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The greatest saying in human history is The greatest thing I have ever heard being a dream is to be a human. And I think that that is the greatest thing I ever heard You You You You You You You You You You You Good evening everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church Thank you all for coming if you'd all find your seats. We'll go ahead and get started We're going to start this evening off in song number 23. There's power in the blood song number 23 there's power in the blood Would you be free from your burden of sin There's power in the blood, power in the blood Would you are evil a victory to win There's wonderful power in the blood Would you are evil a victory to win There's wonderful power in the blood There is power, power, wonder working power In the blood of the Lamb There is power, power, wonder working power In the precious blood of the Lamb Would you be free from your passion and pride There's power in the blood, power in the blood Come full of blessings in Calvary's time There's wonderful power in the blood There is power, power, wonder working power In the blood of the Lamb There is power, power, wonder working power In the precious blood of the Lamb Song number 23 on the third Would you be higher, higher than snow There's power in the blood, power in the blood Since things are lost and it's like giving hope There's wonderful power in the blood There is power, power, wonder working power In the blood of the Lamb There is power, power, wonder working power In the precious blood of the Lamb Would you do service for Jesus your King There's power in the blood, power in the blood Would you be daily his praises to sing There's wonderful power in the blood There is power, power, wonder working power In the blood of the Lamb There is power, power, wonder working power In the precious blood of the Lamb Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for everyone that's gathered here today. And we ask that you please bless Pastor Shelley with the Holy Spirit and help him to preach in edifying sermons. We can all walk out better Christians for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 64, Shall We Gather at the River. Song 64, Shall We Gather at the River. Sing it out nice and loud. Shall we gather at the river Where hard angels sing and cry If it's crystal time forever Growing by the throne of God Yes, we'll gather at the river The river above, the river below Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Long ago was the love of the river Where the Savior came with all We shall meet and soar together Meet the glory of the Lord Yes, we'll gather at the river The river above, the river below Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God There we reach the shining river Maybe ever burning down Praise our spirit we'll deliver And we'll find a home and crown Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Soon we'll reach the shining river Soon our filth will raise the sea Soon our happy hearts will quiver With the melody of peace Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, hopefully our ushers will come by. They've got a bulletin for you if you missed one. On the front we have our Bible Memory passage. We're on a grace week, and so you can quote the verse from last week. You can still get a prize, some ice cream after the service, 18 and under. Also, on the inside, we have our service soul-winning times. On the right, the list of expecting ladies. We have our prayer list. I'm going to go through the events real quick, and then we'll go back to that. September 1st was the ordination of Pastor Salvador Alvarez of Pure Words Baptist Church. Honestly, it was a great Sunday. We had a really big attendance. I think we had probably 94, 95 people in attendance on Sunday morning. It was great. A lot of people from Steadfast came down, some from Oklahoma City, as well as a lot of the people that are there in Houston. It was a great spirit, really enjoyed the services and everything really well. Definitely be in prayer for Pure Words Baptist Church and their new pastor, Pastor Salvador Alvarez. I'm no longer pastoring that church anymore, but I did tell them as long as I am pastoring and alive, I want to make sure that there's always Pure Words Baptist Church in Houston and doing a good job. They're definitely still our friends, and they're still near and dear to our heart. We are dedicated to their success, but at this point, we are just watching them succeed from afar and encouraging them. Definitely pleased that that transition happened. Thanks to everybody who prayed for us because, again, everything went really well. It's definitely a long time coming, but it's great to be up here with you guys and for that church to have their own pastor down there. This upcoming Sunday, I'll be here for the services, but I won't be preaching. We're going to have a guest, Dr. Phil Stringer. He's going to be preaching for us both services, the morning and the evening. I highly encourage you to participate for both of those services. October 4th through the 6th is our Heritage of the Lord Conference, and we're going to have some guest preachers there, Pastor Mejia and Pastor Anderson, as well as we'll have some activities. October 31st is going to be our Texas Chili Cook-Off, and you need to get your chilis here before 6 if you want to enter into the competition portion, and we'll try to start eating shortly after 6 p.m. Of course, you can come at whatever time you'd like and just hang out, fellowship with us. A lot of people play board games and just kind of fellowship and talk, and so we'll have everything set up for those who would like to show up and just participate on the 31st. As far as our prayer request list, we'll quickly walk through that list. We've been praying for the Naims, for their grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlsons' mother for health as well. We've been praying for Miller. Ms. Miller had asked for prayer for a couple friends and her mom. Also, we've been praying for the Scotts' nephew. We've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, who's expecting, which is good news. We've been also praying for Brother Sam and his fiancée. We've been praying for the Nichols for a job. We've been praying for the Guzman's for their father's health. We've been praying for Brother Billy. He has several requests here for a couple friends and a coworker, some healing and some family drama that they would like some prayer for, and then also Brother Jimmy, who we've been praying for, his sister-in-law, who is also going through cancer as well. So a lot of cancer, a lot of health requests there. We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this evening and for our church members that are gathered here. I pray that you would just please be with all these expecting ladies, those that are here and those that can't be here, that you just help them during their pregnancies. I pray that you'd also help our church family and friends that are struggling with health right now, especially cancer. I pray if possible, just give them a miracle and give them a full recovery. Please be with them during this tribulation and difficulty. I pray that you would just allow these people to not only recover but also to be motivated to get back into serving God. And I pray that you'd also give favor unto our church family and friends that are needing a favor or blessing with their job or with travel. I pray that you would just be with them. And I pray that you continue to bless our church to help it to be a bright and shining light. Please bless Pure Words Baptist Church and the new pastor, Pastor Salvador Alvarez. I pray that you would just help use that church and please defend them against their enemies and please help use them to be a bright and shining light as well. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We'll go ahead and sing our third song, Psalm 115. It's in our special handouts, Psalm 15, if you'd sing out nice and loud. Alright, that's Psalm 15. Psalm 115. For who shall abide in thy tender land? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? For who shall abide in thy tender land? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that hath bideth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbors, nor taketh up the roach against his neighbor. He that hath bideth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. In whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swearth to his own word and changeth not, he that putteth not out, is money to you three. He that swearth to his own word and changeth not, he that putteth not out, is money to you three. Nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. Nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. Lord, who shall abide in thy temple? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Great singing, everybody. If you'd all turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes, chapter number four. Ecclesiastes, chapter number four. Come on, come on. Ecclesiastes, chapter number four. The Bible reads, So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun, 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. Wherefore I praise the dead, which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive. Yea betters he than both they which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. 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. The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh, betters and handfuled with quietness, then both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. Then I returned and I saw vanity under the sun. 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 I satisfied with riches, neither saith he, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good. This also is vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor, 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 if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor. I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. 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 also is vanity and vexation of spirit. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Ecclesiastes 4, and thank you for the souls that were saved today. I just pray that you fill past Shelley with your Holy Spirit, Lord, to preach unto us your word and help us to receive it, Lord, and apply it to our lives. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 1 says, So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. 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. And I believe what the author of Ecclesiastes is trying to communicate in this chapter and specifically in this verse is the idea that life is hard and that it's filled with much more sorrow and travail and work than there is pleasure. And he's bringing up this idea of kind of two sides of a coin, those who are oppressed and those who are doing the oppressing. And the first group, he says, he considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun and noticed that there's tears of such as were oppressed. Being oppressed is a negative thing. There's pain, there's sorrow, there's difficulty with oppression. And he says not only are these people oppressed, but it says, and they had no comforter. And I think that what we have to understand is that for many people in this world, they are going to be oppressed their entire life. They are going to be oppressed their entire life and that there is not going to be some miracle where they now have liberty or now have freedom, but rather many people are going to live in a life of servitude, of destitution, of hard, grueling labor and work, and there's not going to be any escaping of that particular life. If we look at people in the world today, many people live in a very impoverished state, many people in Africa, people in India, people in China, people in North Korea. There's a lot of people in this world who are not going to escape the oppression of the life that they have. And even though they have a lot of tears, even though they're sad, that is the way their life is going to end, that they are going to stay under a communist regime. They are going to stay in great poverty and great stress and a great woe. And we would love to think of an idea of wouldn't it be great to rescue all these people or give them liberty or for them to have nice housing or for them to have air conditioning or all these different luxuries that we have today or the Constitution or free speech, but the reality is most people are not going to have a comforter. Most people are simply going to continue down this trend of great oppression, whether that be in South America even. South America, whether that's Venezuela or Brazil or other areas, they have very wicked leaders. There's a lot of oppression in those areas. If you live in the Middle East and you're under a Muslim regime, a lot of oppression there. Whether you're in Europe right now and you're being oppressed by your government and by Muslims and by Islam. I mean there's really just very few people in this world that are not just under heavy oppression. Even in America we often will look to our own lives and look at the oppressions that we have. High taxes and inflation and essentially all kinds of government officials who are corrupt and doing all kinds of evil things with our money. And there's even a certain level of oppression that Americans are under. And the reality is it's very unlikely that any of us will ever escape whatever oppressions we have. For many of us it might even get worse. And I think what the author is trying to communicate again is that life itself is going to be difficult. That there's going to be oppression, there's going to be sorrow, there's going to be tears, there's going to be problems that we kind of have to just recognize this is reality. And you say, well it would be nice to be the people that are oppressing. Someone's winning in this equation, you would think. Not the oppressed, but maybe the oppressor. But then notice what it says here in the rest of the verse. It says, and they had no covenant on the side of their oppressors there was power. Now they're saying, the oppressors are very powerful. These individuals have a great ability to influence and control things that are in the world. But it also says, but they had no covenant. It's saying even if you are the oppressor, your life is still going to be filled with problems. And think about even the quote ruling class or those that are in control or those that have great influence and money. They're constantly stressed and worried about them losing their power, losing their money, losing their wealth, people backstabbing them, people are lying about them, people are taking advantage of them. Because when you're at the top of a corrupt regime, you realize that everyone around you is corrupt too. And they're all terrible people and so they're constantly worried about getting knives in their backs or being lied about or blackmailed or extorted or taken advantage of. I mean many of the people that we perceive to have so much power and control and wealth, they're completely blackmailed, extorted, they have all kinds of issues and problems. Even with all the great powers that they have. Their lives are filled with all kinds of misery and woe. That's why they're constantly going on drug binges and constant affair and constant relationship. And it even gets worse for them. The more drugs they do, the more problems they have, the more health issues, the more they lose their brain. The constant relationships, now they have more ex-wives than they could ever want and more baby drama than they could ever want and all these different intricate situations that these people find themselves in, that they're basically like supposed to be on Jerry Springer or something to try and explain all the complications that they've created for themselves. Because life itself is just hard. It's just difficult and on one side of the coin you might think it's better but in many cases it's still the same. It's just we all have problems. We all have problems because I don't know if you realize this or not, but the world is filled with sinners. And not just sinners, like bad sinners and just very evil people. People are very selfish. People are very consumed with just getting more power and wealth by any means necessary. And so because the world is filled with sinners and filled with people that are striving for more control and power, we just live in a world that's full of evil. I don't know if you've read the beginning of the Bible but it was so bad at one point that God killed everyone in a flood. Save Noah and his family. And when he described humanity at its lowest, he said that every thought was only evil continually. That's a pretty scary place to be in and it seems like man left to his own device eventually gets to a similar place where it's only evil continually and God has to destroy large segments of the population. If you look at Revelation, before we can usher in the millennial reign, God is going to purge the earth and slaughter millions and millions, yea, billions of people on the earth. And so we have to recognize that the earth is just filled with wickedness. The Bible says, yea, the whole world lieth in wickedness. So, you know, I'm not trying to say this to discourage you and I don't even think the author is trying to discourage you, but I think what he wants us to understand is the reality of our life and our situation. I think many people think, oh, life is just going to be fun and it's all joy and all happiness, but the reality is there's much more travail, sorrow, and pain than there ever will be pleasure. And that your life is going to have a higher balance of work, pain, and suffering than it's going to have of joy and fun. And people say, oh, you should pick a job where it's just fun. That doesn't exist. Then it wouldn't be work, it's just fun. You don't get paid to have fun, you get paid to work. Now, of course, we all can like some jobs better than others and I think, generally speaking, you should try to pick something that you have some desire to do, but at the end of the day, I even at times have thought, you know, if I could get paid more to do a job I hate, I'd probably do it. Because at the end of the day, we work for money anyways and it's like, what's the point of going and enjoying my job if I don't even make any money? That's just being homeless and they don't like their job anyways, all right? But the point is, life's hard and for most of us, there's no comforter. Now, again, we have to understand the context of Ecclesiastes, that it's really looking at the world through a carnal lens. It's not always necessarily considering the spiritual. Of course, those of us that are saved, those of us that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He is a comforter unto us. He sent us the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to also comfort us and remind us of Scripture. But just from a carnal perspective, if we were to not think about that for a second and put that aside as an obvious exception, we're saying, humanly speaking, there's not going to be some politician, some hero savior, there's not going to be some guy that comes along and just brings all this comfort to you. We're going to live in an oppressed state for the majority of our lives and our existence. Verse 2 says this, wherefore, what does wherefore mean? So, because of what I just said, I'm going to give you a conclusatory statement. Because of the fact that everybody is having no comforter, I praise the dead, which are already dead, more than the living, which are yet alive. That's an extreme statement. The author is saying, because of what I just said, because of how I explained how everything is so bad, it's actually better to be dead than it is to be alive. That's the conclusion that he's making. And in some ways, this makes sense. Now again, we have to kind of put aside some of the spiritual understanding that we have to understand what the author is trying to get at for a moment here. What he's trying to say, I believe, is that in essence, if we were to try and do a balance sheet of our life, or if we were to try to get a balance or scale, and we were trying to measure everything, he's saying there's technically more sorrow than there is pleasure. So the person that's just dead, they don't have any pleasure or sorrow. It's like technically better, it's actually more even for that person than it is for the rest of us because we're going to have just more pain, more sorrow than we are going to have pleasure. Therefore, it's almost as if it's better to be dead already than to keep living because you're going to have to go through more pain and sorrow, more suffering. Another way to even think about this too is just the fact that once you've been young and now you're getting older, the Bible talks about now the days are evil. And so you're probably even going to have more evil days than you are going to have good days. It's nice to be healthy and young and have energy and all the things that come with youthfulness, maybe less responsibility. As you get older and you age and life becomes more complicated, oftentimes there can be more sorrow, more pain associated with that. And so what the author is doing is he's praising, hey man, it'd just be better to be dead because then I wouldn't have all this pain, all this sorrow. I wouldn't have to think about things. I wouldn't have to work so hard. I wouldn't have to be oppressed so much. I don't have to, you know, do anything. I could just be dead. Now, praise God the chapter doesn't end there because otherwise it would be like, this is like leading up to Jim Jones, like, all right, now let's drink the Kool-Aid or something. But, you know, that's not what the message is about, okay? He's just kind of building a context, okay? Verse 3. So now he gives a little explanation. Why would it technically be better to be dead than it would be to be alive? Because then you don't have to think about all the evil and all the pain and all the suffering and all the sorrow and all the woe and all the bad things that are happening to you. You don't even have to wonder who's going to be president. You just don't care, okay? You don't have to worry about the tax hike and you don't have to worry about World War III and you don't have to worry about all the people that are starving and the poverty and, you know, a woman pilot or whatever. You don't have to worry about these things. You don't have to worry about society constantly denigrating itself and slowly decomposing and rotting at the core because you're dead. You just don't have to worry about it. You don't have to turn on the news. Think about the news and it's just like almost only negative. It's like the news is just like this person got shot and this person died and here's more problems. More people ran across the border and, you know, birth rates are plummeting and people are slaughtering their babies through abortion constantly and here's another tranny that we've appointed in the presidential cabinet or whatever. It's just like, I mean, you slip on the news and you're just like, oh man. But the person that's dead, he doesn't even know what's going on. He doesn't even care. That's kind of the context that we have. And I think that he's really trying to communicate that overall the world, it's a net negative. There's more bad than there is good. And why? Because man's sinful. Now keep your finger here. Let's prove this from other places in Scripture because I don't want you to just take my interpretation here as just my opinion. Let's just look at a few other verses. Go to Romans chapter 3 for a moment and let me just explain to you what the Bible teaches in a lot of places in Scripture that the world itself is evil and there's a lot of pain and there's a lot of sorrow and there's a lot of woe and sometimes people even use this as an excuse to not believe in God. I hear this at the door. They say, well, if there's a God, then why is there just so much evil and why is there so much suffering and why is there so much pain and if God exists, there wouldn't be cancer and if God exists, then there wouldn't be murder and if God exists, there wouldn't be kidnapping. And here's the thing. If you want those things to be eliminated, you don't eliminate God. You eliminate something else. It's called man. It's man that murders. It's man that kidnaps. It's man that causes sin. It's man that causes disease. It's man's sin and sinfulness that bring all these woes and all these sorrows and all these pains onto the earth. The reason why the world is evil is because man is evil, because mankind is exceedingly sinful and because of our sin, we compound our issues and bring all kinds of woe and misery and suffering. And God describes this in Romans 3, talking about what are people like when they don't have God. Well, it gives a long list here. It says none are righteous, but I want to look at a few verses specifically. Verse 16, destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known. When God describes all the other nations and all the heathen and all the Gentiles, what is just the overall description of what these people are like? Destruction and misery and they have no idea what peace even is. That's what he's describing the unsaved world like and that is what the world is like. It's full of destruction and misery and a lack of peace and we see that today. We're going to continue seeing that. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 5. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 5. Fortunately, in this sermon, we're getting the bad news out of the way early, okay? So, if you're like, where is the sermon headed? I'm just trying to tell you what the Bible is saying, okay? And what the author is trying to communicate and sometimes we just have to recognize that the world is pretty bad. The world is pretty evil. Ephesians, chapter number 5, look at verse 16. Redeeming the time, notice this, because the days are evil. So, this is not just Pastor Shelley's personal opinion. This is what the Bible is saying. The Bible is just saying destruction, misery, woe, oppression, evil. Just saying from a big picture perspective, there's much more evil, pain, suffering, woe, oppression, all of this in the world and there will be of good, joy, happiness, and all the things that we get to enjoy. So, go back if you went to Ecclesiastes, chapter 4. I think we've established our point very well in this Bible study this evening. The world is a rough place. Now, in verse 4, he's also contrasting this with good things. He says in verse 4, again, I considered all travail. So, he's just thinking about every bad thing that could ever happen and every right work. So, I was thinking, like, all the stuff that's going on in the world, not everything's bad. And that's not what the author is trying to say. He's just saying that there's a lot of bad. And he considered all the bad and then he even considered all the good. Even the right works, okay? That for this, a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. So, even though there is good, it still doesn't matter anyways. It's mostly negative, it's mostly bad, and hey, there are some people that do good, but you know what? That just causes everybody to envy you anyways and people hate you, even for doing good and even doing right, and then that's just vanity anyways. It's like you don't even get the blessing of even being a good person. People just hate you for it. I mean, think about Jesus Christ. The guy's going around only doing good, only performing miracles, providing people free meals, preaching people the truth, and all they do is get envy him and want to destroy him, and in fact, it got so bad he couldn't even walk openly up and down the streets. It got so bad many times they drug him out to a hill just to stone him, just to kill him. They wanted to murder him for healing people. I mean, the reason why they wanted to kill him is because he was healing people and he rose somebody from the dead. They were afraid that he rose Lazarus from the dead would prove that he was God and that everyone would believe in him and that it would basically give him the kingdom, give him the nation, and take it away from these unsafe Pharisees, and so they killed him for envy's sake. They wanted to destroy him because they were afraid of losing their nation and losing what they had and what they were holding on to, and it's funny because by killing them, they lost the nation anyways. Isn't that funny? I mean, they didn't want to lose their nation, so they thought killing Jesus was the answer. No, by killing Jesus, that's the reason you did lose your nation because in theory, and again, I believe in hypotheticals. God brings up hypotheticals. Hypothetically, if all the Jews just believed on Jesus Christ and started following him right at the onset, maybe they would have just ushered in a millennial reign or something. There wasn't really any reason to believe that he had to die on the cross if all the people believed him. The problem was that he came unto his own and his own received him not, and God had already foreordained that that would be the case so that Jesus could end up dying and taking the place for our sin, and so even when you do right, people hate you. Even when you preach the truth, people don't like you. People get mad at you, and they get frustrated by you, and they separate from you. Even our own church and our like-minded friend churches, it's kind of just crazy to me how many people are like our friends in the past, and now they hate us. It's just weird. They especially hate my sending pastor, Pastor Steven Anderson. That's usually the apple of their eye of hatred. That's who they really get irritated by the most. Number one, he hasn't changed. He's still preaching the same, still has the same church, still doing the same things, and he's pretty much one of the friendliest people ever. He didn't do anything. It's just these people just decided to get envious and get mad and get angry and reward him evil for good. Isn't it just seem vain when you form friendships with people, help literally build them a church by bringing in dozens of people into the building, and then they all turn on you? Wouldn't you almost feel like, man, that just felt like it was all for naught? And in some cases, it feels that way. I mean, what's a good example of this? How about Manly Perry and his church? Because honestly, almost this entire church was reached by Pastor Steven Anderson, and then he's just gone completely in a different direction, changed a lot of doctrine, and specifically said that he doesn't want to be friends with Pastor Anderson, called him out, got mad at him. There's been other churches, like Pastor Grayson Fritz turned on us and called us out and was just saying all kinds of evil about us. And I liked Pastor Fritz a lot. I thought he was a really good preacher, a good soul winner, good guy. I really enjoyed his company. Really, I had almost nothing negative to say. I don't even think I could think of anything negative. I think he took a great, bold stand of standing up against the sodomites. He lost his job for it. He kept preaching. I mean, the guy had a lot of character. He did a lot of good things. But for some reason, he just decided to get mad at a bunch of us and our friends or whatever and just start picking a fight. And sometimes when you pick a fight, other people finish it for you. And I guess as a result of that, he just decided to get mad and kind of just almost single-handedly turning off his church. And just a lot of people left. And it's like you're thinking, man, you do all this good work, and you have this church, and you have all these people gathered together, and people are serving God, and then it's just gone. And that's how life is. Sometimes you'll just do good unto somebody, and you'll love somebody, and you'll disciple someone, and then it's just over. You know, there's people that we've won to Christ, or we've met and we've got them into church, and we took them out to lunch, and we've given them the shirt off our back, and we've helped them, and we do good unto them. And then they just go back to the world, and it's like they weren't even a Christian anymore. It's just frustrating sometimes. But you know what? That's just life. Life is going to be full of just disappointments, people letting you down. Why? Because, man, it's sinful. And sometimes you just look at something, and you're just like, man, that just seemed like a big waste. You know, I've given money to people that work on my house, and then they just did nothing. And it was just like, wow, that was fun. It's like handing people money, and it's just like lighting money on fire. It's just like, this is vanity and vexation of spirit. It's like, what was the point of this? And then this guy admits to me that his wife went and lost all the money in a casino. I'm just like, man, this guy rips me off, but then his wife rips him off, and she gets ripped off by the casino, and then I'm sure the casino gets ripped off by the government, and then the government gets ripped off by Jews. You know? It's just like, it's just a never-ending. Everybody just gets ripped off. You do something, you acquire something, and it's just here one day, and it's gone the next. And sometimes it just, you know, my wife, she reminded me of this, and it's kind of funny. When we lived in Amarillo, it's really, really windy. But it's like sometimes she would like to curl her hair, and yet if she goes outside and it's windy, she said it'd just be gone. And so it's like almost you did all this work to make your hair look nice and be pretty, but then the wind just ruins it just like that, you know? And it's just like that's how life is sometimes. You just do stuff, and then just your brother comes and just knocks down what you built. You know, you build all these Legos up, and then he just comes in and just smashes it and just breaks it, and you're just like, argh. But that is the life that we have, and even when you do right things, well, somebody will be envious to come along and just destroy it, ruin it, lie about you, take it from you, whatever, steal it from you. I've had people steal things from me. I've lost even just weird things. I remember one time my car, someone just broke into my car and stole the cover plate to my CD player. And I'm just like, they didn't take the actual CD player. They just took the cover plate. And I'm like, the cover plate's like, you know, just like 15 bucks or something online maybe, and then you have to pay shipping. Like, the person maybe netted $10 if they were lucky. Plus, they'd have to put all this effort and energy in, like, listing it online and, like, finding a buyer and shipping it or whatever. I mean, like, for 10 bucks. But, you know, because I don't have that simple little plate, well, I can't even use it, right? So now I'm just having to go find another one or try to work on it. And I've had people just break into my car, steal my entire bag and my laptop and all my stuff before. I've lost things and it's just frustrating. You have things that are nice, but your neighbor envies you and just takes it and just steals it from you or destroys it or gets mad at you. And you know what? That's life. People are going to steal from you. People are going to rob you. People are going to take advantage of you. People are going to lie and say one thing and then give you a bad car. My dad has a famous story where, I don't know how this worked, but he went to a car dealership, said, I want this car. And for some reason, he doesn't get the car that day. He comes back to get the car. Well, they, like, swapped it with a different car or something like that. And literally, like, less than a mile away from the dealership, it broke down. Like, it completely broke down and it was called the Reliant. You know, of course, the Reliant, you know. And so they called it the Unreliant. I don't even know how he didn't get his money back or whatever. I don't know the story exactly, but I wasn't there yet. I was just a twinkle in his eye. But at the end of the day, you know, people are going to rip you off. And I'm sure if we asked you, you could tell us stories about people ripping you off, taking advantage of you. You know, if you've ever ordered food, they got your order wrong. And now it's just the norm, right? I mean, now it's just almost, like, guaranteed. Especially when you have six kids. Good luck getting that many orders right at the fast food place or even a nice restaurant these days. Everything is just disappointing. And again, why am I emphasizing that? Because of this next verse. The fool folded his hands together and ate his own flesh. So because life's hard, because life sucks, what is the fool's response to what we've learned? What will be the foolish way? You've heard what I had to say. You heard me complaining, in a sense, but that's just what the life is. Life's rough. Life's terrible. So you know what the fool does? The fool just says, you know what? He just has a bad attitude. Well, if life's going to be tough, then nah. Well, if life's going to be hard, well, if I'm going to be impressed, well, nah. I'm just going to fold my arms, whatever. But what happens when you have a bad attitude? It only hurts you. Having a bad attitude afflicts you. Now, it can also hurt other people in your life. When you're a leader, if you're a man, it can hurt your wife. It can hurt your children. It can hurt your employer. It can hurt other people. But you know what? Having a bad attitude destroys you. And that's what he's bringing up, this idea of the fool folded his hands together and he ate his own flesh. He basically just destroys himself by having a bad attitude and not still working hard, not having the right perspective in life. You know, sometimes you can recognize, hey, this is going to be hard. This is going to be difficult. It's not going to be fun. But you can still have a good attitude despite the fact that life is hard. Let's just be real. None of us liked school. I mean, school wasn't that much fun. And, you know, I went to public school. It was easy, folks. I mean, they didn't even try to teach me anything hardly. I mean, when I consider what my kids are doing with the homeschooling, I'm thinking, like, man, if I had to do this much work, I would have been way more upset. I mean, my kids work way harder than I did in public school. Public school barely teaches you anything, okay? And I still didn't like it. And it was still difficult. It was still frustrating. It was still work. And yet, you know what? I wish I could go back and have a better attitude towards school and a better attitude towards academics and a better attitude towards the athletic programs that I worked in and all the things that I did. And I think that a lot of times I just kind of was, you know, and I think a lot of kids do this. You just kind of do the bare minimum or just what's necessary to get teachers off your back or just get a passing grade or do whatever. And, you know, for me, school is still pretty easy. If I didn't even try, I was going to make an A in every class. Now, not everybody is like that. I'm just saying for me personally, like, even without trying at all, I was going to make As. But if I had actually tried, I could have maybe been, like, at the top of my class. And it's like it would have been better if I had done that instead of just kind of being a fool and folding my hands and just being like, nah, not so school. Because I had this attitude of I will never take homework home with me. Like, I have no idea why, but I just decided, like, I will never have homework. So it did not matter. Like, as soon as the teacher would pass out something that might be homework, I would just start working on it right away and not necessarily trying to do a good job, just trying to get it done. Or the next class, I would just kind of sneak and just get it done because I was just like I'm not going to study at home. I'm never going to work. I never studied for tests. And, you know, that was just a bad attitude. It was just a poor attitude. I wasn't working hard on my academics. I wasn't trying to learn. And I wish I had. You know, I took three years of Spanish in high school, and I probably could basically say, hola. You know, I mean, it was just I had a lot of opportunity to learn a lot, and I really didn't take advantage of that. I could have learned a lot more in just grammar and English and all kinds of different subjects. Even when I was a senior, I actually looked at the classes and I said, what are the easiest classes I can possibly take? And I took those classes. Because I was just like I don't even want to try hard. I don't even want to work. And I took a bunch of just blow-off classes when I was a senior. I could have taken calculus my senior year, but I didn't have to because I was so ahead in math that I didn't have to take senior math if I didn't want to. And so I didn't take senior math. And, you know, I regret some of those decisions, and that was really a foolish decision on my part. I should have actually challenged myself and worked harder and taken advantage of the opportunities I had. And you know what, you homeschool kids, don't just try to figure out the answers. Don't go look up the answer key when your parents aren't looking. Don't just skim through the book and just try to pick out a few words and be like, yeah, I read it. Look, we all did that in school. I mean, when I was in school, it was called Cliff Notes or Spark Notes. Who did Cliff Notes or Spark Notes? Okay, yes, the rest of you are lying. But, I mean, this was like a new thing. It was a new invention where people are putting online basically a summary of an entire novel so you didn't have to read it. And so you could kind of get away with not reading books, not reading novels, and still make decent enough grades, sometimes be convincing enough. If you had to write a paper, it was really easy because then it's really easy to just kind of pretend like you read something. I did it just like a lot of people. Even in college, I kind of, you know, just skated through college and wouldn't even try very hard up until about my senior year. But, you know, there was one class I had in college, and I can't even believe it, but it was taught by some Asian professor, and she would literally hand everybody the test, before the test, with all the answers on it. And then you were supposed to go to a computer lab and take it. And it was just like, I remember the first, after the first test, the average was a 96. And she's like, I think that some of you are cheating. You know, it's just like, oh, I wonder why. You know, it's like, but, you know, that wasn't the right thing to do. That wasn't the honorable thing to do. That's just me having a bad attitude, just not taking things seriously. I played golf in college, and I was on the golf team, but I had been struggling with some of, you know, practicing and playing well. And for a large percentage of my golf time or golf career in college, I really just had a bad attitude. And all it did was hurt myself. I could have actually practiced and got a lot better, performed a lot better, taken it more seriously, or just done something different. If I'm not going to be trying hard in golf, why not try to get a career or work or make money or do something different? Like, there's no point in just wasting time. But, you know, I spent all this time playing video games and just playing recreational activities and sports and whatever and just not taking life very seriously. And, you know what, it only hurt myself. And I was kind of just upset because it seemed like, well, I'm probably not going to become a professional golfer and the track that I'm headed, you know, because I wanted to. I wanted to become a professional golfer. I had a lot of talent. I had a lot of ability. But because I was having a bad attitude about practice and my swing and my golf coaches and stuff like that, I just kind of gave up. And it was like, that was the wrong attitude. I should have either worked harder and gotten to the point where I could go that direction or tried something different. But by having a bad attitude is the worst of both worlds. I didn't really accomplish anything. I didn't play as well as I should have. And then, in hindsight, it's just like, wow, it's just a bunch of wasted time, wasted effort, and I just destroyed myself. I destroyed my opportunities. And, you know what, we need to have a better attitude and not be a fool and just say, well, I don't like my situation. I don't like my coach. I don't like my teachers. I don't like homeschooling. You know, I'd try harder if I was in public school. You know, that's a bad attitude. If you're homeschooled, appreciate that you're homeschooled. If you go to public school, appreciate being in public school. You know, just appreciate what you have. Have the right attitude and say, I'm going to work. I'm not going to have this bad attitude. Go to Proverbs 15. I want to look at another verse here on this particular point. The fool just puts his hands together and just like, meh. You go to work, and your work has a bunch of hard tasks for you. Don't just be like, eh. Just do it. Just do the work. Now, even though life is hard, even though we've established it's evil, even though we've established that things are going to be difficult and you're going to have more problems, more woes than you will ever have successes and pleasures, you can still choose to have a good attitude and even though things are bad, you're still having a good time. And here's the one thing no one can do is they can't affect, they can't force you to have a particular attitude. You can obviously be influenced, but you get to choose what attitude you have about any situation. Now, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 15, look at verse 15. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Now, it's kind of an easy proverb to skip over, but I believe what the Bible is really trying to emphasize is it's about the mentality. It's like if you're afflicted, well, yeah, of course, every single day is evil then. But if you have a merry heart, every day is a continual feast. And he's just saying, like, however you approach every day is how that day will be. If you say, you know what, today is going to be a bad day. It's going to be a bad day. And if you say, hey, today is going to be a good day, well, that day is going to be a good day. But you know what, you're in control of if you have good days or you have bad days. You're in control if you fold your hands like a fool and just say, man, or you decide, hey, I'm going to get to work and actually use my hands and do something. It's up to you how you approach every single situation. And even when thrown in prison falsely for preaching the gospel, Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight unto God in the book of Acts. And then, you know what, they had a continual feast because pretty soon the door swung open and the jailer fell at their feet and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know, you think like, man, it's going to be hard to get people saved now or thrown in prison, except for people now throwing themselves at you trying to get saved. I mean, think about that. Wouldn't you be kind of disappointed? You're like, man, we're such good soul winners and we had all this great opportunity and now we're not reaching anybody. But you know what? They didn't have a bad attitude. They're just like, hey, we've been thrown in prison. Let's praise God. Let's just sing songs. You know, they have a merry heart. They're just having a continual feast, even shackled and thrown in prison. And you know what? They do have a continual feast because the jailer comes out. He gets saved. He takes their whole family, gets them saved. He takes and gets them baptized. He goes to his house and has meat. And then the next day they have to release him from prison. I mean, talk about just an awesome, awesome day. I mean, that's an amazing day. You're thrown in prison, but pretty soon you're out there. You're getting people baptized at night. You're having dinner, late night dinner. You're just having fun. I mean, this is Baptist nightclubbing, okay, where you're just in prison. You're hanging out, eating dinner, getting baptized, doing baptisms at night or whatever. But then they're let go and then they just go on their merry way. This is having a good attitude. And you know, most of us probably haven't been thrown in prison lately. So it's pretty rough for you to start complaining about your situation when the Apostle Paul is going through the trials and the tribulations and the problems he has, and yet he can still have a positive attitude. You know, I kind of liken this a little bit unto children. And there's one thing I really like about children, and it's something that we should try to get ourselves and try to follow their example, is how children can sometimes just be excited about everything. Have you ever noticed that? Sometimes kids can be in a bad mood, and I get that. And when they come teenagers, it's all over. But I'm just saying, when they're younger, for some reason, it's like they like everything. I mean, you could go and your car breaks down and they're still having a good time. And you're traveling, you're going out of town. You could stay at the sleaziest Super 8 motel or something, and they're jumping on the bed and running around screaming, and it's just like fun. I mean, they're just playing with a box. Like, you know, they're just a box, and it's just like they think it's a fort now, right? I mean, they just like plastic bubble wrap. They're popping it, and they just think it's cool. You just let them outside. They're just running around, throwing sticks, doing it. I mean, as long as they're not hurting each other or fighting over a toy, I mean, they're just kind of just like having fun at every situation. It's all cool. They get excited about the lamest meals. It's like peanut butter and jelly, and they're like, yes, peanut butter and jelly. It's like Kraft mac and cheese, and they're like, yeah, the best meal ever. You know, a hot dog. You know, it's like this is what kids get excited about. It's like a hot dog. You take them to McDonald's, and they think it's like the most amazing place in the world, the Happy Meal, right? And to some degree, it's just they have the right attitude. And over time, they start realizing about problems in life and hormones and whatever that ruins it for all of us. But, you know, we should try our best to maintain the attitude of our happy little children who can just run around, and it doesn't matter if they have nice, I mean, little kids, they don't care if they have designer clothes on. They don't care if their hair looks right or is messed up or anything like that. They don't care about how much money their dad makes. They don't care about, I mean, they're just enjoying life. And, you know, we need to learn a little bit from them and just have a merry heart and just say, you know what, if I've got chicken fingers tonight, praise God, it's going to be a great night. And if I've got mac and cheese, well, you know what, I like mac and cheese too, all right? And if we're, you know, going out and all we have is a box to play with, well, we're going to have fun with that box, you know? And just saying, hey, this job is going to be rough today, but I've got a job, praise the Lord, I'm just going to tackle this job today and just have a better attitude because, you know what, when you have a bad attitude, your day is going to suck. Your day is going to be rough. Your day isn't going to be fun because of your attitude. It's not so much what's going to happen because we've already established it's going to be rough. We've already established it's going to be pain. We've already established it's going to be sorrow. We've already established the world's evil. We've already established bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. But you know what? You can have a good outlook and it's just fun, fun, fun, fun anyways. And you just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy anyways. And it's really about your attitude more than it is your life circumstances and the reality is any and all of us could have a good attitude. You know, I think for women, they probably struggle because raising little kids and raising a lot of kids is hard. There is way more crying than there is laughter. There is way more problems than hugs. There's way more issues and fighting and tears and you have to train them and you have to teach them and you have to punish them and you have to spank them and you have to clean up vomit and do diapers and just, I don't know, it's rough. Sometimes I'm glad I go to work just to escape it. Like that's my vacation is work. Like a real job, it's like fun. It's like, oh, everything is clean, it's nice. There's not screaming. You know, you go back to the home and it's like a war zone or something, you know? And it's not because my wife is doing anything wrong. She's great. In fact, she keeps her house so clean considering how many kids we have and she does such a great job with all of them. But you know, six kids, it's just, the crib is not going to be clean, folks. And there's much oxen and the crib is just not going to be clean. It's not going to be perfect, you're going to have problems, they're going to break stuff, they're going to draw on the walls, then they're going to draw on the carpet, then they're going to draw on the couch, then they're going to eat glue, then they're going to shove stuff in places where you can't find it. I mean, it's just going to happen. But you know what? You could just say, you know what, tomorrow is going to be a fun day. It's going to be funny when they do these things instead of just like, ah, you did it again. It's like if you have little kids, expect something to be written on. Expect them to do something that's going to make a mess and cause problems. You should almost expect them to spill. At this point, I feel like we've gone like six or seven meals in a row where someone spills their entire drink. And I'll just be honest, I have failed at having a good attitude about it. But because it's happened so much, I'm just going to be like, all right, it's going to happen. Somehow they're going to do it. Now again, you kids don't do that. All right. But I'm just saying, you know, sometimes we should just go into life just recognizing it's going to be rough. People are going to screw up. People are going to be late. Things are going to go bad. Someone's going to get sick. Someone's going to break something. Someone's going to ruin their clothes. It's just life. And instead of just saying every day is just evil, I'm just so afflicted, just say, you know what, I'm just going to be happy about it and enjoy that I have kids. Because you know what would be actually miserable? Not having your kids. The kids that you have, not having them would actually be way more miserable than having them. And not having all the joys. You know, when they get older, you're going to think, man, I wish I could go back in time even in the days when they were throwing up and drawing on stuff and whatever just because they were so cute. And, you know, one of the good things about little kids is they just love you so hard and they love to always get in your lap and give you a hug. And they're just kind of fun. You know, once they get older, you lose a lot of that and they're not as appreciative. They don't care as much. I mean, right now, it still happens some, but when I leave, all the little kids, they have to have a kiss and they have to have a hug before I can go. You know, the older ones are starting to be like, whatever, you know. But it's just like, it's nice that the little ones, you know, the little ones, they're just like, and if they don't have it, they're like screaming, like, no, I have to have a hug. You know, that's just how they feel. And it's just like, it's nice. It's a nice feeling. And then, you know, eventually, it'll just be like, you know, they don't care as much anymore. Well, get out of here or whatever. Leave me alone. But, you know, for now, they enjoy the company and I think that we need to try and have that embodiment of our little children of just saying, you know what, I'm not going to have this bad attitude. I'm going to have a good attitude. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter four and let's look at verse six now. So we've actually been, what's interesting about this chapter and what I like about this chapter is it kind of builds a story, it kind of builds a little bit of narrative here. Life's going to be rough, don't have a bad attitude, let's have a good attitude. Says in verse number six, better is a handful of quietness than both the hands full of travail and vexation of spirit. Now this is trying to give us a little bit of a solution to the mentality that we struggle with because a lot of us think like, man, life is rough. Life's hard. And we think that what will solve it is more money. What we think is my life will be better when I get this or when I have this or, well, I wouldn't have so many problems if I had more money. I wouldn't have so many problems if I had a better job. I wouldn't have so many problems if, you know, insert whatever monetary possession that you think that you could have. Or a lot of times they even think that people in their lives are the problem and if they didn't have this problem. Like if I didn't have these kids to deal with, my life would be easier. If I didn't have a wife or if I didn't have a husband or if I didn't have this person in my life and my life was just simpler. The reality is that doesn't make you happy. And that doesn't bring joy. Money and the loss of relationship is not what brings happiness. And Hollywood is almost trying to promote this idea of being single and living on your own and just having lots of money. As somehow this is the happiest life or this is the best version of themselves or they just have so much joy. But you know what? It's really just a lie. And honestly what it's trying to say in verse 6 is better is a handful of quietness. Quietness is peace. So it's like it's better to have just a little bit and peace than to have a ton of stuff and to have travail and vexation of spirit. And the reality is most people that have a lot of money and a lot of possessions and a lot of wealth and a lot of things going on, they have a lot of problems. And in many cases actually having less will make your life better. I want to look at a few more verses on this. Go to Proverbs 17. Go back to Proverbs 17. We sometimes think that more will make us happy when actually more will make it worse. Sometimes less is more and less is better. Proverbs 17 verse 1, the Bible says, a better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife. This ties into what I just mentioned in verse 5 of the idea of having the right attitude. If you want to have joy in your house and in your life, it's not about acquiring more wealth. It's about acquiring a better attitude. And for your spouse, you know, your wife, what's not going to necessarily make life better is giving your wife more things or more money. It's if your wife could have a better attitude. That would be the way that you would. In fact, that's what almost all of us would rather have. It's like, hey, I'd rather have less money in my bank account and when I come home my wife's just happy that I'm home and we're just getting along. Then to have just all kinds of riches and all kinds of money and showing up and she's just nagging at me and yelling and screaming and just whatever, you know, just fighting with me and contrary to everything I say. He's just saying like it would be better to come home and eat some dry old crusty mac and cheese but your wife's in a really good mood than to come home and have like filet mignon and she's just ripping into you and nagging you and just frustrated with you and you're just like, man, I just, what's going on? He's saying like while food's important and I love food, your wife being in a pleasant mood is so much better than having filet. Now, of course, let's have both. I'm not saying let's don't have both, okay? But what I'm saying is more important than money and riches and all the things you have is just having the right attitude and being a pleasant person. Go if you would to 1 Peter chapter 3, go to 1 Peter chapter 3, let me show you another verse in here, and you know, you ladies that struggle with this because the Bible's not just for men, it's for both men and women, let me explain something. The reason why your life is full of pain and sorrow and woe and affliction is because you have a bad attitude. That's the reason. It is not because your husband doesn't make enough money. It's not because you live in the house that you live in. It's not because of your kids. It's because you have a bad attitude. And if you say I want my life to be better, don't expect your husband to make more money to give you a better life. Don't expect your kids to start behaving magically or something like that. You know what you should do? Just have a better attitude. That is the way that you're going to enjoy your life more. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 4, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great prayers. So notice it says that same word quiet again, and the word quiet just simply is a synonym for the word peace. And so when a wife is at peace, things are going well. What is the opposite of quiet? Loud. What's the opposite of quiet? Nagging and being annoying and being boisterous and just complaining. And the opposite of that is what? Being quiet. Again, it's not, we don't want to take this word and run with it like your wife doesn't speak or something. It's that it's peace. That's the concept. That's the communication that it's trying to say. Of course I love to talk with my wife. And let's be honest, women like to talk more than men. And that's okay. I'm fine coming home and she speaks 80% of the conversation. But you know what I want it to be? Peaceable. Right? I want it to be an 80% peaceable conversation. I want it to be something that we're enjoying each other's company and we're having a good time and it's not just all this affliction, all this pain, all this sorrow. And thinking like, man, if we just have this house, you know, our life's terrible, but I found this house. If we get this house. No, if we get that house, I'll have a bigger honey do list. You'll be complaining about more stuff that I don't fix. You'll be complaining about more problems. You'll be complaining about us having a nicer house and the kids ruined it even worse. Right? They ruined the nice counter. They ruined the nice countertops. They ruined the, you know, what yard or it's like, you know, that's what life would be like because it's about your attitude. It's not about the things that you have. And he's saying, hey, better is a dry morsel. Better is just a small handful. Better is just almost nothing with quietness than to have both hands full and there's all this strife and arguing and envying and just problems. You know, Ecclesiastes chapter 4 is really trying to get us to have a better attitude. We'll be back to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. I don't know what you came into church looking for, but you're supposed to leave with a better attitude. You were thinking like, man, I wanted more money. I wanted more possessions. I wanted more wealth. I wanted him to say like, husbands buy your wife nice things. Well, that wasn't what I was going to say. That's not what the Bible is saying. The Bible is saying both of us need to work on having a better attitude. Don't think like, yeah, but you don't know how hard my life is. I get it. Like I said, I escape to work because I get it, okay? I get it because even at work it's rough. I get it because the Bible says, hey, the world's full of evil. The world's full of pain and sorrow and travail and it's rough. But you know what? Just have a good attitude about it anyways. Just decide I'm not going to be afflicted today. I'm going to be of a merry heart. Praise God I have today. And you know, one thing that will help you do this, read your Bible in the morning. Sing a couple hymns. Sing a couple songs in the morning. You know, that will help give you the right spirit, maybe fill you with the right spirit, the right mentality. But we need to work on this. Look at what it says in verse number seven. Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone and there is not a second, yea, he hath neither child nor brother, yet there is no end of all his labor. Neither is his eyes satisfied with riches. Neither sayeth he, for whom do I labor or bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity, yea, it is a sword's avail. This is kind of interesting. I was thinking about it like these people that are single and making money. Like at some point in their life, they will probably have made enough money to last them the rest of their life. But they don't like stop working. They just keep getting more money. And just keep getting more and more money. And then it's like, what's the point? What was the point? I mean when you have a family and you have kids, sometimes we are working really hard just because we need to provide more money to provide for them, right? We have to pay the bills and we have to pay all the medical expenses and the food and the clothes and whatever and so we are just working because we kind of have to. And he is saying, even the guy that is alone, he will just work and work and work and work and it's just like, but then he has so much that it doesn't even matter. Like if I didn't have a wife and kids and I still worked as hard as I am, making as much money as I am, I would just have all this excess money that I wouldn't, you know, what am I going to do with it? Make more, you know, buy more businesses and make more money and buy more real estate and make more money and then just keep going. I mean what's the point? What if I have 10 billion dollars? What's the difference between having 10 billion dollars and having 1 billion or having 100 million or having 50 million or having 100,000 or having 5 dollars in my bank account? It really doesn't even make that much of a difference at the end of the day. So what's the point of just working and just being alone? He is basically saying there isn't a good reason. He is saying there is one alone and there is not a second. This guy doesn't have anything. Verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. You know what he is trying to point out? Relationships are better than being alone and he is saying you don't get satisfaction by being alone. Hey, I made all this money. What did it say? Neither is his eyes satisfied with riches. Even if you are Elon Musk, you don't have enough money. Even if you are the Jews, you don't have enough money. Even if you are Rothschild, you still don't have enough money. You can never be satisfied with the money. You can never be satisfied with the works. So he is saying relationships are better than just living your whole life just acquiring wealth than just acquiring money. He says two are better than one. You know when God created everything, he looked at the man and he saw that he was alone and he said that it wasn't good. So he created him to help me. You know what? For 99% of us, if not higher, getting married is one of the best decisions you can make and having a relationship because you say, well, yeah, but if I get married, she is going to spend all my money. What were you going to do with it anyway? You can't take it with you to heaven. I mean, yes, you spent all your money, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do with it? Well, but she made me buy all this stuff that I don't want. Well, what are you going to do with all the money in the bank that you didn't want? I mean, at the end of the day, that relationship is way more beneficial to you than the extra money in your bank account, than the extra toys and whatever stuff that you could buy. You know, you can't put a price on a wife, priceless, and it's saying two are better than one. I didn't say that. The Bible said that. Now, even soul winning, this could apply, right? Two soul winners are better than one. It's better going soul winning with someone as a silent partner than having no one. Going and doing an activity is more fun. Playing a sport, it's better to have another person there, you know? It's just more fun. Life is more fun with people. Church of one would be a lot sadder than church of two, right? If I'm just preaching to myself and the air and God, you know, that would be less enjoyable than if I had at least just my wife to listen. And it's just saying life is more enjoyable with relationships. We need to work with other people. Why? Verse 10, for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falls, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? So what it's saying is you can accomplish things with other people that you can't accomplish by yourself. Here's one, children. You can't accomplish children by yourself. And he's saying heat, you can't heat yourself. Somehow because we both are, you know, sending off heat or heat's coming off of our bodies, you can heat someone else, but you can't heat yourself. And so this is just how life is created, that God kind of made us to where we can kind of scratch each other's backs, but we can't scratch our own. And so in life, it's just better to have another person have a companion that your heat doesn't go to waste because my heat, when I'm alone, goes to waste. It's not doing anything. But when I'm with someone else, I'm heating them up, they're heating me up, and you have a benefit to that relationship. And you know what? Relationships have benefits, and you can accomplish things that you could not accomplish on your own. That is what it's really emphasizing. Now, of course, this isn't a personal relationship, but it can apply in all kinds of different situations. Verse 12 also says, and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. What is it saying? And again, in other places, it talks about how when you have bigger numbers, you have a greater output, a greater workforce. And specifically here, it's even saying a threefold cord is not quickly broken. The more that you have, the better whatever work you have is going to stay and be steadfast. I think about the new IFB in general. One new IFB church is good, but two is better, and three is even better. And the more and more you have, just the more difficult it would be to dismantle. The more independent fundamental Baptist churches we have with godly pastors, the much more difficult to destroy. The devil could destroy one of our churches. The devil could destroy our church. But the devil can't just instantly destroy two churches, and he can't necessarily destroy three churches. And so that's why we believe in independent fundamental Baptist churches. We want to continually raise up other men of God and establish them and ordain them and make them pastors of their own churches, because it'll be much more difficult to dismantle and to be destroyed than if we just had one big church. And look, there are big churches out there. I'm not against big churches. Hey, if we can be a big church and serve God, praise the Lord. But we also need to constantly be starting other churches too, and doing other works too. Just be, hey, we had a big church and we gave a big run, but now it's over. Look at First Baptist Church in Indiana. Big church, doing big works. It's not on the incline, it's kind of on the decline when you consider its history. In some ways you could say when Jack Scott was the pastor of it, he was destroying it. And one sinner destroyeth much good. And it's easy to just topple down a kingdom with the wrong guy, the wrong leader, one big mistake, financial woe, whatever. But when you have multiples, it's much more effective. And this is why it's important. We don't want just one soul winner. Think about how many churches depend on their pastor to do an altar call to get people saved. Praise God we don't have that here. Every single person in this room basically could open their Bible and get a visitor saved. And so we don't have all this power concentrated into one. We've multiplied it, and it would be really difficult to stop soul winning in Dallas-Fort Worth, because there's just so many soul winners. We have so many times almost every day. We have soul winners just all over the map, just going in their local areas and different regions of the city. I mean, it's going to be really hard to withstand the soul winning effort of Steadfast Baptist Church in the DFW area because we have so many people empowered. And we see the benefit of working with others. We don't want to be these lone rangers or get disconnected from the church. We want to come together as the body and encourage one another and empower one another and help one another so we can accomplish a great work for God. Now it also says in verse 13, it says, better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished, for out of prison he cometh to reign, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor. So it now brings up wisdom, and I believe this chapter kind of has like three points. And I'm going to try to wrap up quickly for sake of time, but in this chapter life's hard. Life's got a lot of negative things. But what should we do in response? Number one, we need to have a good attitude. And number two, we need to work with other people. We need to build relationships and recognize that there's power in relationships. And three, we need to still realize that wisdom is beneficial, and not just be foolish and not be lazy, but rather gaining wisdom because working smarter is better than working harder. And sometimes we work in a lot of effort in vain because we don't have the right attitude or because we're not willing to work with other people or whatever our downfall is. And in this passage it brings up the idea of someone coming out of prison to reign and someone that's born in his kingdom destroying it or becoming poor. Perfect examples of this, how about Joseph? Joseph literally comes out of prison, becomes the king, in a sense he's second in charge at least. And what was the reason? Because he was wise. And then we have people like Zedekiah, King Zedekiah, born in his kingdom because he's a foolish king and won't hearken unto the Bible and the word of God, he ends up getting destroyed and taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. And so it's not so much where you started, it's about what you do with the plight you have in life. And you know what? For Joseph, most of his life was pain, woe, and sorrow. What I like about Joseph is he had a good attitude and he was willing to work with others. And then God ended up promoting him for his wisdom. And I think the same's with all of us. If we will decide to have a good attitude and we'll work with others and we're wise and we seek the wisdom of God, he will give us joy in the end of our life and great blessing and great work. You know, you mothers have a good attitude about your children, work with your children, and I believe if you apply that wisdom that God's giving you from the Bible in your later age, you'll really get to enjoy those adult children and those grandchildren and you'll have the blessings and the rewards that you have. And you know what? For us men that serve God and raise our families and take care of our wives, you know, we're going to enjoy those things in later life as well and we're going to enjoy the works of our hands. And we are going to be rewarded greatly in the later parts of our life. You know, you want to have a lot of money and have a nice house and have nice things. Often it comes with just working really hard in a career for a long time and kind of breaking your back as a young man and then later, getting in the later stages of life where you can have some of the nicer things that you could have. But you know, some people will literally start out in life having everything, but they're just stupid. They're foolish. They don't follow the Bible. They don't follow the command. And they destroy all of it. Like the prodigal son, given all this inheritance and they just squander it on harlots and rights of living. And so there's still things that are important. Even though the world's hard, even though the world has difficulty, even though there's problems, hey, it's still important to have a good attitude, it's still important to work with others, and it's still important to have wisdom. He says in verse 15, I considered all the living which walk under the sun with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. 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 also is vanity and vexation of spirit. So he kind of brings up this idea of how your children are going to kind of come in your place, in your stead in the future. And he brings up the second child. Maybe perhaps it's just from a carnal perspective that they're more likely to be younger. And so when you pass on, they're going to kind of come and be an adult. But for many of us, and especially when we think about grandparents, we don't necessarily know everything that our parents did or all the works they accomplished. We don't know all of our grandparents' works and all the struggles and the problems that they had. And he's kind of bringing this up as this is kind of vanity and vexation of spirit. But what I think he's trying to bring up is this concept of how many people have struggled and worked so hard in their life for their children, and then their children just end up just making bad decisions. My grandfather, I didn't get to spend a ton of time with him, but I did talk to him occasionally and kind of ask him about life. He grew up in the Great Depression. I remember my grandpa, I was asking him about the Great Depression, and he was like, well, we were poor before the Great Depression, and then we were poor in the Great Depression. So he doesn't really remember much different. But I mean, eating was just hard. And they had to toil, you know, 10, 12, 14-hour days eating virtually meat never, eating beans or bread or whatever they could find. And even my dad, he grew up poor a lot of his life. He told me sometimes they would just get a slice of bread and just put like a strip of mayonnaise and ketchup and mustard on it and just eat it. And that was a meal. It was just a piece of bread with just, I was like, I wouldn't even eat that. Like, I don't know how hungry I'd have to be to even try to eat that. But you know, for him, he was poor. He grew up where they had pinto beans for every meal. Who eats pinto beans? Okay, so there's some good people out here. I like pinto beans as a side to my meat. You know what I mean? Like, I like a side of pinto beans with my brisket sandwich. I'm so spoiled. My dad would get meat once a week on Sundays. After church, they had fried chicken. His mom would make fried chicken. And she was a good cook. She passed earlier in my life, but I would get to go over. She made smothered steak. It was a really good meal. But even to this day, my grandpa, you know, he basically would just eat beans every meal anyways. Just because he got so used to it and he just liked it. He'd usually go to the store, buy a bunch of fried chicken, and he'd buy beans, and he'd just have beans almost every day. And that was his life, and he was just simple. And I'm just like, how many days did my dad and my grandfather just spend just working so hard for just virtually like no money, just so they could survive, just so they could go on, just so I could even physically exist? Like if they didn't work, I mean, their life in comparison to mine, and I have no idea, but I'm just saying it was a lot worse. They didn't have nearly as much food or luxury or pleasure or fun. Even growing up in the 1950s, where it was a lot of fun, you know, where everybody thinks it was so great or something. They still didn't have all the pleasures and the joys and the fun and all the stuff I had. All the time and effort and energy they put. And then what if I just was dumb and just made bad decisions and lived selfishly? Just all the work and all the effort and all the labor and all the energy they spent going through the Great Depression. I mean, my dad served in Vietnam War. My grandfather was initially going to go into World War II, I think, but on a medical leave. But I mean, how many people literally, even their parents, they served in World War II? Or they served in some grueling war, Vietnam War. They served in World War I or the Civil War. I mean, how many of our parents did just horrible, gruesome tasks? How many women had to scrub clothes on a metal board just so people wouldn't die of dysentery and gangrene and all kinds of horrible diseases? Just think about how many women gave birth without an epidural so that you could even exist. Sorry to tell you, your grandma and all your great-grandmas, they had to hurt when they were giving birth. They had to go through all kinds of, they didn't even have a doctor, they didn't have a bed, they didn't have all these fancy things. They're just out in the field somewhere or something, in the hot sun, giving birth. They don't get to have nice bathrooms, they go to the outhouse. I mean, just think about how much pain and suffering and sorrow and woe and evil that all these people had to go through. And we don't even know what they did, we don't even know their names, we don't know what's going on, and then how many people are just idiots. Like if our grandparents could meet some of their grandchildren, they would be like, you are a complete idiot. You are a fool. I can't even believe that you came for me. I can't even believe, I went through the Great Depression so that you could ruin your life on TikTok. You could ruin your life on fentanyl and drugs and cocaine and hookers and blow and just ruining your life and aborting your children and destroying your life. I mean, there's so many people just destroying their life. And the author's just saying like, man, this guy went through so much pain and sorrow and woe just for their kids to just be idiots, to be liberals, to actually vote for Kamala Harris. There's going to be at least 10 people that vote for her, I promise. I saw a bumper sticker tonight, it's like, what an idiot. What a fool. And we can laugh at those people, but you know what? We too had grandparents, and here's a question, would your grandparents be pleased with the decisions you're making? Would they be like, man, the sacrifices I made were worth it? The effort and energy I put into you, you know what? We have to put a lot of effort and energy into our kids. How would you feel if then they turned around and become foolish and become idle and become lazy and just ruin the upbringing you gave them? I mean, think about dragging a church owner. How many of you are driving 30, 40 minutes, an hour to come to this church? Can you imagine doing that for 18 years of their life and changing all their diapers and feeding them all this food and working all these hours, and then they just go and join Joel Osteen's church or just go and be a liberal or go be an atheist or go do something stupid with their life or just be a backslidden Christian or whatever. You'd think, what was the point? I think that for all of us, we need to start right now to change our attitude so that we can influence our children to also have a good attitude, but also to appreciate what our parents have done for us and what our grandparents have done for us and what so many people have done for us and realize, yeah, life might be hard, but you know, for most people, it's probably harder than what we have it. We are so spoiled. It's just too difficult to explain to you guys. Whether we talk about the current world, the past world, anything and everything in between, we are living just some of the easiest, most comfortable lives and any little bit of suffering and sorrow you have, you should just be praising God that it's giving you an ability to have some character because our lives are so easy and yet we probably complain more than most of our parents and grandparents did. We're just spoiled rotten. We're just spoiled brats as Americans and we need to change. We need to have a better attitude and even whatever pain and sorrows we have, which we'll just be like, man, this is nothing. I'm just going to have a merry spirit. I'm just so excited. I'm going to work with other people. I'm going to build relationships. I'm going to apply the wisdom that God's given me and you know what? I'm going to do the best that I can with what he's given me because I only have one life to live and I might as well do it with all my might. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this wisdom that you've given us and thank you for giving us the free will to choose to have a good attitude. I pray that you would just help motivate all of us to realize how privileged we are, how many blessings we have, how many opportunities we have, how many pleasures and joys that we do have and that can help us when we have the difficulties, the pains, the sorrows, the trials of life to have a good attitude. I pray that you would help the men in this room have a good attitude towards working hard for their families and kids. I pray that you would help the women to have a good attitude about their families and raising their children and the work that you've given them to do. I pray that you would help the children in this room to recognize how privileged they are and that they would take advantage of their schooling and of the church opportunities they have. I pray that we would have a desire to be peaceable and work together and have a good time with each other as opposed to just trying to isolate ourselves and that we would apply all the wisdom you give us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For our last song we're going to go to 125, the solid rock. 125, the solid rock. Song one, two, five, sing it out. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness bails his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the bale. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, his blood support me in the welling flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness alone, hopeless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Great singing, everybody. You are all dismissed.