressors, there was power, but they had no comfort. Look at verse two, wherefore. So he's coming to a bit of a conclusion here. So when he looked at that apart from God, okay, this is what he said in himself, wherefore I praise the dead, which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. So what he said is basically I'm looking at the oppressed here and even though I've got all this money, I've got all this wealth, I have all of this power, all of this, these resources, I'm the king of the best nation on planet earth that is literally headed by God. Okay. And he's, he's put that aside and he says, there's no, there's no point to life here. Okay. The whole, the, the, the, the whole matter is if it, apart from God, it is better to be dead than to be alive. I mean, who's ever met somebody like that. Somebody who's without hope in the world, a person who's not even safe. And they say, well, if I die, I die, who cares? You know, life is meaningless. We don't even really know why we're here. There's people starving in Africa. There's people starving here and we've got all this evil in the world and so on and so forth, right? They say it's better to be dead anyways. Okay. How did they get that way? Well, because they don't understand the depression that oppression brings, nor do they understand obviously how to escape it. Okay. Look at verse three. It says, yay, better is he than both they, he being the dead person, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. And so what this does here, what this mindset does, and you're going to encounter people in the world out soul winning, people in your family, your neighbors, your so-called acquaintances at work that have this attitude described here. Okay. That say, well, what's the deal here? If there's, you know, all this oppression here and nobody's doing anything about it, it's better to just be dead. That leads people to two questions. You know what they are? One is they'll start to question the existence of God. And they'll say, well, because of all of this evil, there's no way there could be a God. And so that's why I don't believe. Okay. And then you'll have a little bit less extreme on the other end. And they'll say, okay, maybe there is something out there that created us, but it's not good. He's twisted. And this is just a game show for him. And this is just for his entertainment. So you're going to find those two types of people. And you got to know how to appropriately respond because our job as ambassadors for Christ is what is to help them and hopefully guide them out of this snare, out of this prison, out of this oppression to see the light in the world, which obviously for the purpose of this chapter, your Solomon has ignored. Now real quickly here, go to James new Testament, keep your place here, but go to James chapter number two, James chapter number two. You probably already know which verse we're going to be looking at here, but this applies in this situation here. Okay. James chapter number two. So James in this chapter here, obviously a lot being discussed here, famous chapter that people go to, to try and prove work salvation. But really what James is talking about here is we ought not to be respecters of persons. Okay. We ought not to look at people that are poor or people that, you know, maybe Solomon would have even looked at and said, Oh, they're, they're, they're oppressed. Okay. And we're not supposed to lift up the high and mighty though the wealthy and put them in better seats in church and put them in better positions and things of that nature. Yeah. And look at what James says here in James chapter two verse six, he says, but you have despised the poor, right? So he's, he's admonishing these believers here for being respecters of persons. And he says, but you have despised the poor. And he says this, do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats. Okay. Now I'm not one of these people that's like, Oh, you know, we ought to tax the billionaires and you know, there ought not to be any billionaires. I think if you have the gift of making that much money, then do it. Okay. That's great. The only problem is I don't know any billionaires on this planet on the same token that are really good that are like, you know what? I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm saved. Okay. I don't know that typically all of these people that are in the billionaire section are oppressors, even Elon Musk. He wants to oppress. You know, a lot of people say, Oh, well, yeah, he bought Twitter and made it a free speech platform. Yeah. But he's also the guy designing the neuro link. That's going to go inside of your brain someday for not you, but people that take the market. There's a reason behind him buying that the information and Intel that he's able to now acquire from doing that. It's not going to be used for patriotism and for the glory of the constitution. Okay. There's a nefarious plan going on and that's not what this sermon is about. But James is like, Hey, why do you, why do you hold the guy who makes more money in higher esteem than you do the poor person? Do you not understand that Christ died for all Christ died for both of those people and they both deserve respect and dignity. And so he brings up the obvious point that rich men oppress. Okay. That's what they do because when money runs out, the only thing that they think that is going to fulfill them is power. Okay. Just go read some of the quotes by George Soros and some of these other elitists out there. And that's exactly what you're going to see. They just want power. They don't care who they hurt and they don't care what they destroy or any thing like that. So let's what we got to do next. Go to Genesis chapter 37. So before we move on, I mean, everybody in here knows that oppression comes from one source. Okay. It comes from the evil one. It comes from the wicked one. It comes from the devil. So with that understanding, we, before we move on here, we need to understand this word evil in the Bible, because you guys are going to encounter people that are going to try to hit you with this. They're going to try to throw this in your face and say, again, you know, why does God allow evil? And they might even come at you and say, well, I've even heard that God does evil. Okay. How can, if God's good, how can he do evil? And it's because they don't understand what that word really means. Okay. The word evil, just like the word baptism, you got to pay attention to context. It's just like repent, just like so many other English words that we use. The context surrounding that word is everything because what people do is they hear that word evil and they just automatically associate it with wickedness and sin. Okay. But that's not the case. And we've kind of gone over this somewhat recently, but I want to just make sure we're all on the same page here. So two verses out of Genesis 37 real quickly, look down at verse number 20. So if you're not familiar with what's going on here, but basically Joseph, who was loved by his father, Jacob, more than his brethren, his brethren have come up with a plan to basically sell them off to Ishmaelites, put them into slavery. And they're trying to come up with a story and they're like, okay, well, what are we going to tell dad why he didn't come home? Oh, okay. We'll just tell him that an evil beast has basically devoured him. Let's look at that. Look at verse 20. So again, we're just learning some definitions here. What does the word evil mean? Verse 20, come now therefore, and let us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dream. So again, brethren envious there, but notice that says evil beast. Okay. And again, you know, what does that mean? An evil beast. He's talking about a dragon or some mythical, you know, mythological creature. No. Hey, just like a wild animal, like a bear or, you know, something that's very powerful, maybe a lion or just, just, just something that could tear a human into pieces. Look at verse 33. So once they bring Joseph's coat, dipped in blood, okay, to the father and they're like, we don't know what happened to him, but we found this verse 33 and he knew it. That's Jacob. And he knew it and said, it is my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt, rent in pieces, meaning torn in pieces. And of course, if you're not familiar with the story, it all works out at the end of their lives, but, um, go to Isaiah chapter number five. The point is you got to ask yourself this question. Okay. Are these animals or these beasts, are they actually sinners? Okay. Are they wicked? Are these, you know, bears out in the woods doing seances and dancing around burning, you know, piles of skulls and stuff like that. Are they worshiping the devil? No. Okay. So why does the Bible describe them as evil beasts? Oh, that's right. Because the word evil means hurt or it can mean destruction, dangerous, something of that nature. Okay. So you have to understand what the word evil means in order to combat these people that are confused or worse, trying to mess with you. Okay. Now here's the other end of the spectrum here on the word evil. Isaiah chapter five, look down at verse number 20, very familiar verse here. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. And that put darkness for light and the light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Of course, we all know that is definitely the theme going on in the world today. That is how our country is being ran. But look at the verse there. Okay. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. Okay. So evil can also mean wickedness, sinfulness, but at the end of the day, it's still harmful, destructive behavior. Okay. We all know that our government, what do they promote? They promote exporting sodomy. That is the goal. Okay. I told you before, that's the whole reason this whole Ukraine thing is going on. It's to push that. Okay. Who remembers under the Obama administration when he imposed sanctions on African countries, if they would not basically embrace the sodomite lifestyle? He was willing to starve black people if they did not adopt sodomy. A lot of people don't know that, but that is a fact. That is what he did. And what does our government do about it? They say, well, this is for the good of mankind. This is for the good of humanity. They're doing what this verse says right here. They're calling evil because that is evil. They're calling that good. And they're calling what we do here, preaching the word of God and telling people about righteousness. They call that evil. So they flip them. And that's how the devil operates. Okay. Who's ever seen the Baphomet statue where he's got, it's like this half man, goat creature, and he's pointing up and pointing down, which basically means as above, so below. Okay. That's what the devil does. He works in opposites. He likes to invert things. He likes to take the truth and turn it upside down and tell you here, this is how it really looks, right? All it goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. Yay, hath God said, okay. That's what he does. He questions the law of God and it always results in oppression. Okay. And so when you understand the definition of evil, you are now able to clearly articulate and tell people that challenge you the truth about what the Bible says. The evil doesn't always mean something that satanic or wicked. Okay. This says evil beasts, but here's the kicker. Go to the book of Amos. So, uh, just forward there in your Bibles, a few chapters or a few books rather, a little book of Amos, Amos chapter number three, and one more verse on the subject and we will move on here. Okay. Amos chapter number three. So Amos is a prophet that basically goes up to the Northern kingdom of Israel, preaches truth to them. They don't like it. They reject it. But he says something here, very profound in verse six, he says, shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it. Now, does that mean that the Lord's come into a city and set up like a satanic temple or something to say, you know, worship in here? No, that's preposterous. That's stupid. But what type of evil is this talking about then? Well, it's talking about destruction, hurting. People say, well, God, it's impossible for God to do evil. I've heard that one. Really? Have you ever heard of the doctrine of hell? Have you ever read Mark chapter number nine? Do you not understand what Jesus said about hell and the people that go there, what they are going to experience, what they are going to go through? God does evil, but you have to understand what type of evil. It's not the evil of Isaiah chapter five. It's obviously not unrighteousness or sin or wickedness. It is destruction. It is distress. God causes nations to turn into hell. He causes nations that forget about him and invert the truth to go through danger, turmoil, tribulations, and distresses. And that is a righteous evil. That is a righteous indignation and anger that he has. So go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number four. And so really, I mean, it could be said like this. People say, well, the fact that there's evil in the world, that proves that God doesn't exist. I say the opposite. I say the fact that there is evil in the world that proves that God exists. And if there's evil in this world, which everybody admits, most people that you encounter admit that. Well, then that means something else. What does that mean? That means there has to be something in this world that clearly defines what good is. Right? There has to be something in this world that says this is the way things should be. This is a perversion. This is a corruption. This is not good. Oh, what is that? Oh, that's right. It's the Bible. It's not the Quran. It's not the Mormon's doctrine and covenants and the Book of Mormon or these other garbage books that are out there for these other religions. Okay. It's not that. It's the word of God. It's the Bible. That's what clearly defines what evil is. So if we now have the measuring tool, then there has to be somebody who gave us that tool of measurement, which again, just circles back to the fact that there is a God. He gave us the law. He wrote it on our hearts, preserved it in a book, and it is what it is. So with that being said, now let's move on here. So again, going back to verse two, it says, Wherefore I praise the dead, which are already dead more than the living, which are yet alive. So in Solomon's quest by experiment to look and experience life apart from God, he makes this statement here. And of course, we've all seen people say this stuff to us, whether out soul winning or in our everyday lives. And it's just a horrible, oppressive way to go through life. Look at verse three again. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. So of course, now we have a very clear understanding of the word evil. So with that being said, let's look here now at verse number four. And so this is going to take us now into the other form of oppression, which comes as a byproduct of doing things that are correct, doing things that are right. Okay. Look at verse four. He says again, I considered all travail and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. And so it's just, you know, this is here for us to understand something. When you have people and you start to get close to them, you start to bond, you start to form a relationship. I would just caution you. I would just advise you to make sure that you're just aware of this one thing. Okay. If you get an achievement, you get an award, you get some success and you can sense that bit of tension, like that person's not happy about it. You better remember that. I'm not saying to act on it, but you better properly place that person in your life and understand that is not somebody you can trust in the day of battle. I'm just telling you right now, that's how it is. Better realize that because that has always proven true. Now look at this down here in verse number five, he says, the fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh. Now in today's day and age, there's definitely people doing that, right? They're taking the substance, these drugs these days and it makes them do that. But basically what Solomon's saying here is the fool looks down and just like, well, this is my lot in life. It is what it is. And he just eats it up and basically winds up destroying himself because he can't climb his way out. Can't figure a way out of this oppression. Verse six, better is an handful with quietness than both the hands full of travail and vexation of spirit. So, you know, in life, you're going to find people are happier. You can, you can find people and typically people like us that aren't super rich, you know, we're content. We've got enough to pay our bills. We've got enough to put clothes on our back and food on the table. You know, when life is quiet and all is well, that's a good spot to be in. That's better than being in the spot where you have tons of wealth, a lot of riches, but yet you've got the paparazzi following you around. You got the media following you around. You got all these people constantly coming after you, right? That is a daily vexation of spirit. And so what I think Solomon's trying to say here is, hey, don't envy that, okay? If that's not your lot in life, don't envy to get there because guess what? The grass is not always greener on the other side. Now look at verse number seven. He says, then I returned and saw vanity under the sun, okay? And so again, under the sun, okay? That's how the world looks at the world. It's just what's under the sun. They never tend to think, hey, what's above the sun? What's above all that, okay? And then of course we know who is up there. It's the same person that's down here in us. It is the Lord God, okay? Verse number eight, he says there is one alone. So here's the other form of oppression, right? So we've got the oppression that gets imposed by others, that gets forced, right? And you're going to see more of that as time progresses on this earth because the antichrist is coming. And then you've got this oppression that's a byproduct of just doing right, just doing good. This is this envy that can result in relationships that comes on. But then you've got this one that's a result of like pride. Like I'm going to go at this alone. I'm going to go out life alone here. Verse number eight, there is one alone and there is not a second. Yea, he hath neither child nor brother. Yet is there no end of all his labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches. Neither sayeth he, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity. Yea, it is a sore travail. So, you know, I read this and I think about these feminists that are out there and they're like, I don't need no man. I don't need anybody. All I need is my cat and my career. Right? I just need cat, career, I'm good. I don't need nobody. Okay? You know what? By the time they get up there in age, you know what you find? Depression. Extreme depression. You find that pill cabinet just caked with medications to cloak the pain and the suffering that they actually have brought on themselves because they've turned their backs on everybody because they say, you know, I'm going to climb this ladder. And it's not just women. Guys do the same thing as well and they get on YouTube and I'm going at this alone. I don't need no woman. I don't need anybody in life. I'm going to be the best. I can do it on my own. This is your fate if that's your attitude. And that's what Solomon has observed. And he's telling us it's not the right way to go. It's definitely going to be an oppression. And now he gets into the application part. And again, this application really applies to any form of oppression, any form of trial, tribulation. And again, I said how you handle oppression by day is how you sleep at night or by how you sleep at night. Verse nine, look at it. Here's the solution. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. So if you go into business with another person, Hey, you start a company up with another person. You're going to be able to make more because if one person is sick, the other person can help. The other person can motivate when the other person is down and it's just better over all. Okay. Verse 10 for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up again. You know, that's just how it is in life. Verse 11. It says again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? Okay. Let's look at something here. Go to Luke chapter 17, Luke chapter 17, but keep your place here. Luke chapter number 17. By this point in ministry and even today, even right before the service, I mean, if I had to put a number on how many messages that we get, whether it be texts, phone calls, emails, social media messages by Sodomites, it's definitely in the tens of thousands. And this is one that comes up quite often. Okay. And right here in Luke chapter 17, they'll say, see, Jesus endorsed the Sodomites here. And this is proof that they can be saved. This is proof that the, that what you're saying is irrelevant and that you're a hater. Look at this here, Luke 17 verse 34. So Jesus says this, I tell you in that night, there shall be two men in one bed, the one shall be taken and the other left. Verse 35, two women shall be grinding together. The one shall be taken and the other left, of course, grinding at the mill is what that is referring to. Now what I've written down, I've already got this ingrained in my head when they come at me with this, or I'm out in public and somebody says this, because there are people that have heard this and they say, you know, I don't know, but could you help? Okay. I bring them right back to Ecclesiastes chapter number four. And I show them verse number 11. Okay. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? See, it's so, we, we, we just, we naturally do this and we have this tendency. We read the Bible through our American eyes. We read the Bible through our 2024 eyes. And it is very difficult oftentimes for us to picture life without electricity, to picture life without running water, to picture life without your phones and new tablets and all of those fancy things that we have today. It is very difficult. Okay. But you go and search yourself in another country that does not have electricity everywhere. Guess what? I don't care if you're in the desert, when it gets cold at night, it gets really cold. And when two people lie together, guess what? There's heat. Tell you a story. When I was in the military, I was stationed up in Alaska and we would do these drills. Okay. They would have us just go out in the woods for three, four, six weeks at a time. You know, I've seen temperatures well below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I've seen it. I watched a man's heart stop in his chest because that's how cold it was. I'm telling you right now, when it gets to about 30 below, you'll hop into any sleeping bag with anybody. You don't care what it is. Okay. Because it's cold, it's painful and it hurts. And one of the techniques to save your life is to share a sleeping bag with another human being. Okay. And so look, we're told about the tribulation and when the tribulation comes, how there's going to be famine and all sorts of pestilence and things. You know what? There's going to be a lot of people that can't afford to pay the rent. There's going to be a lot of people without power, without central heating. And you know what? When Christ comes back, you're going to find several groups of people on this planet that are probably cold at night sharing a bed. Okay. But because perverts have a perverted mind, they read the Bible with a perverted mind and perverted lenses. And so therefore they cannot see the truth. But what I do is I bring them here and say, even Solomon gives you the explanation for that. And it's very clear again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? It's that simple. Case closed. If they don't buy that, walk away. You're done. Conversation is over. So let's move on here now. Verse number 12. And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him. So again, you got one guy coming at you. Hey, you, you said this, your partner said this. Okay. Now you got two witnesses versus one accuser, you know, or one person attacking you. Either way, it goes both ways. Two shall withstand him, but look, it gets even better. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Look, if you can find, you know, two or three people that are your friends that you could trust, man, you can do just about anything that you want to do. I mean, you can take over. See, you can soul in this whole area. I mean, if you just got two or three people, I mean, look, there is like a lot of work that that group can do. Look at verse 13. So he goes on to say this. Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. And this is the fourth form of oppression. I might've even skipped this. I don't even know. I feel like I didn't bring this up, but basically this is the type of oppression that's brought on by position. It's brought on by foolishness. Okay. And people get to that level. They go, you know what, my abilities, my gifts, like we talked about this morning are going to save me from anything. And the next thing you know, they're under oppression. They are bound. They're blind. They're not able to live as a wise person, but look what he says here. Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. You know, and it's just think about the King of England. You just came out with that, that portrait that somebody drew. It was all satanic. It looks like something from the Ghostbusters two movie. If you grew up in the eighties with me, you know, it is satanic and they're not even trying to hide again. Look, they're just not even trying to hide this stuff here. You know, the guy is going to die. That's his fate. He knows that. And someday, you know, guess what, sooner or later, most people aren't even going to know who he is. And he spent a lifetime trying to prove how dominant, how assertive, how powerful that him and his family, we can get away with murder, which he has. He absolutely has. But you know what? The poor people that he's oppressed, that have understood, Hey, I got two or three dudes going through this with me. I can draw power. I can draw motivation. I can draw comfort from them. They're better off than that rich king who's got it all, who can eat, you know, fish with every meal, swordfish, whatever it is, you know, the best of the best. It doesn't matter. Okay. Because wisdom is worth more than all of the gold, silver in the world. Verse 14, for out of prison, he cometh to reign, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom be cometh poor. Okay. And so literally, I mean, the way that a lot of these kings are raised, they're raised at these prison type environments. I mean, think about what's his son's name, Charles, Prince Charles, you know, the guy in England, this Royal family in England, you know, think about them having to grow up knowing that their mother was murdered and all the stuff that we all suspect, but they actually know, know all the darkness, all the stuff that goes on at the parties, all the stuff that goes on, that's, you know, just too abominable to even speak of. Okay. When they take the throne, I mean, they're literally stepping out of prison and what do they do? Okay. They make decisions that basically put people in bondage. That's what they do. So verse 14, for out of prison, he cometh, who? Well, this foolish king. And what does he do? Well, he does what fools do and they oppress. They take away comfort and they strive to hurt people because that's how they draw satisfaction. And it says, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom be cometh poor. Verse 15, I considered all the living and we're almost done. I considered all the living which walk under the sun with a second child that shall stand up in his stead. So he's sitting there and he's contemplating this. He's like, this cycle just constantly goes and it just constantly repeats. And what is the outcome? And you get that right here in verse 16, there is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them. They also, that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. So again, you know, putting your trust in the rich, putting your trust in the gifted, whatever you want to say, it brings on a form of oppression that you may not even recognize. And what does that do? It leads to depression. It leads to looking at life exactly like how Solomon's looking at life. You know, and it's obviously not good, especially for the believer, because we have the comforter inside of us. Okay. And we talked about that verse this morning in the Psalms, which says that the righteous could never be moved. Nobody can take away what you have. Nobody can move you. Nobody can stop you from doing the things that God has called you to do because we serve the great risen savior. And so we're going to stop it right there. We'll do chapter five next week. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for this church, for all that you do for us. Just pray to help us to remember these things, teach them to others. And we just pray also, Lord, that you bring us back safely again next week. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, we'll have one more song and then we will be dismissed.