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You You You You You You You You You You You You Good evening everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church looks like you've already all found your seats for the most part But those who haven't if you could find your seats I'd be great go ahead and grab a hymnal and we're gonna go ahead and start in song number 40 This is definitely a newer one for our church So if you've heard it before I want you to sing out nice and loud Song number 40 no disappointment in heaven Song four zero On the first Here is sorrow or pain No larks that are bleeding and broken No song with a minor refrain The clouds of earthly horizon will never appear in the sky For all be sunshine and gladness with never a song of a sigh I'm bound for that beautiful See my lord is prepared for his own Where all the redeemed of all ages sing glory around the white throne Sometimes I grow homesick In the glories I there shall be hope What a joy that will be when my savior I see in that beautiful City Song number 40 on the second We'll never be hungry or thirsty nor anguishing For all the rich bounties of heaven his sanctified children will share I'm bound for that beautiful city My lord is prepared for his own Where all the redeemed of all ages sing glory around the white throne Sometimes I grow homesick for heaven And the glories I there shall be hope What a joy that will be when my savior I see In that beautiful city of gold They'll never betray him on the doorknob No full world train in the sky No graves on the hillsides of glory For there we shall never more die The old will be young there forever Transformed in a moment of time Immortals stand in his likeness The stars in the sun too have shined I'm bound for that beautiful city My lord is prepared for his own Where all the redeemed of all ages Sing glory around the white throne Sometimes I grow homesick for heaven And the glories I there shall be hope What a joy that will be when my savior I see In that beautiful city of gold Great singing everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this church. We thank you for Pastor Shelley and his family. We thank you for everyone that's gathered here today. We ask that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, help him to preach an edifying sermon so we can walk out better Christians and better serve you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, next up we have song number 11. He died for me. Song 11, song 1-1. He died for me. On the first. I saw what hanging on a tree In agony and blood He fixed his languid eyes on me As near his cross I stood O can it be upon a tree A save or die for me My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think he died for me Sure never till my latest breath Can I forget that look It seemed to charge me with his death Though not a word he spoke O can it be upon a tree A save or die for me My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think he died for me My conscience built and owed the guilt And bludged me in despair I saw my sins, his blood had spilt And helped to nail him there O can it be upon a tree A save or die for me My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think he died for me Alas I knew not what I did But now my tears are vain Where shall my trembling soul be hid For I the Lord have slain O can it be upon a tree A save or die for me My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think he died for me A second look he gave me I freely all forgive This blood is for thy ransom pain I died and now may slip O can it be upon a tree A save or die for me My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled To think he died for me Good evening. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front we have the Bible memory passage, Jonah chapter 2 verse 6. And we're doing the book of Ecclesiastes, so we'll be in chapter number 9 this evening. I was in Oklahoma City this past Sunday and so thank you very much for brother Joe and brother Ben who preached for us and everything went really well and so brother Oz is doing a good job up there and the church is doing really well and so really continue to pray for them and we're excited what the future holds for that church. Our service and so many times there also our church stats. Also on the right is our expecting ladies list, continue to pray for them. We have our prayer list down below. We'll go over that in just a second. We have our upcoming events. We'll go over that this Sunday and if you are planning on bringing stuff in the morning we should have our back gate kind of open so you can come and sneak in and put stuff out there in the back. If you have questions, ask Ms. Naeem about that. Also the 31st is our Texas Philly cook-off. November 16th is our Miami soul-winning marathon. Prayer list, we continue to pray for the Naeem's grandmother for her vision, health and salvation. We're praying for the Carlson's mother, Ms. Rebecca's health. Praying for the Miller's friends, mom's cancer treatment. Brother Scott, his parents' health. We've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, Krista, who's pregnant. We've been praying for Brother Foley, for his fiancé. We've been praying for Brother Stewart, his sister-in-law, Ms. Tammy. Also continue to pray for the Illes' family's health and then also Brother Foley had another prayer request for his co-workers' infant health. So we'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family now. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this church and our opportunity to be here. I pray that you would just bless all these expecting ladies. Please be with them. Please help their children's development. I pray that you would just bless our church family that's struggling with sickness, illness, with cancer, with these horrible things that are happening to them. I pray that you would just give them grace. Please just give them patience and deliverance. Please, if possible, just give them full recovery. I pray that you would also just bless our church family that needs favor, that needs a blessing for their job or for their relationships. I pray that you would also help us to reach those family members that we care about getting saved, that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit and that we could get them saved. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. That's pretty much all on the back. We have the congratulations to Brother Suheil and Ms. Lori May on the birth of Lorraine Lamadora. She was born on the 9th at 1.53 a.m., 6 pounds, 9 ounces, 20 inches long. Congratulations to them. And that's all I have for announcements. We're going to sing Psalm 139 in our special handout, Psalm 139. All right, Psalm 139. Sing it out nice and loud. Surely thou wouldst lay the wicked. Surely thou wouldst lay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly. For they speak against thee wickedly. And thine enemies stay, thine enemies stay. And thine enemies stay, thine enemies stay. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them thine enemies. I count them thine enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I free with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Great singing, everybody. If the offering plates are being passed around, would you please turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine? Ecclesiastes chapter number nine. Ecclesiastes chapter number nine. Ecclesiastes chapter number nine, the Bible reads, For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrifices and to him that sacrifices not. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything. Neither have they any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished. Neither have they any more apportion forever in anything that is done under the sun. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife, whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me. There was a little city and a few men within it, and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. The word of wise men are heard and quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Ecclesiastes 9. I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley and be with him, Lord, fill him with your Holy Spirit, helping to preach your word unto us, and I pray that you would give us receptive hearts to apply it to our lives. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Verse number 1, the Bible says, For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath. Now, I want to get to verse 3, too, as well, because it kind of connects this thought, but the idea that's being brought up here, when it says in verse 2 there is one event, this is talking about death. And so the Bible is just saying it doesn't really matter how good you are, how bad you are, how much you sacrificed, how much you didn't sacrifice. It doesn't really even matter what happened in your life. We're all going to die. And he's basically just bringing up this as being kind of an evil that happens unto all of us. It says in verse 3, This is an evil among all things that are done unto the Son, that there is one event unto all. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. And so the Bible is just basically saying we're all going to die in a dramatic way. And it's bringing up all kinds of different people and scenarios and situations, righteous, wicked, clean, unclean, sacrifices, doesn't sacrifice, good, sinners, one who swears, and one who fears an oath. So it gives us kind of like all these different scenarios, but then it also brings up this concept in verse 3, Also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live. This is kind of corroborated in other passages in the Bible. You could say in Jeremiah it says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? So according to the Bible, it's very clear that the heart of man is evil. And this is more in the context of our flesh. Of course, when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we become saved, we now have the new man, we have the Spirit, and we have an opportunity to walk in the Spirit, but when we're in the flesh, the Bible is clear that our heart is not good, that our heart is evil. Let's go to a famous passage, go to Romans chapter number 3, keep your finger here, go to Romans chapter number 3. A lot of people would say, well, just follow your heart, or trust your heart, but the reality is that the heart of men is evil, and the heart of man proceeded forth all kinds of things like adulteries, and heresies, and just carnality, and strife, and railings, and just all kinds of evil and lies. This is what the Bible describes. And it even describes people who don't have God, what they're like in Romans chapter 3, verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand that there is none that seeketh after God. So, those who aren't saved, they don't really care about God, they don't care about the things of God, and this is pretty evident in the sense that people that aren't saved pretty much are just not reading the Bible. Like, they don't read the Bible, and really, how do you seek after God? It's reading the Bible. That's how we learn who God is, that's how we have a relationship with God, is by reading the Bible, and the more we read the Bible, the more he communicates to us and talks with us. Of course, we've also been given the Holy Spirit, and so the more Bible that we've read and or memorized, the Holy Spirit can communicate that to us as we go throughout our day, as we go throughout moments in our lives, and he can bring all things to remembrance whatsoever Christ has commanded us. But those who are unsaved, the Bible is basically saying they're just not seeking after God at all. They're not reading the Bible. They're not interested in the things of God. Of course, there could be exceptions to this. I'm just saying, generally speaking, they don't really know what the Bible says. When we go out and knock on doors, and we randomly talk to people, they aren't familiar with the passages of the Bible. They aren't familiar with the stories of the Bible. They aren't familiar with how to be saved. They're not saying, like, oh, yeah, I've already read salvation's a free gift by faith. Yeah, I've already read Romans 4-5. Yeah, I've already read Ephesians 2-8 and 9. I mean, you will find this in foreign countries and the Bible all the way through school. But, generally speaking, again, the world is just not seeking after God. It says they are all going out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. So, according to the Bible, when they're not saved, when they just open their mouth, it's just like a grave. It's just like a sepulcher. They just speak things that are just bringing death and bringing destruction and lies and deceit and poison. And they curse and they have all this bitterness. Verse 15, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And, boy, it just, it's so incredible that so many people in this world just have virtually no fear of God. They just look at the commandments and they're just meaningless to them. They don't care whatsoever. They just live however they want with no recourse, whereas we should fear God. We should be afraid of what God will do to us. And so we need to follow the commandments. And we need to care what God thinks about us, not what the world thinks about us, but what God thinks about us. Now, go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 9, because at the end of the day, we can't always know who's right or wrong or what everybody's thinking or doing. And really God looks at the heart, not on the outward appearance. And so sometimes things may look a certain way, but they're not really exactly what's going on. And that's why Jesus Christ literally said, Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And so when we are judging a situation, we want to judge it according to the Word of God, not necessarily what the world thinks or what other people think or what the majority thinks or whatever. We only want to measure our actions and measure behavior based on the Bible and on the Word of God. But we have to understand that men in general are evil. The Bible says that, and madness is in their heart while they live. So man is just crazy. And I mean, honestly, the world is crazy. Right now, it is crazy. And it's getting crazier. And we're about to have a crazy election. And the degeneracy in our culture is just rampant. Churches are getting weird by the second. People are just losing their mind everywhere. And honestly, it's just going so quickly. I mean, some people even think like, maybe we're headed for the end times pretty soon. And I don't know. It could be 100 years. It could be 50. It could be five. I don't know. But it definitely seems like we're headed in a really dark direction as a nation, as a country, as a whole. Things are getting darker and darker. And we want to be careful that we aren't necessarily just following a multitude to do evil and that we're not just with everybody and their craziness. Hey, I understand. Like when you read Jeremiah, he's like the one sane person in the entire nation. Like the whole nation has just gone berserk and nuts and they hate everything that he says and they want to destroy him. But he's like the only sane person left, virtually speaking. And I'm sure there was other people, but just like for the most part, he's just trying to proclaim his sanity. The other prophet, Urijah, went and hid in Egypt and gets drug out and gets killed, which, you know, I'm not mad at him. I don't blame him. But unfortunately, you know, the good men of God are just being destroyed. You see this with Elijah where the prophets are all hiding in a cave because they're just being destroyed by Jezebel and Ahab and the men of God are just being wiped out just one after the next to where there's virtually just no men of God left and all you have left is crazy. All you have is preachers that will lie to you. All you have is prophets that will deceive you. All you have is prophets and preachers that are just a destructive force and so, you know, you have to be careful because sometimes there's dark times in the world where the only preachers and the only people are kind of crazy. I mean, look at Hophni and Phinehas. They're bad and wicked. And then you basically have the whole house of Eli being judged and destroyed and you just have Ichabod and then you have the Ark of God being taken and you just have like this super dark period of Israel's history and you kind of have to wait for Samuel to be brought up. But then think about this. As soon as Samuel's gone, his sons were evil and wicked and took bribes and so he literally had no one to even pass the priesthood down to. The people reject the priesthood. They wish for a king and they bring in Saul and Saul starts out good really in the face but then ends up not being the same person. Evil spirits are constantly tormenting him and he's not really the same guy anymore and they have some victories. They still have some prosperity but they have a lot of problems and then he even ends up persecuting David all the way to the bitter end to his own destruction and we have to understand that if Saul, I mean, think about this. There wasn't very many good people. Saul's the best. Saul is the absolute greatest guy at the time. He's anointed king and he's humble in his own sight. He's little in his own sight but then even he becomes evil. Even he becomes wicked. Even he persecutes David and goes against the Lord's anointed and tries to destroy him. So it's like if Saul can go bad, I mean, anybody can go bad almost. You know what I mean? And we have to just understand that like this, while there's exceptions, it's not very many in the sense that man, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live but you know what? Eventually everybody's gonna die and that's another evil. Now, I think this is why the Bible's bringing this up as an evil. Think about what the Bible says in I believe in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the last enemy is death and death is an enemy. Death is a sad reality. We're all gonna die. It's all an enemy and it's an enemy to every single one of us. Now, of course, the worst part of the enemy of death is those who die without Christ but those of us that have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? You know, death is a sweetness in many cases for the believer because now, as we were singing, there's no disappointment in heaven. There's no more disappointment in heaven. There's no more heaven issues and fornication and adultery and murder and rape and all these horrible things that are happening. There's no more just death and destruction. There's no more just constant funeral. There's no more constant sorrow and sadness and all the evils that happen unto all of us. No, and in fact, there's no more unsaved people either, okay? You don't have to deal with wicked people anymore. You know, but even on earth, there's never safety. Even David had his sons of Belial always amongst him and then the sons of Belial were with Saul and you just always have evil people mixed in with the good and you can never really relax here on earth. You never know what people are like and it'll really surprise you but it always surprises me. Bad people surprise me because I just, I think the Bible says that after all things are pure and like for me, like I just always am thinking like everybody's good-hearted and everybody's kind and everybody wants to do the right thing and everybody's nice but then it's just like people aren't like that and it just always, it always just surprises me. It always just shocks me when you realize like wow, this person is not good-hearted. This person is not pure-hearted. For to him that is joined to all living, there is hope. For a living dog is better than a dead lion. Now this is kind of a funny verse to me and I've preached on it in the past because I preach like a whole sermon just on the word dog in the Bible but I mean, from my understanding, there's really not a single positive mention of dogs in the Bible. Now I'm sorry to break your heart because I know you probably all love your dog and your chihuahua and whatever but I love your dog as like one of the lowest of the animals. In fact, the analogy is kind of almost insinuating the dog's like the worst and if you think about it like the Bible says without our dogs, okay, you can't bring in the price of a dog into the house of God and that is, the second verse is a sodomite and like if you think about a dog like a dog will kind of just eat anything. It'll eat its own vomit. It's just kind of like a restraint. In fact, you could just give it unlimited food and it'll just eat until it has a bellyache or it'll just eat until it can't even physically eat anymore. So it's in a sense implacable and that's the characteristics of a reprobate. There's someone that's implacable. They can never be placated. They can never be appeased. They'll never be at peace with you. They're just only going to do evil and so that's kind of one of the attributes of someone that is a reprobate like a dog with a specific animal, a lion. Now again, I don't think that we can say that every dog is a reprobate though because when Jesus Christ is talking with a Samaritan woman or a Syrophoenician I believe, she says, she's like asking for a miracle and he's like it's not meat to give the children's bread unto dogs and so in that context it was talking about Gentiles. It wasn't talking about reprobates but in the Jewish context and I'm saying this in the Biblical Jewish context and the Hebrew context not the false religion of Judaism but in the time of the Jews they look down upon Gentiles as being kind of a subhuman kind of they're called just sinners they're just called like they're kind of a lower grade type of person and the Bible is just saying that hey even being kind of the lowest grade the most humble person being the most lowly person that even has committed a lot of sins or screwed up a lot or caused problems even that particular person is better than the greatest person if one's alive and the other one's dead. So just saying like being the most powerful good-looking, handsome, fun person that's dead is not better than the worst person that's alive and this is also illustrated in the animal kingdom right the lion's like the greatest animal it's the top of this apex predator it's the top of the food chain but the dead lion is worthless whereas a living dog I guess it has some value right as long as it can bark you know it barks at the door barks at the enemy and so what the Bible I think is trying to illustrate is this no matter how screwed up your life is it's always better than being dead and that's kind of a crazy thing to think about but like no matter where you find yourself you have an opportunity to do something right when you're dead you literally have lost all opportunity to serve God it's over and that's kind of what's being emphasized here and so just saying like no matter where you find yourself you should just always be serving God and you can see this about good men of God that no matter where they find themselves they're just kind of happy jovial and serving God the apostle Paul thrown into prison for preaching the gospel well they're singing praises at midnight and keep people safe you see Joseph he's thrown in the pit by his brothers then he's sold into slavery then he's thrown out of his house then he's falsely accused thrown into prison then he's serving in the prison then he's elevated to basically the top of the food chain and all of the kingdom but the thing about Joseph is he's always working no matter where he finds himself and no matter how low he goes and you know Joseph is an example of someone that never really made a mistake but people that even make mistakes you know I like John Mark he kind of makes a mistake and like leaves the ministry for a little bit but then he comes back and he's profitable unto the apostle Paul and so even somebody that maybe isn't always been on the right track or gets a little off or gets a little backslidden hey you can always get back you can always go back to church you can always keep reading your Bible hey you can always preach the gospel as long as you're not in solitary confinement okay then you can pretty much preach the gospel to somebody right you can go out there and you can preach the gospel to your neighbor to the person down the street to the soul winning time hey take a missions trip and you know some people they may have even lived a long life and not even been saved like I know people they've gotten saved older in their life but you know and maybe they even have mistakes maybe their life's a little screwed up but you know what you can still serve God and a living dog is better than a dead lion you know so it's just basically saying like no matter how you know lowly you are as a person you can always serve God and that's supposed to be an encouragement to us that no matter what's going on make sure that we're serving God the just man falls seven times and rises up again and so we just have to keep serving God no matter where we find ourselves verse five for the living knoweth that they shall die but the dead know not anything neither have they anymore a reward for the memory of them is forgotten also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished neither have they anymore a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun so the Bible is saying again it's just hammering this point hey we're all gonna die remember we all know that but people that are dead they don't even know that when you die you're gone and when you're gone you're gone and he's just saying hey there's no more reward this is the only time to get rewards and it's sad how many people are giving up on church giving up on reading the Bible giving up on preaching the gospel because you know what this is your one time to get rewards and it doesn't matter where you find yourself what's going on and look the world's waxing it's been waxing a little worse maybe it's gonna wax better in the next few years maybe it'll get better but it could keep getting worse too every time I think about the past and maybe this is me personally but in the last 10-15 years every year in the past was kind of in my mind better than the year after it and I'm like man I just don't feel like I enjoyed that part of my life as much as I should have you know what I mean? I probably could have even gotten more rewards too I probably could have done a little bit more for God and I think that sometimes we should reflect on the past to then motivate us to do the right thing in the present and to think you know what? I can't change that I can't change the past but I can do stuff now so why don't I work on rewards now because pretty soon even who I am and everything about me is gonna be gone no one will remember it's all gonna be forgotten anymore you know this is my time to love this is my time to love my wife this is the time for me to love my children this is my time to love my church this is my time to love the lost and when I'm dead I can't love y'all anymore obviously in heaven we get it I'm just saying under the sun in this context I also can't hate anything anymore you know I can't hate wicked evil reprobates anymore I can't hate sodomites anymore I can't hate them you know there's a time to love and a time to hate now envy is not a good attribute okay but obviously it's just saying like even the bad emotions people can't even do this anymore it's perished and nothing will ever happen again I think again why do we need these verses because some people are just they're just kind of drifting their lives away I mean why is the book of Ecclesiastes even here oh vanity of vanities all is vanity I mean it's just you know we kind of we kind of put so much importance on so many things that have literally no impact on anything we're just so concerned and so consumed with things that literally don't even matter who you all are who you are who you are where you are in life what relationships you have and of course this generation in this world right now is obsessed with things online they're obsessed with social media they're obsessed with status they're obsessed with who knows them they're obsessed with just all of this stuff that is literally meaningless it's meaningless and let me tell you something online is fake folks most of the people online are fake they're fake and phonies and flatterers that's maybe a sermon for you alright fakes phonies and flatterers and I'll tell you what you know who really matters the people that you have in your life you need a love on your wives and your children and the people that you have let's keep reading because it brings us up verse 7 go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepted thy works thy garments be always white and let thy head lack no ointment live joyfully with the wife whom thou loveth all the days of the life of thy vanity which you have given thee under the sun all the days of thy vanity for that is thy portion in this life and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun and you know I say this a lot but I keep I want to tell it again but I just remember when I was young I was always taught the preacher okay and it was just it means like almost every sermon just like Jesus could come before the end of this sermon and I just I'll be honest with you it made me nervous as a young person okay and so I just always prayed I just prayed like God will you just please let me get married I just wanted to be married because I grew up I grew up in a family where we were really close and all of my siblings were married and they seemed like they just had and there was that special companionship there was that special camaraderie there was that unique love and affection that they had and I didn't have that and I just desired that so much and I just really wanted to have a wife and you know what God has blessed me with the greatest wife ever and you know frankly speaking I don't appreciate that as much as I should and I think that we all feel that way I think that we all if we were to be honest we probably don't appreciate our spouse as much as we should and did you notice what it even said here it said specifically that we should be joyfully or live joyfully with the wife whom they love us all the days of the life of thy vanity I mean how many days and let's just be honest all of us okay how many days have we wasted being mad at our spouse the whole day how many days have we wasted just in petty arguments petty beefs petty issues and it's like this is someone that you dedicated your life to to being married to you know we need to have a sense of humility in our relationships and taking ownership for our actions and trying to have as much joy and love as we can in our relationships because we never know if we're gonna live tomorrow we could literally I could die tomorrow just completely unexpectedly just one day here brain aneurysm the next you know one of my grandfathers Jack Jack Moser was my grandfather and it's really sad I never met him my mom was like 20 and just one night heart attack gone and he's pretty young I don't remember the exact age if I said something it wouldn't be true but probably 40s or something like that she was the oldest my mom was the oldest I think she was able to be brought in just for the last few moments of his life but basically just right there in the bedroom heart attack gone and you know what you just never know you just never know and so it's important to live joyfully with your wife every single day and taking advantage of all the opportunity that you have and I think that God doesn't want us to know when we're gonna die so that we'll enjoy our days and I just say this because like anytime I have to go on a trip or anytime I'm about to leave it's like instead of me and my wife enjoying the hour or day that we get before I have to leave it's like it's just like thinking about well but you're gonna leave or something you know and it's like you don't get to enjoy the time you have because you're just thinking about when you're not gonna be together but here's the thing we shouldn't worry about what we can't change right now in the present let's just have fun let's enjoy each other let's have whatever love and affection we can because we can't affect tomorrow anyways we can't affect the future we don't know what's gonna happen no one knows what's gonna happen this is our one time that's why he's saying there's a one event that's gonna happen you're gonna die eventually so you might as well enjoy your spouse as much right now have joy you know if you can have a good meal have a good meal now have a good drink now enjoy your kids enjoy your family you know one day your kids are gonna move out and you know they probably won't talk to you that much I'm not trying to be mean but let's ask you how many times do you call your parents and you're like oh man you know yeah so pretty this is the time to enjoy your children they're like rats you know or like they're kind of jerks or whatever it's like okay but you know what enjoy it enjoy the good and the bad the fun take time now to enjoy what you have and God gave us this you know don't just live this aesthetic lifestyle where you just can't have pleasure you can't have fun you can't have joy you know that's not the Bible that we should just constantly just be plaguing ourselves or having no joy or not taking pleasure in the things that we have but rather we should enjoy what we have right now now Proverbs chapter 5 also brings this idea up in verse 18 it says let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth you only get to be young once and you only get to be newlyweds once and you only get to be young once and it was funny because me and my wife were kind of laughing about this at dinner I think last night and we were just thinking about like wouldn't it be so much fun if you and me could just go on a trip right now without kids and it's kind of because like I don't know why but like we've tried to go on like an anniversary trip so many times and it's just failed so many times like we haven't been on a trip in forever and it's been really hard we were just kind of like laugh crying about the fact that it's like it's like wouldn't it be so much fun if we could just go on a trip right now without kids and like our first five years of marriage we didn't have any children and we were just kind of like looking at each other like what did we do we were like we did not enjoy that part of a relationship as much as we should have we should have enjoyed that so much more and this is what I said I said well you know what in 20 years from now or 15 years from now I'm gonna think like we weren't enjoying now as much as we should have and so I can't fix that but you know what I can do is I can try to enjoy her down more and I can try to think about that and you know my life's really busy and I've got all kinds of crazy things going on all the time and I've really unfortunately probably put my family on the back burner a little bit with a lot of the stuff that we've done but at the same time like I need to also challenge myself and my kids and enjoy and put more effort and energy into them and I think that we all can do that more this is what the Bible's telling us go back if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 9 let us enjoy the things that God has given us now because pretty soon we'll be dead and it won't matter you know why you should enjoy your wife now because in heaven she's gonna be your sister and we don't like our sisters as much as we like our wives okay now I'm not against any of you sisters in here but I don't like you anywhere near as I like my wife okay and so you know and when we're in heaven I'll give my wife my sister a high five and stuff but you know we won't be married anymore so she always says this she's like always wave at you from upper heaven that's what she always tells me so I'll appreciate that or whatever maybe I'll get to go visit her once more right it says in verse 10 whatsoever thy hand findeth the dude do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest hey whatever you have to do just do it the best that you can and pretty soon your hand won't even work anymore you know it's just like this is your time to do it this is your time to put in the effort this is your time to do a good job and whatever you get to do just do a really good job and pretty soon there won't be any work anymore I mean it will work till Jesus comes and you know I'm not saying that there isn't work in heaven in a sense because we're still going to be serving the Lord Jesus Christ and everything like that but from a perspective of like earning wages and reward the Bible is pretty clear like this is our time to earn this is our time to work this is our time to do stuff this is our time to go soul winning hey this is the time to go soul winning you're not under threat of heavy persecution this is the time to go to church when church is even open I mean there are places in this world like China and other parts of this world where going to church is a threat to your life there are places like Germany where going to church the government is going to monitor you even showing up at church I mean you think that going to church is hard right now you have no idea think about what the Bible says about some churches where he says hey the devil is going to cast some of you into prison what if I said hey I have a sober message God gave me a message you'd be like well you're a Pentecostal I'm leaving but just for sake of argument just assume that God actually did literally give me a message to deliver you and I said hey guys here's a letter we got it from Jesus Christ and he says some of you guys are going to prison be thou faithful unto death who's coming to service Sunday morning you know it's like whoa that ramped up and you know this church is a church that's resilient raise God for steadfast Baptist Church people that just say you know what we're going to be steadfast we're going to be unmovable we're always going to bow in the work of the Lord you know because we've gone through a lot of adversity and unfortunately it's never going to cease it's never going to give up entirely there's going to be adversity hatred lies slander all kinds of horrible things are going to be constantly coming towards any church that's trying to serve God effectively I mean you could go to the most liberal church and they'll have people lie and cheat and steal and do all kinds of different crazy things to them and you know you just need to go to church you know you're never going to find a church that is just a perfect reputation five stars all across the board and then they're just hardcore serving the Lord either you know and again some people want to go to those churches have fun but you know if you want to be on the front lines you know sometimes it gets messy sometimes it gets a little bit gritty every once in a while but at the end of the day you know this is the one time to work there's no more device there's no more knowledge there's no more wisdom there's no more grave in the grave hey you can't even learn anymore no more sermons I return us all to the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle of the strong neither yet bred to the wise nor yet riches to the men of understanding nor yet favor to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all this is kind of an interesting verse and I think it kind of parallels well with the book of Job in the sense that Job's three friends they kind of have this doctrine that well if you're godly only good things will happen to you and if you're wicked god's going to basically destroy you and horrible things are going to constantly happen to you but then the bible has Job constantly rebuking them and saying things like well then why are the wicked constantly having all this good stuff happen to them like how does that make any sense and you know how to I mean think about our congress our congress is filled with some really bad people and they're old I mean they're old and rich I mean they're like the rich man that fared sumptuously every single day I mean think about it the rich man fared sumptuously every single day until he lifted up his eyes in hell the bible does not teach this doctrine of well if you're righteous everything good only good's going to happen to you or something like that I mean show me that guy in the bible even who's the guy where it's just only good it's just a half it's just a Sunday after Sunday he's eating ice cream and cups and candy and only good and only favor and only blessing seems like everybody that's good in the bible is heavily chastised persecuted lied about thrown in prison I mean all kinds of horrible things are happening to them right killed slaughtered destroyed put in the stocks thrown in the dung pit I mean beaten I mean have you read the hall of faith it's just like oh man not accepting deliverance that they may obtain a better resurrection saying hey you know what if you're going to lie about me just keep on going just pour it all on right it's funny this is what I have thought about it's like the older I get the less death is scary and if you read there's a book called the foxes book of martyrs has anybody read that or at least a little bit of it if you just kind of read the first part it's kind of interesting because it just talks about the early apostles talking about how they're like you know 90 or 80 I mean they're old and they would be arrested and like they're going to execute them or they're going to torture them to death or something like this and then they would be like afraid to do it and they'd be like no and then the guys are like no you're going to do it like I want to die the martyrs death or whatever because you know when you're 85 or something you know you're like 90 you're just like I'm going to die pretty soon anyways so I might as well just go out with a bang you know what I mean I think there's like a whole movie about this it's like Tommy Lee Jones or something I don't know you can go watch it but I don't know if I recommend it actually but I don't even know what's in it but there's this idea of like this guy has terminal cancer and he's just kind of like you know whatever like I'm going to go out with a bang protecting my son or something like that it's just like hey I kind of get that and the reality is though that some people that are old are wicked and some people that are young that die young are good I mean what did it say the race is not to the swift the best guy doesn't always win nor the battle of the strong the strongest guy the best warrior doesn't always win bread to the wise the person that's the smartest person doesn't always have money doesn't always have a good meal riches are not always the people that are actually wise and understanding I mean in fact in our culture it's like the dumbest people many times have a lot of money they get it they get the riches but then they fly they they grow wings and fly away nor favor to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all verse 12 for man also knows not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them you know you just you could just be doing right serving God and the evil net comes out of nowhere I mean he's kind of painting this picture you know fish they're just doing the little fish thing and then just all of a sudden just a net out of nowhere and they're just taken in the net just destroyed just out of nowhere just obliterated and that just happens in the world where people are just living their life and just BAM you just don't even know you're just taken you're just caught in the snare and you're just caught in evil time and it sometimes just happens suddenly keep your finger and go to Proverbs chapter 29 go to Proverbs chapter 29 now I think the Bible does teach some balance here to what I'm talking about I don't think the Bible is just saying everything's luck or everything's time and chance because then you would have to discount like a large portion of the Bible that's making it clear like that when you're righteous it's going to go well with you and that when you're wicked God's going to the way of transgressors is hard so I think the Bible just basically says like hey for 60-70% of people all of that's going to be the case you're righteous it goes well you live long it's good if you're wicked you die young or whatever but there's probably some and I'm just throwing out numbers but there's probably some percentage of like 15-20-30% that are an exception where they are good and righteous and they just die young or they get persecuted wrongfully and horrible things happen to them and then there's going to be a handful of wicked people that end up making it to the end and survive and I mean we have a lot of older people that are pretty wicked I mean it's not like it's this small tiny sliver of our human population that's old and wicked I mean there's a lot of old wicked people so you have to admit like some decent sized percentage of people and look there's plenty of young people that are constantly dying and being killed I mean young girls that seem to be I mean not necessarily the most godly but they're not like bad people or whatever just getting taken advantage of, killed picked up by a hitchhiker what all kinds of weird stuff happens and it's just like that doesn't seem right how about kids that are killed in school shootings or all kinds of bombings that happen all over the world military excavations and bombings and horrible things that are happening all over Ukraine, Middle East, Turkey, Syria and I don't even know in these communist nations North Korea, China I'm sure there's all kinds of genocides and horrible things and in Africa no one knows because they don't even have a phone or internet I don't know but think about it I mean you're just in the tribe just whatever and then a tribe comes through and then they just massacre the tribe take their goods it could just happen in the night Proverbs 29 verse 6 says this in the transgression of an evil man there is a snare but the righteous does sing and rejoice notice this also that the transgression of an evil man there's a snare there's a trap if you go back to the verse that we're looking at in verse number 12 and it says as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in evil time evil men are constantly setting traps they're constantly setting snares and you know good people fall into their snares good people fall into their traps and sometimes it destroys them sometimes they're delivered we don't know we don't know what's happening but I'll tell you this there is a lot of evil people setting a lot of evil traps out there traps like alcohol traps like fornication traps I mean the Bible talks about in Proverbs 5, 6 and 7 the whorish woman who's constantly on every street corner setting a snare and a trap for young men and there are a snare and a trap at all kinds of bars and all kinds of adult places that you can go to where young men should just stay far away from the bar should just stay far away from these ungodly institutions should stay far away from the whorish woman which is a snare and is a trap where there's all kinds of other snares and traps out there financial snares where people want to sell you a timeshare don't buy a timeshare dude I can't even tell you how I know people personally that have bought them and I'm just flabbergasted I'm just thinking like what do you mean you bought a timeshare and they're like I don't have a timeshare we bought two what? no why? I mean it's just a trap you go to the used car dealership and I'm not saying all of them but I'm saying sometimes there's a lot of traps there lending institutions there's all kinds of traps there lawyers traps doctors traps contractors traps okay I mean just even the plumber even the electrician even just everywhere there's just all these traps how about how many churches are just a literal trap the venus fly trap just come on in and I'm just going to trap you with heresy false doctrine all kinds of different traps that exist there's just so much evil and we have to be careful because honestly even if you're following the bible perfectly and of course when you are following the bible you're going to avoid a lot of traps it's the light unto our path it's the lamp unto our feet it's going to guide us in a very very very dark world where there's land mines everywhere and so we have to be very careful what decisions that we make it says in verse number 13 this wisdom have I seen also under the sun and it seemed great unto me there was a little city and a few men within it and there came a great king against it who built great bulwarks against it neither was found in it a poor wise man and he by his wisdom delivered the city yet no man remembered that same poor man then said I wisdom is better than strength nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard the words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools so the bible says wisdom is better than physical strength and there's a famous movie I think a lot of people have seen like The Princess Bride who's ever seen that movie yeah a lot of people have seen that movie it kind of has an example of this at one part of the film where the main protagonist is outsmarting or outwitting somebody that has more strength than them showing that wisdom is actually better in some cases than physical strength how about David and Goliath how about David? he's a better warrior than David he's more experienced he's stronger but David outwits him by using a slingshot you don't bring a knife to a gunfight and you know what? David brought the gun Goliath had his spear had his sword and he just stayed far away from giants and he just kind of shoot from afar and he slaughtered him with the rock he trusted in the Lord and a lot of the people were scared of that Goliath a lot of people were afraid to fight that particular Goliath that particular giant but we have to trust in the Lord and we trust in wisdom there's going to be battles out there where people are literally stronger than us people may even be smarter carnally than us they may have more money than us they may have more in number than us but the wisdom of God can allow us to have the victory hey there's this city they're grounded they're going to be destroyed but you know what's better than fighting them is wisdom and you know what? sometimes it's not even just you outsmarting them it's just trusting in the Lord and allowing him to deliver you there's a lot of places in the Bible where wisdom didn't help where strength didn't help God helped how about when they were up against the Red Sea? they're doomed Egypt has weapons it's going to be a great slaughter but then God opens up the Red Sea and just allows them to just walk on dry ground and you know what? sometimes in our lives we need miracles I feel like God's given our church several of these miracles throughout our history and we have to embrace the fact that God ultimately is the one that wants the glory anyways so it's not even necessarily us being so smart and so wise outsmarting the enemy and out deceiving them or something but we have to trust the Lord and allow him to work and allow him to do his thing and allow him to take care of situations and not for us to figure out how to fix it ourselves now this last verse it says this well I want to say one more thing on verse 17 the words of the wise men are heard in quiet you know you shouldn't necessarily always go to the church that's the biggest sometimes even a smaller church is a really good church the sizes of church church sizes doesn't really matter but at the end of the day generally speaking the wisdom of God is not going to be very popular now that doesn't that's not to say that big churches are bad it's not to say that little churches are bad but in general we're probably going to have to find someone in a smaller group that's going to have the great wisdom of God and it's not going to be on TV probably in some coliseum some stadium you know it's not like hey if Pastor Shelley rented out AT&T Stadium we'd fill it up or something you know we might have 300 or something we might have 400 or something you know if everyone from our church shows up but you're not going to fill it up with 80,000 or 100,000 people you know and yet Beyonce will come or something some singer will come and they'll fill it up but there's no wisdom there there's no there's no understanding of the things of God there's nothing that's even going to bless the people yeah they might sing and yell and have a good time for a few minutes but it's all vanity and you know the thing about church is it actually can make you better by getting wisdom learning more what the scripture says and even if you don't even get that much wisdom out of a sermon you at least were there to praise God a little bit you were there to just draw closer to the Lord and that had some verses in it and you know what I've noticed is a lot of people they get a lot out of preaching that's not even what's said like somehow just verses they're just like seeing the verse and then the Holy Ghost is just making application for them and it's like I didn't even say anything I'm not it wasn't about me it was just about verses being read out loud and you know that's really powerful and so it's important to go to church I remember even going to churches that I thought were kind of like so-so not really getting that much out of the preaching but what I said in the sermon just really you know sparked this thought for me and they made a change for me and I'm thinking like great you know I'm like wow I'm glad that we were there then you know I'm glad that we at least went to church and we were getting provoked by the Word of God verse 18 wisdom is better than weapons of war but one sinner destroyeth much good so unfortunately building things creating things establishing things can take a lot of time take a lot of effort take a lot of energy but boy it just takes almost nothing to destroy things in fact it could take a great army of people to build something and it just takes one or two guys with box cutters to just take it down just like that right I mean just think just think about how many people and how many engineers and how many construction workers and just like that a little jet fuel just took it all down right it was not a controlled demolition but even if it was a controlled demolition just think about how in almost an instant I mean building seven not struck by an airplane no obvious reason why it would have a structural integrity issue fell in seven seconds flat folks I mean how long do you think it took to construct building seven I mean I guarantee that took years of planning years of material purchasing years of construction years of decorating years of remodeling I mean we're just talking about thousands maybe tens of thousands of people involved in this building and in just seven seconds it's just gone just like that and this can happen in our personal lives this can happen anywhere where someone builds some great thing how about like Jack Hyles built this great church First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana and then it just takes one Jack Scott to just ruin all of it now obviously it didn't ruin it obviously it's still a good church it still has a good pastor I'm for that church but boy he definitely put a big dent in it and again what does it say one center destroyeth much good sometimes it's not a full destruction like building seven sometimes it's just a big dent okay sometimes it's just a big gash into something and you know there's always going to be sinners we're all sinners there's always going to be people that make mistakes disappoint cause problems but boy how much destruction sin brings into the world you know you could you could live your whole life and have such a great marriage and then just one night of adultery could just ruin all of it and you know you could just live your whole life and be doing a lot of great things and then get drunk one night drive home and kill somebody or kill yourself in a drunk driving accident think about how many people have been killed in a drunk driving accident that weren't in the vehicle with the drunk driver they were just simply just driving home maybe even from church maybe even from the restaurant maybe from soccer practice maybe from the hospital they're just driving down the road and then just someone just comes out of nowhere and just destroys people just destroys their lives and now just like one sinner destroyeth much good and you know this just exists everywhere in society where sin is just destructive and now even a singular individual can just be such a destructive force the devil comes but to steal, kill and destroy and that's why we have to be careful we have to be careful with ourselves we have to be careful with the people that we allow into our lives and unfortunately the reality is that there's gonna be times when a sinner just destroys a bunch of stuff and think about this the devil was not content going to hell by himself the devil wanted to drag as many people down with him as possible and there's a lot of people that are evil and wicked and satanic and they are not content just destroying themselves they want to drag as many people down with them as possible I also have noticed this and this is kind of frustrating is when sometimes when people they get a little backslidden or disgruntled or offended just insert whatever just insert whatever reason and they leave a church they can't seem to just leave it quietly what they have to do is they kind of feel bad about it and so they have to justify it by trashing the church or trashing the people at the church or trashing the pastor or trashing the program or trashing something about it and it's not even that it's really that true it's just that that person feel better about the fact that they either left church or quit church or going to a lame church or whatever and so they just have to kind of just trash everything about it so that they feel better about the fact that they left or that they are no longer there or different or whatever because in their mind while they would never admit this they kind of know that they probably didn't do something right or they're probably not making every action that they make even when it's wrong they're always going to have an excuse they're always going to have some reason why they did something but instead of just taking accountability they basically project on everybody else and it's their fault, right I'm a bad wife or bad husband because you're a bad spouse it's not that they're a bad person it's not like they made a mistake it's just you screwed up, you did this and this is what you'll notice when people do something wrong they're just projecting whatever the other person did as a distraction to try and take away from whatever decisions they made or what's actually going on and evil wicked people they'll just constantly focus in on distraction away from what's really going on or what the real issue is and they just change the narrative they just lie and just make things up and it's like one person leaves a church okay, but it never seems like especially in our style of church that that happens they have to drag as many people out with them as they can, right they want to tear other people down with them and they want to destroy much good it's like, look there's nothing wrong with going to another church but why do you have to tear down a church like it just doesn't really make that much sense you know, obviously we should try to do good unto people do good unto Christians try to help now look, when someone's a raging heretic or, yeah they need to be exposed problems need to be dealt with you know, we want to get things correct but you know, when you have a good church you want to make sure that you're not just trying to tear everybody down I've had people contact me and say like, hey, I'm kind of upset about this situation or this pastor and I'm always just like, well, why don't you give them grace, go talk to them, try to fix it you know, we shouldn't be like, yeah tear it down, yeah, whatever you know a lot of people are going to do that and unfortunately one sinner is going to destroy much good because often misery loves company misery loves company and you know what, we shouldn't drag other people down with us you know, we should not allow people to be suffering you know, as a husband it's important that you're not dragging your wife down with you if she wants to go to church and you don't, let her go to church I mean, hey if you're the wife let him go to church let your kids go to church let your kids read the Bible go soul winning don't drag them down don't try to stop them from doing things just because you don't want to do them we need to encourage people to do the right thing and if we're the one that's backslidden hey, let's fix it let's not just keep causing more problems and more destruction and whatever because ultimately at the end of the day there's already enough to survive the destructive forces in this world let us be ones that are edifying and building up and doing good and doing right let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for this book and for the wisdom that you've given us I pray that you would just help our church to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world and that we would continue to grow in wisdom grow in grace that we would enjoy the wives and the children that you've given us that we would make sure that we recognize that this is our one time to do the works and that you would motivate us to have a good attitude every single day in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen Alright, for our last song we're going to go to song number 134 my anchor holds song 134 my anchor holds song 134 my anchor holds song 134 my anchor holds let's sing it out nice and loud on the first though the angry surges roll on my tempest driven soul I am peaceful for I know and wildly though the winds may blow I'm an anchor safe and sure that can and wherefore endure and it holds my anchor holds though you're wildest then I'll give you the Geronimo and the I'm an anchor safe and sure By his grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Mining ties around me swing, perils burn within the deep. Angry clouds or shade the sky, and the tempest rises high. Still I stand the tempest shot, for my anchor grips the rock. And it holds, my anchor holds, though your wildness then will give. On my barks so small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor holds. I can feel the anchor fast, as I meet each sudden blast. And the cable row of sea, bears the heavy strain between. Through the storm I safely run, till the turning of the tide. And it holds, my anchor holds, though your wildness then will give. On my barks so small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor holds. On the last troubles holds, without a soul, creaks like billows o'er me roll. Tempers seek to lure astray, storms obscure the light of day. But in Christ I can be bold, I'm an anchor that shall hold. And it holds, my anchor holds, though your wildness then will give. On my barks so small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed.