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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for coming. Let's all find our seats. Grab a song book and let's all stand together for this first song. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Let's all find our seats. Let's all stand together for this first song. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Let's all find our seats. Let's all stand together for this first song. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Song number 23. All of us standing together on this first song. Nice and loud on that first verse. Would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood. Power in the blood. Would you be full of victory when there's powerful power in the blood? There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood from the land. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood. Power in the blood. Come for a place with some power inside. There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the land. There is power, power, wonder-working power power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. Would you be finer, much tighter than snow? There's power in the blood. Power in the blood. Since things are lost in this life-giving flow, there's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the land. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. Would you serve us for Jesus again? There's power in the blood. Power in the blood. Would you live daily as praises to see? There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the land. There is power, power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. Amen. At this time, let's open our service with a word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, for allowing us, Lord, to be here tonight, Lord, and hear your word preached unto us, God. We thank you, Lord, for the power that's in your blood, God, and we ask, Lord, that you would bless the service, Lord, that you would fill pastor with your Holy Spirit, God, as he preaches to us, Lord. We also ask, God, that you would be with us in the congregation, God. Help us to be attentive, Lord, and edified tonight, Lord. Leave here differently than when we came in. We love you, God, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 245. The old account was settled. Song number 245. Song 245. The old account was settled. And that first verse? There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven an old account was settled. I said, do not forgive. My name was at the top and many things below. I went unto the keeper and settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago, long ago. And the record's clear today for he washed my sins away when the old account was settled long ago. The old account was large and growing every day for I was always sinning and never tried to pay. But when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe, I said that I would settle. I settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago. And the record's clear today for he washed my sins away when the old account was settled long ago. When in that happy home my Savior's home above, I'll sing redemption's story and praise Him for His love. I'll not forget that book with pages wide as snow because I came and settled and settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago, long ago. And the record's clear today for he washed my sins away when the old account was settled long ago. Oh, sinner, trust the Lord. Be cleansed of all your sin, for thus He hath provided for you to enter in. And then if I should live a hundred years below, up there you'll not regret it. You settled long ago, long ago, long ago. Yes, the old account was settled long ago. And the record's clear today for he washed my sins away when the old account was settled long ago. All right, great singing. Thank you so much for being here this evening. Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be song number 46, my saviors. First of all, 46, right? Song number 46 if you want to get that ready in your song books. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Of course, our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. And then we continue this evening with the book of Ecclesiastes where chapter number 7 you see the sowing times and teams, the list of expecting mothers. We can remove Miss Cecilia Breidenhagen. She had her baby, Bethany Elizabeth Elizabeth Breidenhagen, 5 pounds 10 ounces, 18 inches born on May 5th at 3.32 a.m. So congratulations to brother Frank and Cecilia on their new baby. And so if you want to be a blessing to the family, of course, during this time, they're kind of getting assimilated. You want to bring a meal to them or send a meal to them. Please see my wife for more details about that. I want to encourage you to sign up for that. Okay. You want to make sure that you're a blessing to the people in our church, especially during a time of transition when they just had a baby. And if it's like, well, you know, they're just too far, I'm not gonna be able to go out there, then Uber eats them a pizza or something like that. But just try to do something to be a blessing to them. And you will regret it in the future. Amen. And so just keep that in mind. Please see my wife for more details about that. You see the important reminders there. And some of the upcoming church announcements or church events, excuse me, this Saturday, May 15th, we have the Men's Smoke Alley, men. And that will be officially at 5 p.m. Okay. So this will be at Dr. Rita's house. She's she's lending us her home so we can eat, drink, and be merry. Okay. And she has a pool there. And I think she's warming up the pool. And so for us, there's a jacuzzi there. And there's gonna be a live band. I'm just kidding, not in a live band. But we are, the pool's gonna be there. So you're welcome to bring your sons with you if you want to go swimming with your son. If you don't know how to swim, bring your floaties. Amen. I'm just kidding. But you know, everyone's welcome to swim. And of course, we're just gonna have a great time. We don't want to stay there too late because it's Saturday. And what comes after Saturday? Sunday. And what's on Sunday? Church. Okay. So every individual that we see at the at the smokeout on Saturday, I expect to see you on Sunday in church on Sunday morning. Amen. So we're looking forward to that. It's gonna be great. And brother Jose is smoking the meat. And so make sure you say thank you to him afterwards because he's putting in a lot of work to prepare all the meat and the drinks and diverse washings on that. So we're looking forward to it. It's gonna be great. Friday, May 28th, we have the men's prayer prayer meeting. What's today's date? Today is the 13th. Okay. We're still good. Is it tomorrow? Alright, so that's the men's prayer meeting. And then on Sunday, June 6th, we're gonna be celebrating the June birthdays with breakfast in the morning. And so in honor of everyone whose birthday is in June. Sunday, June 20th, we have a Father's Day service. We'll have a gift for every dad who comes. Invite your dad to invite someone's dad to come on that day. And the service will be geared towards fathers. Sunday, July 4th is the July birthday breakfast and we'll have something special also for the 4th of July on that day as well. Quiet time resumes from 3 p.m. to 4.15 on Sundays in the main auditorium in the mother baby room. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction. If you can pull out your prayer sheet, we're gonna go over this briefly. And then Brother Maury Lemons is gonna come on up and pray over these. Of course, as the church corporately continue to pray for God's favor, pray for the sowing and missions trips that we're gonna be taking in the near future, spiritual and numerical growth, and of course, pray for the new people in our church. We've had a lot of new families. And so, I was thinking to myself, let me just veer off the prayer sheet a little bit. I was thinking, you know, we got a lot of new families and we're entering the month of June soon. And month of June is a very wicked month and, you know, me as a pastor, I preach on sodomy throughout the month of June. But the thing is, you know, the new families in our church, they may not be used to that kind of preaching. So pray that they're able to digest that, okay? Because those are the sermons you can't save for, like, a Thursday night service. You gotta preach it on a Sunday morning. That's when the most people are there, right? You know, we don't have that philosophy of the old IFP where it's like, we gotta gear the service towards new people on Sunday mornings and the deep doctrine on Sunday night. No, we gotta give them the meat on Sunday morning. And so pray for them. I know it's kind of funny, but at the same time, we want them to stick it out in spite of how hard the preaching gets. And pray that they would see it the biblical way. And of course we're gonna have a lot of content to help them. But hey, be a blessing to them and help explain those concepts to them as well. Amen? Bring them under your wing and teach them and love them and help them in those areas. So pray for the new people in our church. Pray for more laborers. Pray for pastors in training. You see the church families there. You can look over that. And then, oh man, we forgot to take off Pastor Robinson in Mountain Baptist Church. We don't want to pray for them anymore. No, I'm just kidding. We have them on here, but we're actually gonna pray for Pastor Joe Jones and shield the faith Baptist Church in Boise, Idaho. Nothing against Pastor Robinson. He's actually a great friend of mine. But we were trying to rotate the churches, different churches on our prayer bulletin every month. And so we're gonna pray for Pastor Joe Jones and his family and Shield the Faith Baptist Church up in Boise, Idaho. They're doing a great work getting a lot of people saved. And so please pray for them. If you have any additional prayer requests that you would like to be on the bulletin, even if it's anonymous, you know, sometimes you might have a prayer request that you don't want really like the public to know about. You can place your name and then put a dash and say unspoken. Okay. And basically we'll take that to the Lord in prayer. And obviously the Lord knows that need. But if you want that on there, please write that on there. Tear off the sheet. Put it into the offering plate when it comes by. And we'll make sure that it gets into the bulletin for the following week. All right. And that's pretty much it. This time, Brother Maury is gonna come on up and pray over this. All right. Bow your heads, please. Dear Lord, thank you for giving us another day. Thank you for allowing us to be able to come to church and allow us to be in the house of God. And Lord, we just pray that we continue to go closer to you. Let us continue worshiping you and serving you in our day to day lives, Lord. Lord, we want to pray for your favor on our church. We want to pray that we have your favor on our church, that we're doing the things that you want us to do. We're so winning. And Lord, we just pray that you continue blessing our efforts as a church. We want to pray for our so winning efforts that people are getting saved, that people are coming to church, that people are being warned of the coming judgment, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for a church van. We open the doors that we can have a van so that we can serve you in a different capacity, Lord, and just allow us to be able to do more missions trips and so winning trips as well, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for the new people. We pray that you be with them as they're getting acclimated to the church. And Lord, we just pray that you're walking with them and they're growing closer to you and they're drawn closer to you and wanting to learn the truth of what your word has to offer, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for the pastors in training. We want to pray for those men that are seeking a good work. And Lord, we need pastors. We need people to stand between the head. And Lord, we just need people to stand up and just say, I'm going to preach the word of God, Lord. And Lord, we just pray that you're with them, that you're helping them, guiding them. Lord, just pray that you're working with them in their lives, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for family salvation. We have some people here that we have family members that needs to be saved. Lord, we just pray that you're with them, you're working with them, Lord, and you have a, then you ultimately get them saved. And Lord, we just pray that you soften their hearts so that they can accept the gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for the new moms and the mothers and expecting moms and the newborns, Lord. And we just pray that you're with them, that they're healthy, the deliveries are healthy, the babies are healthy. And Lord, let us just do a great job as we're raising our children here. Lord, we also want to pray for the health issues that we have for our family members in our church, Lord. And Lord, we just pray that you have a hand of healing and protection over them. And then Lord, we also want to pray for our Church of the Month, which is Shield of Faith Baptist Church. Lord, we pray that you continue blessing him, blessing Pastor Joe Jones and allowing him to continue to do the work of the Lord. And Lord, we pray that you bless their soul-winning efforts. And Lord, we also pray that that you have, that their that their ministry is successful, Lord. And Lord, we just pray that you keep them safe as they're doing just their ministry things that they're doing in their time with you, Lord. Lord, thank you for just giving us another day. Lord, we pray that the message is fruitful to us. And Lord, we pray that you have a lovely name. Amen. Alright, please turn your hymnals to song number 46, My Savior First of All. Paul's gonna lead the next song. Song 46, My Savior First of All. Song number 46, My Savior First of All. Everyone nice and loud all together on that first verse. When my life ended and I crossed the smiling tide when the bright and glorious morning I shall see I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side and his smile shall be the first to welcome me I shall know him I shall know and repeat by his side I shall stand I shall know his love shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand Oh the soul-thrilling rapture when I knew his blessed face and the luster of his tightly leaning eye Now my fool heart will praise him for his mercy's loud and steady glory I mention in the sky I shall know him I shall know and repeat by his side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand Oh the dear ones in glory how they beckon me to come and are parting at the river I recall to the sea there's a beat and they will sing my welcome home but I long to be my savior first of all I shall know him I shall know him and repeat by his side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand Through the gates to the city in a row of spotless white he will lead me where no tears will ever fall In the glad song of ages I shall go with delight but I long to be my savior first of all I shall know him I shall know him and repeat by his side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand At this time the ushers will collect the offering and we will be in Ecclesiastes chapter number 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 And the chapter reads A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. 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. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools for as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these. For thou does not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defense and money is a defense but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked. In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other till the end that man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish. Why shouldest thou die before thy time? It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this, yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken. Lest thou hear thy servant curse thee for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hath cursed others. All this have I proved by wisdom. I said I will be wise but it was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding deep who can find it out? I applied mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly even of foolishness and madness and I find more bitter than that the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands whoso-pleaseth God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold this have I found saith the preacher counting one by one to find out the account which yet my soul seeketh but I find not. One man among a thousand have I found but a woman among all these have I not found. Lo this only have I found that God hath made man upright but they have sought out many inventions. We thank you Heavenly Father for your gracious words dear God and precious. We thank you for this wonderful church. We thank you for our pastor and please fill in with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word tonight in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay we're in Ecclesiastes chapter number seven tonight and look down at your Bibles at verse number one of Ecclesiastes seven it says a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth and one of the things you're going to notice right off the bat going into the first at least the first ten verses of chapter seven is the fact that Solomon keeps using his statement of something being better superior than another condition or another state of being he uses that better type of a statement throughout those ten verses and if you look at it it says in verse number one a good name is better than precious ointment verse two it is better to go to the house of mourning verse number three sorrow is better than laughter verse number five it is better to hear the rebuke of the wise you see verse number eight better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit so you see this is something that is heavily emphasized in the beginning of chapter number seven and if you look at what he claims to be more superior it doesn't really seem to make sense because of the fact that he's saying these negative things are actually better than the positive he's saying look you know death is better than the birth and you know sorrow is better than laughter and these just seem to be very negative statements and he's basically saying this state of being is actually superior to its counterpart and when you look at that you're like why is that you know why is that better we would think that mirth is better we would think that laughter is better we would think that someone being born is a lot better why is that why is it that he's saying that well look at verse number ten for some context it says say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these for thou does not inquire wisely concerning this so he says don't ask the question hey why is it that when I'm going through mourning or difficulty there's death there's all this misfortune so to speak you know why is it that the former days were actually better than this when I could laugh when there was mirth when everything was going well and Solomon is saying that's the wrong question to ask okay he says for thou does not inquire wisely concerning this and he's saying look don't ask why those things are better that's actually not the right question to ask the right question isn't necessarily why is this bad thing happening to me the right question is actually what can I learn because of this bad situation that's happening to me this matter of consideration is what he's emphasizing there and you know it goes without saying that the times of difficulty are better than its counterpart because of the fact that it has a significant impact on our lives it actually teaches us better pain is a better teacher than mirth important lessons are learned during hardships and trials and when everything is going well we don't take the time to consider and actually reflect upon life situations when everything is going good your health is going well your finances are going well the bills are getting paid the monkey door in your christian walk and you're not being punished you're not going through affliction you're not going through hardships you don't really learn from that you don't really learn from success where do you learn what area of life do you learn the most in when you're failing when you're being chastised when you're going through affliction and here's the thing the most valuable lessons are in those times but not many people want to experience afflictions or not many people want to learn those lessons but not many people want those afflictions in their life being afflicted that causes us to really review and consider our current state and in fact look at verse 14 this is basically the theme of the first half of chapter 7 it says in the day of prosperity be joyful so it says look when everything is going well be happy, be thankful, have gratitude have joy that everything is going well nothing wrong with appreciating and being joyful during times of plenty and prosperity but then it goes on to say but in the day of adversity, consider be joyful in the day of prosperity but when there's adversity you need to reflect, you need to consider God also had set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him and let me just say this is that reflecting considering taking things into consideration is actually a lost art today it actually uses the term meditation when you meditate upon God's word or just meditate upon the things of life period not many people really take time to reflect and think upon their current situation whether it be a good or bad situation or just meditating on God's word people don't take time to reflect consider or meditate and obviously we live in a day and age where the internet is very prevalent we have internet on our phones so it can be very difficult for some to just get away from all the noise and just shut everything off be quiet and just think people don't like to be by themselves to just think by themselves and meditate in their heart and commune with God upon their bed they're used to either having music on or going on social media and when everything is just quiet they'd rather just not have it be that way unfortunately we grew up with a TV in our home you guys know what a TV is right? it's a box that people used to have in their homes ours was huge it was a massive box it was heavy too and it had this thing where you just pull to turn it on and it would go and make a crackling noise it would have to warm up no one knows what I'm talking about and you need an antenna that's how old I am but I was used to even coming home as a child from school I was a key latch kid by the way I was a key latch kid I came home before my parents were home I had a key to my house and the first thing I'd do when I'd go home was just turn on the TV and walk away it was just to have noise in the background and it's kind of like the society that we have today where something always has to be going on in the background we have to have some sort of activity or something plain in the background and that's not necessarily the best sometimes it's better to just be still and know that he has got right now I'm not saying go into isolation because isolation is not good okay and what's associated with this matter of isolation is that you're just trying to get away from people and typically people who isolate themselves in that matter they become very depressed they become emotional they're just kind of left alone with their own thoughts and they become more anxious and depressed and sad and all those things I'm more so talking about solitude when you purposely go into solitude by yourself so you can spend time in prayer you can spend time meditating upon God's word you can basically turn off your phone or put it away from you and just kind of get alone with God and just read the Bible, pray, meditate, reflect look outside the window and just think upon certain things, think deeply that's actually very beneficial to your Christian life for you to take time to think deeply so much shallow thinking today and people don't really get into the deep things of God anymore or they don't think deeply about life anymore it's good to just kind of get a cup of coffee sit down, close the door and just reflect and meditate and that's really what this initial couple of verses is talking about it's talking about the importance of reflecting and again I'm not saying isolating yourself where you're just trying to get away from everyone because you're just depressed and I'm not saying that you should live solely like this either, because we are social beings the Bible tells us that we require fellowship we need friends, we need family, we need to speak, we need to talk, we need to share ideas we need to commune with God obviously we need to pray and read the Bible but there are times when it's just good to set aside a certain amount of time just for you to reflect and be quiet, be still think upon God's word and commune with the Lord in your heart and again that's a foreign concept to a lot of people you know, it's just like, well I'll do that but I need some music, I need something in the background to go on, I just don't like it when it's too quiet why, because you're left alone with your thoughts that's why, you know but that's actually one of the best things for you to do and I want to encourage you to create that habit in your life that's actually a really good discipline for you to have and let me say this it's one of the best things for you to do to study the Bible you actually learn more of the Bible you actually get deeper layers of meaning in the Bible when you meditate and reflect upon it you know, by yourself, in solitude and in prayer, okay I believe it's when the Holy Spirit really begins to teach you those truths because you're kind of blocking out all of the voices, so to speak that are without, they're not without signification as the Bible puts it, okay and so we see the first couple of verses really talking about the value of reflecting okay, and the first verse we see that he encourages the reflection on a reputation you know while you're still alive and more so, what you leave behind after you die, verse one says a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth now think about this ointment makes you smell good, we can say perfume you know, something that just makes you not smell it's good to take a bath obviously as well but even aside from that, you know, ointment causes you to smell, have a delightful scent but ointment is also needed in funerals, right because of the fact that a corpse can kind of stink after a while and you can see why people will place an importance on ointment on a funeral but you know what's worse than having a stinking corpse, is having a stinking reputation after you die that's why he says a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of one's death than the day of one's birth because when someone dies, when you die you will leave a reputation behind and you can, you can have all the ointment that you want you can perfume your body and make your casket look beautiful but the reality is, if you had a stinky reputation as you were alive, that's not going to do anything it's not going to do anything, it's like putting cologne on a person who just doesn't take a bath, okay all you do, you're not masking anything you're just kind of mixing those scents together and you know what I'm talking about you know, it's just like you get a nice smelling cologne but you smell like onions kind of mix those two it's just like, you're trying to mask the fact that you don't bathe and you know what, in like manner, you can put a nice suit on that corpse, you can give it a nice casket you can give it a beautiful ceremony but if your life was just meaningless if you didn't live a life with purpose for Christ and win souls to Christ and live a life of biblical meaning and eternal value your reputation is going to stink before the Lord your reputation is going to stink before the believers and of course, who cares what the world thinks of us, right I mean, when the world looks at us, they think we stink no matter what, right, we're not trying to please the world, but I'm saying live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord but also having a good reputation before other believers, you understand go to chapter 10 if he pleased the aspies if you would, so he says a good name is better than precious ointment, now, better to have both, right, you should have both but if you were to choose one over the other choose the good name it's better than any type of ointment that you could ever receive and in fact, look at Ecclesiastes 10 verse 1 it says dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver, so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor, goes without saying that it takes a lifetime to build up a good reputation, but it only takes a little fly to mess it all up right, and you think of, for example a life that's lived for God you know, if an individual gets involved in some gross sin they might have done righteousness before or after but they have that blemish they have that that chink in the armor, so to speak and it ends up being a stinky reputation after they die, for example who's a person in the Bible who has one of the best reputations in the Old Testament how about David? He's a man after God's own heart right, he's a man after God's own heart he's a sweet psalmist of Israel, did a lot of great words, loved the Lord, gave us the book of Psalms I mean he was a great man, but hold on a second didn't he have like a stinky reputation, so to speak because of his adultery with Bathsheba because of, you know him murdering Bathsheba's husband I mean he has that blemish on his reputation because a little folly can destroy someone who is in reputation for wisdom and honor, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 2 I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 22 verse 1 it says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold, you can't buy genuine admiration and genuine favor with silver and gold requires for you to have a good reputation 2 Corinthians 2.14 says now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish to the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things and again when I talk about a good reputation I'm not talking about before the world because a lot of people even these lame Christians sicified Christians try to point at us and be like oh you guys are giving Jesus a bad name well you know what? You're giving Jesus a bad name to Jesus you're discouraging people from going to church, that's a flat out lie the way you preach and the things you believe you're going to scare people away from Christ, no you're weak Christianity is actually something that scares people away from Christ and you know what? even if you didn't scare anybody away from Christ God is not pleased with your reputation if you are taking soft stances on specific doctrines or on the sins of this nation or the perversions of this world if you don't take a hard stance on it you're a stinking savor to the Lord you have a bad reputation before God so obviously we understand we don't want to be man pleasers and try to please the world and seek to downplay the doctrines of the Bible soften up our preaching or change the way we do our services just to please the world that's obviously wrong we can care less what the world thinks of us and the reality is, even if we did those things the world will still hate us because we're not of this world so it's a lose-lose situation when you try to do that for the world so better to just go all the way if you offend people then you offend them but here's the thing, we don't want to offend the Lord and we don't want to cause the Word of God to be blasphemed because of our bad reputation and so the Bible tells us in Proverbs 10 verse 7 the memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rock go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 if you would it's important to have a good reputation it's better than ointment and you know what in its most literal sense too if you come to church and you have all your ducks physically in order you know, you're dressed nice you smell nice you just look great but you just have a bad reputation people will actually overlook how you look and just solely focus on the fact that you're just not a good Christian okay and I don't think there's anyone in here like that but lest there should be, right? we should reflect upon this think upon this, consider it take it to heart, lay it to heart and say, man, how is my reputation before the believers? do I have a reputation that is above reproach before believers? you know, Daniel and Joseph are two men in the Bible that you can't explicitly see a specific sin, now we obviously know that they were sinners because as we're going to see in chapter 7 there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sin is not but we can say that there were men who lived lives that were above reproach there's nothing you can point to and say, man, this person was weak in this area even if there was weaknesses in their life which I'm sure there was, God chose nothing to point it out which kind of goes to show us you know, if we sincerely and genuinely want to serve the Lord and have a good reputation, sometimes God can sort of blot out our bad reputation or not our bad reputation, our bad qualities okay because we're trying our best you understand? and so, a good reputation is better than ointment in the day of one's death and the day of one's birth why is the day of one's death better? well, due to the fact that you can change a lot of people's lives when you die, right, based upon the life that you lived okay look at verse 2, 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 heart so it's actually better to stay home and cry than to come to the men's barbecue okay, I'm just joking we're going to the house of feasting we're going to the house of feasting on Saturday okay but you know what, the house of mourning and by the way, it's not saying don't go to the house of feasting what is it saying? it's saying that the house of mourning is actually better what is mourning? mourning is when you're weeping you're sad, you're sorrowful you're going through a difficult time and although Solomon is the one who's writing this down and I believe it's his opinion I believe it's God's word what he's saying here is actually biblically correct when he says this is actually better okay you know, when you suffer it's actually better for you to suffer than for you to go to a house of feasting and he says for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to heart what does that mean? well, when you suffer when you go through a difficult time other people watch you and when they see how you respond to that difficulty, you know what they do? they lay it to heart they consider it it causes them to think what would I do in that situation? would I respond correctly as this individual did? they lay it to heart or how about this, you know, when you go to a funeral a funeral makes you think you see that corpse there you see that person and you think to yourself, man, you know what? I'm going to die one day you lay it to heart when these things take place it's important that in the Christian life you recognize that you're going to go through difficult times you're going to go through trials and persecution and afflictions it's important that you stick it out why? well, first of all don't be a quitter don't be a quitter don't just quit, don't just throw in the towel don't be the kind of Christian that you're just kind of like a mushroom Christian where you grow overnight and you're just toppled over at the first kick be a redwood where it takes, you know it takes a lot to kind of blow you over to knock you over but more so than that how about this, the fact that there's people watching you hey, if you're parents your children are watching you right? and if you're discouraged and you're just going through a difficult time you're going through the house of mourning you know and you're tempted to quit and throw in the towel and get out of church or get another job or something where it's going to take you out of church you know, why don't you think about your kids and how they're going to view that they're going to lay it to heart hey, when we minimize the importance of church that's exactly what our children receive from that they see that and say, well I guess church isn't important when we stop reading our Bibles our children take that to heart, they lay it to heart and they begin to learn our patterns okay, that when we go through a difficult time what do you do when you go through affliction whatever it is that you do, that's what your children are going to do they lay it to heart and so, you know it's important to reflect upon these things and recognize that sorrow is important look at verse 3, sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth now this, you know it's kind of it's kind of crazy if you think about it because God's telling you, you're going to learn more, you'll have more wisdom if you're sorrowful and this doesn't mean like you make yourself sorrowful it's like, I'm just going to start crying every day and just get offended at everything I'm just going to be like this little softie and just, you know no, it's referring to the fact that you're a face, that you're humble and the reality is, in the Christian life you're always going to experience a time of difficulty my father-in-law used to say you're either coming out of a trial you're in a trial, or you're about to go into a trial, and that's definitely true, and I say it's even more so for the Christian who's actually living a godly life because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution a lot of old IFBers, they may be going through a difficult time, but a lot of that is self-inflicted sometimes you know, whereas, you know, a lot of my friends they've gone through difficult times, but it's because they're preaching God's word, they're being persecuted for righteousness sake and they go through a difficult time, a time of sorrow and you know what it does? Sorrow, the reason he says that sorrow is better than laughter, is because sorrow humbles the heart makes you humble you say, why do I need to be humble? because you're prideful because you are filled with pride and haughty you think a lot of yourself, okay and sometimes God has to allow the carpet to be swept from under us, to help us to realize that we're not all that we think we're cracked up to be and what does it do? It creates sorrow in the heart, the sadness and the countenance, but hold on a second the heart is made better because of it, okay and the Bible tells us, blessed are the poor in spirit right, turn with you if you would to go to Hebrews chapter 12 you know, I would say look forward to the times of sorrow, but that's obviously difficult to do I can't wait till I'm sad again I can't wait till I'm just crying myself to sleep again I can't wait till I'm depressed or something, you know obviously it's not a pleasant thing I can't wait till God chastises me again and look, if you know anybody who says that, that's the person who needs to be a base because that's the person who's prideful who thinks that they're just above that you know what I mean? Oh yeah, I can't wait no one looks forward to that but here's the thing, you know, it's in times of difficulty that you actually draw closer to God you're actually closer to the Lord when you're going through times of sorrow and initially it may not feel that way because there's times of sorrow where you feel like God is far from you, you know, I've had times in my Christian life where I was just going through a difficult time and I felt like the Lord was far from me and it was just a time of testing and it didn't mean that He wasn't with me, it was just a time of trial where it just felt like He wasn't there He wasn't helping me He wasn't, I felt like He wasn't blessing me at the time and you know what it caused me to do? It caused me to reflect, consider, Lord is there any sin in my life? Am I doing something that's not pleasing to you? And it causes you to examine yourself and that's great and here's the thing, Psalm 34 verse 18 says this, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and save it such as be of a contrite spirit, so when you're going through a difficult time and you're of a sorrowful heart the Bible actually says that God is nigh unto you, He's drawn close to you, okay? Psalm 51 verse 17 says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh God, thou will not despise, so God is nigh unto those who are of a contrite heart if you're going through a difficult time, don't think well, you know, is God going to think I'm just weak because I'm weeping, because I'm going through a hard time, no in fact He's nigh unto you because of it, if you call out to Him obviously, ask Him to help you, you seek His presence, and you know what when you're going through a time of plenty when you read your Bible, it's not as rich as if you were to read it when you're going through a time of sorrow, when you go through a difficult time and you open up the Bible it's like everything is popping out, everything is like oh this is for me right here, oh man this is comforting here, yeah, because you're drawing eye to God, and He's drawing eye to you because of your sorrowful heart, okay the Bible says in Proverbs 15 33 the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility, just know this in order for God to exalt you He has to humble you like why do I need to be humble because you're prideful I'm prideful, we are often, we think too much of ourselves sometimes, we think we're afraid or we start accomplishing things and we're just like look at everything that I've done, we have this Nebuchadnezzar type of mentality and God often has to come and humble us in order to exalt us He says before destruction the heart of man is haughty and before honor is humility, Proverbs 22 4 says by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life, so you can see based upon these verses why He's saying that sorrow is better than laughter we love laughter, I love to laugh it's part of my personality, I just love to laugh, that's why I'm going to live very long a merry heart, do what's good like a medicine and even when I'm going through a sorrowful time, I can still find things to laugh about, people to laugh at I can still find a mirth a little bit in that I've gone through difficult times where I just don't want to smile, I don't want to laugh and it's not comfortable it's very hard it's very difficult and it's like you're bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders kind of thing but that's like the best position for you to be in and let me just tell you every single one of you, let me just say this every single one of you are going to go through a very, very difficult time or you're going through one right now and every single one of those difficult times is just has the potential to knock you out of the will of God so don't take it lightly okay every single one of you are going to go through it every single one of you because you're God's children, amen you're God's children, you're saved you want to serve the Lord you're reading your Bible so God is going to allow you to go through a very dark time a dark valley say pastor are you going through a hard time? no actually I'm going through the house of mirth right now, I'll just be honest with you I'm having a great time I'm not sad at all but I've experienced this valley I've experienced this wilderness where you're deep into the wilderness and it just feels like you're never going to get out I've experienced that and the longer you're a Christian the more frequent that's going to come and let me just say this is that don't isolate yourself and not just isolate yourself from church, isolate yourself from God, isolate yourself from your family, you need solitude where you commune with God and allow that difficult time to draw you closer to the Lord, not become bitter towards the Lord, not become bitter towards your spouse or your children or the church, those are times when you have to draw an eye to the Lord I know you want some hard preaching tonight but I need to talk about this because the chapter covers it sorrow is very much important, think about this the Bible says of Jesus that he's acquainted with grief and the Bible says that when we want a fellowship with the Lord, what did Paul say? that I may know him that I may know him in worship songs you know, praising the Lord in worship, no, he said that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering you know, put that in your liberal pipe and smoke it you live pastor why don't you preach from that we're gonna draw close to the end of service put on the purple lights and the smoke and sing these really gay songs and just, you know it's like, that's not drawing close to God if you really want fellowship with the Lord you actually have to suffer with him that's what he considers fellowship is when you partake in his suffering so how do I partake in his suffering? by being rejected with him by being hated with him by experiencing being forsaken you know, all of us to a certain extent have felt maybe at one time or another that God has forsaken us the only difference is that Jesus was actually forsaken right? why hast thou forsaken me? there's been times when you're gonna feel and I've felt where God has forsaken us it's a difficult feeling but it's in those times that you're actually gonna grow as a Christian so don't throw in the towel don't use a difficult time as an excuse to get out of church to get out of the will of God to just take a break I just need to take a break from church a little bit I just need to take a break from the Bible no, you need your heart is broken and you need to draw an eye on the Lord because of it so he can mend those wounds and let me say this if you respond correctly to those trials you actually come back pretty spirit filled and you grow because of it, you'll come back a different person which is the goal of the house of mourning see we go down this life, this street called life and on the right hand side there's the house of feasting everything's happy, everything's great and on the left hand side there's this decrepit house of mourning and most people go to the house of feasting that's where they rather be but the reality is in order to really get wisdom and growth and maturity and even God's blessing if you really want to learn the Bible you gotta go to the house of mourning that's where you'll find it look at Hebrews 12 verse 6 for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth, verse 6 and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth chasteneth means He spanks you He whoops you and this is something that He does to every child of God and sometimes, you know, there's times when God chastens you and you can't really figure out why He's doing it you're just kinda like, why is this happening to me, I'm not, I don't think there's sin in my life but when that happens just reference John 15 that He's basically pruning you He's removing certain undesirable qualities from your life because you're being fruitful and if you're being fruitful He's looking at you and saying, alright, let's make him a little more fruitful but here's the thing if He just makes you fruitful right off the bat you know what that's gonna do? It's gonna cause you to be prideful and arrogant and haughty and think a lot of yourself, so what does He have to do? He has to prune you He has to cut away some undesirable qualities from you He has to purge you so that you're humble enough to be exalted to that position or that knowledge or whatever it may be but just mark it down God will chasten you and I'm not saying that this massive hand's gonna come out of the sky and just slap you although, I really think that that should happen sometimes God should just reason and just backhand some people, some Christians wake them up a little bit but that's typically not what happens and by the way, I deserve that sometimes too amen? but look what it says in verse 7 if ye endure chastening now look, if it's saying you have to endure chastening that means the chastening's pretty bad when you spank your children they're just like that's kinda what you have to do you know um sometimes when my kids get spanked you know, they know what's coming cause they disobeyed or they hit their brother or sister or did something bad and they're about to get it and you can see it in their face they're just like, alright, just endure it and they're just like, bah you know, and the little one he has a high pain tolerance so he just kinda takes it he knows how to endure but let me say this it's like, you know, we have to endure because sometimes it hurts when God chastens us he says if you endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not but if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons so God is saying, look, obviously if you don't receive any chastening because you're involved in sin then you're probably not even saved and this, I would say, is a good uh, way to determine whether someone's saved or not you know, I would doubt someone's salvation if they're, like, just involved in just really wicked sin and they're just prospering as a Christian, and God is just not chastening them, I'm like, okay, maybe they're not even saved, because according to the Bible you know, when they're, if you're saved and you're partaking of those things, it just proves that you're saved, okay furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we now much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? for they verily for a few days chastened us chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness, so he's saying, look God chastens us so we can be holy like he is holy okay he says, now no chastening for the present time seemeth joyous but grievous, no one likes to be spanked no one likes going through a difficult time no one likes trials, no one likes tribulation, no one's like, yeah, let's do this trials, tribulation, you know, and if you do that, okay, you're overcompensating a little much obviously when we go through tribulation it's an indication that we're doing right but in the thick of it, you're not really enjoying it that much looking back at January man, we had a great time we had a blast as the pastor, our first protest, we've only been around for three years and already got the church blown up dude this is great we went down in history first independent fundamental Baptist church to ever get bombed that's awesome I'm thankful, but you know what, like looking back and I was like, wow, that's great and, you know looking back, it's just like that was actually kind of fun you know, fighting and battling and being threatened and doxxed and, you know, everything that we went through was great but when I was in the thick of it, it wasn't that great now it might have been great for you still, because you go home but they come to my home you know, they're stealing my vehicle and all these things and harassing us and threatening us and when you're in the thick of it, it's just like man, this is hard, you know, this is difficult but it's important that you just endure you say, did you ever want to quit? no, I honestly, if I were to be honest with you I never had a thought in my mind where it's just like I can't do this anymore I never had a thought like that, I never had a thought where it's just like, I just need to, like, quit I did have a thought where I was just like okay, now I'm getting kind of weary I'm growing tired now this is kind of like weighing on me quite a bit the pressure is getting thick I can feel the heaviness of it and it's like the pressure the spiritual pressure that's coming down upon you I felt that and I remember thinking, well, I mean God doesn't give us more than we can handle and apparently he thinks I can handle this even though I feel like I can't and I remember telling my wife like, hey, I'm not telling you I'm quitting or anything like that, I'm just saying I'm going through a hard time sleepless nights and everything and all that but you know what, I learned a lot from God's word during that time I drew close to the God during that time and luckily, I was trained in times past how to deal with trials and one of the key things that they tell you is like, it's not going to last forever just endure endurance is not necessarily a quality that's hard to learn you've just got to kind of wait it out and the worse it gets the closer you are to the end so when the building blew up, it's like oh man, we're close pretty freaking bad you know and so but you know what it did I remember meeting with the men we were having a prayer meeting and just kind of just kind of being, you know, speaking heart to heart with the men and just saying, hey, we need to read our Bibles more, I remember Brother Albert coming to us and saying, hey, we need to humble ourselves more because we need God to be with us we need to be humble and pray and read the Bible more and examine ourselves and it was a great time we're in the house of mourning, so to speak but we grew because of it so you see the value in that he says, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby so he says, look at the end of it, it's going to be good for you spankings are good for you wherefore he says in verse 12, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed, so he's saying, look instead of just like, I don't think I can do this, it's like, lift them up you know and your feeble knees correct your ways, walk straight just endure it ok follow peace with all men in holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently looking diligently unto who? unto the Lord, right? lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness spring of trouble you and thereby may be defiled so he says, look, you need to endure this trial and you need to look unto the cross look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith get your eyes off of the Lord the danger is that you can become bitter and there's nothing worse than a bitter Christian, folks and they become bitter towards God bitter towards the pastor, bitter towards others, and what happens is they become bitter and many are defiled because of them so this is a danger of not enduring if you don't endure chastening you don't endure difficulty if you don't endure trials and tribulation you know what's going to happen? and you're not looking unto Jesus you start veering off you're going to become bitter towards God and look, Christians can become bitter towards God it happens why did you let this happen to me? why is this happening to me right now? why is this going on? the question is not why the question should be what can I learn from this ok and look you say well yeah that makes perfect sense pastor gotcha, check I'll do it yeah until you actually receive a trial that makes you question until you actually start going through something where you're just like, yeah why is this happening to me? because then it comes straight to you because then it hits where it hurts and it's at that time you have to remember ok don't ask why, I need to ask what can I learn from this ok, and obviously you got to examine yourself make sure that you're right with God you don't have sin in your life I mean it gets to a point where you're like Job and you start confessing sins and you never even you start confessing other people's sins I'm sorry for what brother Marcos did that one time and you know let me just go through his list real quick Lord, you start confessing other people's sins you start ratting people out, snitching them out before the Lord because you just want to make sure that everything is just where it needs to be he's not involved in sin or anything like that at least I don't think so but what you do is you examine yourself but look, if you don't if you don't look into the Lord you're going to become bitter ok, and when you become bitter that's a deep pit that is very difficult to get out of it's not impossible, but it's very difficult I've met bitter Christians and when you examine them from the outside you say to yourself, well this could be fixed in three easy steps but those three easy steps are like three miles apart from each other to them when they're down deep you know, better to look into Jesus and you're three miles away from that than to become bitter and you're three miles down deep in the pit of bitterness and I'm telling you, it's very difficult to get out of ok and so look what it goes on to say it says, lest any be a fornicator profane person as he saw who for a morsel of meat sold his birth right for you know how that afterward he would have had inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears, what does it say, he became bitter and here's the thing you may think to yourself, well you know I have it pretty good though, I think I'm a pretty strong Christian and I think my walk with God is good, my family is good, my marriage is great, then good, you're a great candidate for a trial then because it looks like you're due for a trial then come on down you qualify for tribulation, why? because you're doing well by the way, don't get this idea that God's just waiting for you to have a good time alright, now I'm going to get him there's no house of peace in my house no it's more like oh he's being fruitful okay I'm going to allow a trial into his life because I want him to become more fruitful I want him to appreciate the things more I want to bless him more you understand and so if you get nothing from that just get this think it not strange okay, when that fiery trial should come upon you, you know don't think why is this happening to me, think what can I learn from this and I'm just telling you it's going to happen to every single one of you especially in a church like this it's going to happen to you, okay David said before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept that word he's like before I was before you spanked me Lord I was going astray I was doing all kinds of stupid stuff but then when I got afflicted I learned the word he says it is good for me in verse 71 Psalm 119, it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes, hey when you pray Lord teach me the word of God help me to learn the deep truths of God just know that it might take this I was like oh you want to learn some you want to learn some deep truths you want to get the layered meanings of the Bible, okay it's going to take a little bit of affliction though verse 75 says I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me I'm not saying be joyous when you get afflicted but just know it's a part of life okay affliction is part of life and if you find yourself in this situation right now and you find yourself kind of getting bitter well there's a reason that this sermon is being preached so you probably haven't dug yourself deep into the pit yet but you're probably on your way so get out of the pit while you can forgive whoever offended you begin to change your perspective on your trial and get right with the Lord and go into solitude and have that prayer time have that Bible reading ask the Lord to fill you with the Spirit have the right perspective, go back to Ecclesiastes if you would chapter 7 so now do you see why he says it's better? he says it's better because you actually benefit more from it you benefit more from affliction from sorrow, from trials, you benefit so much more from it you get God's blessing on your life it's wonderful it's not wonderful when you're in the thick of it but it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness you can't expect for the Christian life to just be all roses and daisies and a bed of roses and everything is going to be hunky dory and nothing bad is ever going to happen if you have that attitude, man, you're going to be offended when you get persecuted you will be offended because you're going to be like, why is this happening to me? I was serving God, I was doing all these things why is he allowing this? oh, it's because you're a Christian, that's why and this is part of life look at verse 5 so what is he saying? first and foremost, he's talking about rebuke and he's saying there that open rebuke is better than secret love it's better to have sermons geared towards rebuking than just encouraging okay right? I mean, we need encouragement but let's just be honest, sometimes we just need more rebuke and reproof and if all you get is encouragement you're not really going to grow from that we need encouragement we need to be exhorted to get through the week hey, this sermon is kind of like an encouraging sermon encouraging you not to be a wimp and not to quit and all that stuff I'm just joking it's important to have these types of sermons but it's really important to get the rebuking and he says there, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools open rebuke is better than secret love and rebuke is a lost art even in churches today where pastors do not want to rebuke anything and if they even slightly reprove something they apologize for it they're just very soft they don't want to offend anybody but what they're actually doing is they're kind of doing a disservice to their church members because rebuke is necessary and we often change the most when we are being rebuked we get right encouragement just helps you kind of stick in there stick it out, rebuke helps you to kind of purge yourself a little bit especially when we start talking about your sin right, something maybe you're particularly involved in and it's a character flaw whatever it may be, when something is preached on like that, you know, you get embarrassed a little bit, you get a little red in the face, okay I remember you know, my father-in-law, what he would preach and he would find out about some character flaw that I had, he would automatically utilize that for sermon content and I would always sit in the front, like I'd be sitting where Vince DJ is, because you know I was dead center right there in the front and he would, I'm like man he's preaching against me he's talking about me, and he's just like ripping and then you know, the men in the church didn't make it any easier either, because they're like come on Bruce, they would call they would call out names in the service how many remember that from Pacific, yeah they would literally call out names, because you know sometimes they knew that you're the person that he was talking about, and they'd be like that's right Bruce it's like dude it's like that one time where Alex Solis called out Alex Brash, you guys remember that it's like that and I remember and I remember thinking to myself, it's good that I'm in the front, because then no one can see how red my face is right now so embarrassing, you know but here's the thing, I love the Lord and because I love the Lord, I'm like I need to change that I need to correct this because this is embarrassing and you know it benefited me in the long run and you know, my father-in-law I was close to my father-in-law as my pastor and he saw the blind spots that I couldn't see, he can see what was in my blind spots, he can see the flaws and the things that I needed to work on and he would openly rebuke me in church but he would also privately rebuke me as well sometimes I'd have meetings with him and he'd just rebuke and then we had this thing called staff meetings okay and staff meetings is where we would really get it pretty good, right? they would have these little sheets and the itinerary for the staff meeting it was on Fridays or Tuesdays and you look at it and you go down the line and you're like aw man, I'm about to get it I remember for a long time you know, when I first got on staff over there I was kind of like late to everything just late and man, he let me have it so much on that and then finally I realized I'm like I think he's talking about me and then you know we'd come late into the staff meetings and I'd walk in and he'd look at me and he'd go go on and he's just talking to someone and I'm like oh man and then at that point I realized well maybe it's actually important to be punctual to meetings and stuff and I changed and I became punctual and then there was another guy I'm not going to say his name I'll just say this, he was on staff there he was a pastoral staff that guy was late to everything and he never changed that he never no matter how much it was on the bulletin no matter how much it was preached on no matter how many times it was hammered stop showing up late you're a pastor he'd just always be late still 15-20 minutes late sometimes he'd say well what happened to that guy well remember the beginning of the sermon, the reputation yeah he stunk and to this day he still stinks he's not a reputable person he's not a person of honor and respect he's not a person you wouldn't want to emulate as a man of God guy lacks character, can't even be on time to a staff meeting okay but that rebuked helped me because now I'm on time to everything I'm really early to everything I'm here hours and hours before right and so that was beneficial to me but it required a rebuke though it required for him to sit down with me and say you're late, why are you late why are you being late what is this character flaw that you have you can't be on time and it helped me and there's far more other instances where that took place that I'm not going to share with you because I want to save myself the embarrassment okay but the point is open rebuke is better than secret love I will say this don't take this to an extreme and think that you can just start rebuking each other okay because part of rebuking in order to do it effectively is like the person who's doing the rebuking or the person who's being rebuked has to know that the person who's doing the rebuking actually cares for them and so you know if they don't think you care for them they can become offended and the Bible says that a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city and his contentions are like the bars of a castle so offenses from a different brother well that's what you need to hear but did he need to hear it in order for you, did you want him to change though because if the goal is to change him that's probably not the best way to do it the best way to do it is win that person's heart then rebuke them and they know that you're doing it because you love them and so by the way if you see me being hard on some of the guys in our church just know that I probably have a really good relationship with them I'm not just going to rebuke them if we don't have a good relationship or something but if I'm really hard on some of the guys in our church, don't feel bad for them don't feel bad either they're just like oh okay they're just kind of taken because they know that I love them I love them, I care for them and that's why, because here's the thing I rather openly rebuke them than secretly love them you understand and so that's very much important okay look at verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit because we're actually past time I'm going to have to finish this next week but if you get anything from this the initial beginning of this chapter is that it's important to reflect it's important to meditate to think upon certain things and just recognize this on the road to life you're going to have the house of feasting and the house of mourning most of us myself included will visit the house of feasting far more often than not but it's important for us to realize that we need to take trips to the house of mourning too and look, sometimes you're just forced into the house of mourning sometimes you have no choice the house of feasting is closed for you and the house of mourning has a vacancy and has your name on it and people want to avoid going to the house of mourning they want to avoid going through a difficult time but it's inevitable it's unavoidable, you're going to experience it okay do not try to avoid it don't try to bypass it you need to accept it and recognize it's going to make you a better Christian in the long run and go into that with the thinking of I need to stay in my Bible I need to stay in prayer I need to stay in church and I will say this one of the best things for you to do when you go through a difficult time aside from Bible reading and prayer, is this you're brothers and sisters in Christ now a lot of people a lot of people will go into isolation and they just don't talk to anybody in the church about the difficulty they're going through and that's not good I'll just be honest with you it's a really bad choice for you to make because God has allowed certain people in our church to go through difficult times and trials in order to be equipped to help you through your difficult time so you're kind of letting their trial go to waste because you're not sharing that, you're not talking about that you understand? when you go through a difficult time in your marriage or you feel like you're going through a difficult time in your child rearing talk to the other ladies in our church I'm embarrassed well, develop relationships with the ladies in our church and you won't be embarrassed because these are your sisters in Christ they're here, they're going through and look, we have the advantage that we have a lot of young couples other churches see that as a disadvantage because they think well you guys don't have enough old people in your church because it's beneficial to have elderly people in our church but here's the thing, we're all going to grow old one day so we will have old people we're going to have a lot of old people in our church and you know what? in the next 25, 30 years of our church not only are we going to have old people, we're still going to have young people because of our children, right? where was I going with that? James, you're throwing me off buddy cute little guy but he threw me off what was I talking about? he threw you guys off too, huh? yeah I know, I was talking about trials let's just pray I'm just kidding what I'm saying is this, is that you know, develop relationships you know, oh that now I'm back on the train develop relationships in the church because when you go through a difficult time because when you go through a difficult time you're going to need your church you need your church church is not just where you're going to get preaching you need the people in your church to kind of help you along the way let's pray Father we thank you so much for your word and Lord thank you for the difficult times in my life thank you for the difficult times that other people have gone through and Lord I remember observing people going through a tough time and they just came out of this cold and I remember observing them thinking man, how can someone go through so much trial and difficulty and just endure that and they're an example and to me, I appreciate their suffering I appreciate their affliction and their response to it help us Lord to have that same attitude and that same response when we go through a difficult time maybe it's going to be a death in our family maybe it's a sickness, maybe it's a financial woe maybe it's relational it's marriage problems it's child rearing problems, whatever it may be there's no temptation taking us but such is as common to man and I pray that Lord you'd help us throughout that time and help us to value the house of mourning and not it's easy to value the house of feasting but it's the house of mourning that we need to value and reflect upon those times and consider well our steps and our walk with you and that we may be of a humble and contrite spirit so that we can better be used of God I love you so much Lord and we thank you for these things in Jesus name Amen must Jesus bear the cross alone everybody nice and loud on that first verse and there's a cross for me the consecrated cross I'll bear till death shall set me free and then go on through a crown to wear for there's a crown for me upon the crystal peak and down at Jesus' visit here joyful I'll cast my golden crown and give in name repeat oh precious cross oh glorious crown oh resurrection day ye angels from the stars come down and bear my soul away