Turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes 7 as we continue through our study in this wonderful book. A book that I believe is maybe contrary to the experience of others. I believe it's written about true joy, the good life. Life found in a vain life, in the vanity of life, in the vanity of reality. Let's read Chapter 7, verses 1-14 together, just to remind ourselves, to refresh ourselves of the context. A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than into the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools, but this is also vanity. God bless you. Surely, oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for angry lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not in wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. But the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money. And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what He has made crooked? And the day of prosperity be joyful, and the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other. So that man may not find out anything that will be after him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please help me. In this moment of weakness and difficulty with health and mental fogginess, being sick, Lord, I pray for healing now so that I can properly and faithfully expound Your Word and encourage and equip the saints here today. In a text that's really precious to me, it's near and dear to my heart, but I know even more so to You, Lord, it's Your Word. It represents You. Lord, let us glean the wisdom. Let us consider the wisdom here today that we have. A wisdom that really I believe is hard. It's something that needs to be mined out. It needs to be worked through, chewed on, meditated upon. It's one of those passages that really one can spend a lifetime discovering and figuring out that might become new and fresh to them much later as they work through it. I pray that your saints would be encouraged today for those who are struggling and suffering. I pray for those who might find themselves in a position, as my brother taught this morning on assurance, that maybe they're struggling with their assurance in their faith. I know many wrestle in here today with that. That they would be emboldened in their faith. That they would see it in more practical ways today through your Word, through this particular passage, and what it means to be a Christian, what it means to walk with God. I pray for those who might be in the house of mirth. Those who might think they're fine. Who are feasting and celebrating when they should be mourning and weeping. who are arrogant and proud when they should be broken and contrite. I pray You would soften the heart, Lord, that Your Word would have its work in them like a double-edged sword that it is, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, that it would discern the intentions and the thoughts of their heart and break through in only a way You can by the power of Your Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen. Last couple of Lord's Days ago, we went through the first few verses in this passage, and just by way of reminder for those who are visiting today, if you're unfamiliar with the text of Ecclesiastes, the theme, I believe, of the book is really oriented around two people groups. There are people who live under the sun, who live life alone under the sun. And they're categorized in this book as the wicked. And the reason why is because they don't trust in God's revelation. They don't rest in God and His revelation. And then there's another category of group of people in here who eyes are above the heavens in the sense that they trust in the revelation of God. They meditate on it as they just prayed. They chew on it. And it guides their life. under the sun. Both live in what seems to be a vain life, a vaporous life, a life that is meaningless in many ways and goes away and is fleeting, right? Some have experienced many of the things in this text. It's so practical. This is why I love it so much. They've experienced the vaporous, vacuous reality of life. They've worked super hard on something just to watch it disappear, in some cases overnight, or slowly erode over time. Something they've dedicated a lot of time and energy into, only to see it vanish like a vapor. And many people, when they're in a point of despair, and I know during the holidays it's especially hard, maybe you're remembering loved ones at this time that you've lost. Maybe you're in a tough time in your marriage. Maybe you're in a tough time with relationships with your family members. I know that I am. I'm personally mourning and weeping over my relationships with my father. and my grandmother and many people on my dad's side of the family. It's sad, you know, every time my mom comes out to visit, she was just here last week, I was just thinking how often most of our conversations as we want to just spend time and enjoy our time together is mourning about our relationships with our family members. And the sadness around that and the brokenness around that. I know many of you guys have struggled and suffered with that, right? So this text has a lot of very practical wisdom for us. But what's very interesting, as I noted a couple of weeks ago, is that the wisdom is not really coming from what most of the world would encourage, right? The world is not encouraging you to be a mournful person, right? Yes, a good name is good. But look at this, it says, the house of mourning, this is where it's better to be. Why? Why would Solomon say such a thing? than the house of feasting? Why is it better to sorrow than to laugh? Be joyful. Be happy. We know that throughout Scripture that feasting and happiness and joy are good things. As a matter of fact, I just mentioned that this morning in Galatians 5. Joy and peace, laughter, that truly experience is a gift of God. It's something to be appreciated. It's a blessing. Why would Solomon here, and this is the question that we need to ask, why is Solomon saying here, Not in this case, though. Not in this context. Those things are not a blessing. As a matter of fact, if you're among this group of people who is not sorrowful, not mourning, but you're in a house of mirth and feasting, you're of the wicked. You need to be sad. That's interesting to me. The heart of fools is in a house of mirth, he says in verse 4. Then he goes on to say more positively, that it's better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than the song of fools. We know that that's the case, right? As we worked through this text last week, think about it. We much more gravitate to the song of fools. What is the song of fools? It's just going with the stream, going with the flow. It's harder to take the path less trodden. That fork in the road that's full of bramble bush, right? And the Lord's like, go that way. That's the path of righteousness. And you're like, well, that's really rough looking. There's some serious cliffs I have to traverse. There's danger over here. If you guys have read Pilgrim's Progress, Then there's this turning point where he could go hang out with all these people where they're just lackadaisical about life. They don't care about life. They're just enjoying it. What is that place called? What is it? Vanity Fair. Yes, thank you. Hanging out in Vanity Fair. They're caught up in that. And there's all these pitfalls and traps throughout the pilgrim's progress. He's saying, listen to the rebuke of the wise. Well, as I shared, that's not easy to take sometimes. It's not easy to hear, right? And oftentimes, it's not delivered in the most appropriate way or in the best way it could have been. And we have a tendency to focus more on the way it was delivered instead of what was delivered. We have a hard time receiving rebuke and correction. And then there's this concept of the crackling of the thorns under the pot is like a laughter of fools. Now anybody who has evangelized for any period of time in their life would know that just as Clayton mentioned this morning about people who are just not a believer, they know they're not a believer, they're not trying to be a believer, they mock, laugh, and scoff. at God's way, at God's path. You quote the Bible and they're like, yeah, well, this kid I'm talking to over the last couple of days who wanted to kill his son just a few days ago, right, is one of these fools. He's like a crackling thorns under a pot. He just totally mocks the idea of Christianity. He mocks the idea of God's way, of God's wisdom. I asked him, I said, well, he's like, I don't know why I had a son. It wasn't supposed to happen. And I said, well, you don't understand how the world works. Read Genesis 1. I'm not a Christian. That's not what I asked you. Read Genesis 1. And I want to see what you come back with. I'm curious to see what your thoughts are. You keep saying this should have never happened. And I said, Genesis chapter 1 has answers to those questions that you keep saying should never have happened, should have died, my girlfriend shouldn't have gotten pregnant, so on and so forth. And I'm like, that's okay. Read Genesis chapter 1. And I finally just recorded it on my phone and sent it to him. I said, read it. And I'm going to test you, right? I'm going to ask you some questions. What do you think it says? He says, I don't know, it's all weird to me. I go, you're weird. Think about it. That's all weird to me. He's mocking and he's making fun of it. That's just weird. That's strange. It's strange because You live life under the sun. See, the whole world has molded and shaped his worldview into thinking that, you know, if I've gone through all the proper precautions and protected myself, I shouldn't have been able to impregnate this girl. Where I said, you know, we're going to get into Genesis 2 and 3, we're going to take them through a full lesson if the Lord allows it. Where I said to him is, God creates everything. That should be your primary takeaway. Notice that God is in control of everything. He created everything, including you and I. And in Genesis chapter 2, he talks about a really special intimate relationship between a man and a woman, Adam and Eve. And at the end of Genesis chapter 2, Jesus quotes this. He said that the man was to leave his mother and father and to be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. They'll be joined together. This is God's creation. It's a beautiful thing. It's not good for man to be alone. So He created a woman for Adam, Eve to be his wife, and the two will be joined together. You did something outside of the created order. That's weird. And when you did it, you're living in a cursed state. I said there are two people in this world. I'm literally, just the notes right out of my sermon for this guy. Two people in this world, fella. The cursed and the blessed. Solomon talks about that. Jesus talks about that. The whole Bible is about that. And then there are the redeemed, right? So you have the blessed, the righteous, who follow God's way. Those are the redeemed ones. But then we have this problem with the fault. The reason why you think it's okay to kill a child, like this is going to make your life better somehow. And he's like, well, my mom's so mad at me. I'm like, who gives a rip? Is she happy to be a grandma? How about that? Are you going to do the right thing and marry this woman or at least provide for her as a man should? And no, he's so hung up like, I can't believe I have a son now because he's really young. He's a minor, right? He thinks it's strange. That I'm telling him not to kill his child. He thinks it's strange that I'm talking to him about a God who created everything, and sustains everything, and owns everything, and told him about Jesus and the way Paul describes Him in Colossians. That He's the author of all things. That by Him and through Him, everything was created for Him. Jesus did that. Oh man, what? And then He keeps going back to you. I can't believe I have a son. I can't believe this shouldn't have happened. And then you go, but God created everything. He also knit your son in your girlfriend's womb. That God opens and closes the womb. Can you imagine that? Isn't that amazing? See, what you look at as a curse, God calls a blessing. You know, there are other parts of Scripture that talk about that. Isaiah says, what you call evil, God calls good. And what you call good, God calls evil. You're literally going against the created order. What you call weird, God calls awesome. And God calls you weird for calling what He calls awesome. You're a weirdo. Think about that. Isn't that the exact pattern in Ecclesiastes? You live life under the sun, you live under this limited vantage point. You're going to be left to trying to figure things out all on your own. You're going to be living, quite literally, in a cursed, wicked state. That is the pattern of Ecclesiastes. I can't think of a better way to describe it. Those who live according to God's law, live according to the heavenly perspective, will live life appropriately under the sun. That's how we are to interpret every single one of these texts. Just to remind you, in chapters 1-2, I believe this is the outline of the book, we find our creaturely limitations as we live under the sun. Man is powerless to prescribe, meaning, or enjoy anything. Think about that. Here's this kid who can't even enjoy the birth of his firstborn son. Because he's so hung up on all the other worldly things that are going on. It's going to limit his capability of doing the things that he wants to do. I'm telling him to man up and provide. And he's like, well, this isn't supposed to happen. It's so hard. My mom's mad at me. And now I'm worried about my life because I'm a drug dealer and these people want to kill me. Right? So I won't be able to run as effectively. I'll put his life and my girlfriend's life in danger." And you're like, well, you already did that by first of all being a drug dealer, then having sex outside of marriage, and going completely against the created order. Everything got created. You are living in a cursed state, my friend. You need to repent and turn from the cursed state and follow Christ. That's the continuous message. You can't even enjoy the birth of your firstborn son. You're so hung up on all these worldly issues under the sun. Chapters 3-5 talk about the Creator's sovereignty over all things. Isn't that interesting? Notice the pattern here that I'm sharing with this kid. Everything is the Creator's. His will is beyond our limited understanding and comprehension of the creature. I'm sharing with this young man, I say, listen, you might not understand how this all works. Sadly, they actually tried to abort the child once, and the child survived. I don't know exactly what the details are, but I said to him, if that's not any indication, not only was it a first attempt, But then a second, they were scheduling it, and then she went into labor. I mean, think about how crazy that is, right? And what he keeps saying back to me is, this wasn't supposed to happen. He's not supposed to be born. He's not supposed to be alive. What did I respond with? You don't understand the sovereignty of the Creator. Oh, it's His will that will be done. I responded to Him exactly that way. I said, oh, whatever God desires to happen, it will. God's will will occur. Your child will be born. He preserved your child's life twice for your murderous attempts. He preserved His life and sustained Him. And now you need to go, wow, I should probably bow the knee to the Creator and go, man, I need to listen to what this pastor guy has to say. Furthermore, chapters 6-8, verses 15, which is where we're getting close to bookending off here closely. God controls and empowers joy. This is really fascinating. In a sense, this vanity under the sun can only be meaningful and enjoyed under the sun by those who fear God. So here's a man who should be overwhelmed with joy in his experience in his life. And he hates it. Hates every bit of it. He does not receive this blessing from God. He doesn't see it as an arrow in his quiver sent to him. A son especially, right? Raising up another godly man. We need godly men in this world, right? To be good examples. I know I shared him. I said, I have four sons. I'm trying to do the same. You know, I'm not always the best at that. I make mistakes. But I see them as blessings, not curses. I rejoice in this time that I have as a father, to be a father, and appreciate it so much. And I look forward to their futures, and I want to invest in their futures. I want to be an active part of their lives throughout their whole lives. I want to set up their lives. I want to set up my grandchildren's lives and my grandchildren's grandchildren's lives. Greg and I talk about that all the time in our entrepreneurial ventures, right? I want that blessing and I want to appreciate that. Unless you fear God, you cannot, which is really interesting to me. Someone could amass all the wealth in the world and never experience the blessing of that. Never have any joy in that. I mean, isn't that the case with most of our celebrities and famous musicians and so on, right? Think about that. He gives the power for us to enjoy it when we fear Him. And then lastly, the conflict is resolved in chapters 8.16 through 12.14. It gives you a proper perspective, and that proper perspective changes everything. Use this as the template as we go through. And by the way, use that as a template when you preach the gospel. I'm telling this to this young man the whole time. Unless you have this perspective, unless you fear the living God, and you will never have that unless you have Christ. You will never have that unless you have Christ. You'll be like the man. And it was really fascinating. I'm sitting there with my kids. You know how stuff just comes to you. It's really funny. I said to him, he said, why would I read the Bible? And I said, have you ever tried to build a Lego set without the instruction manual? What does that mean? He says, you know. I said, well, think about it. You ever done like a really complex Lego set? You know, let's say like a 4,000 piece or anybody have out there built one of those? Yeah, I have a few, right? Let's say it was even 300 or 400. I asked my kids, I said, so let's say you get the box, you get the set and you don't have the, you know, you just throw the destruction manual aside and they were making fun of their brother like, yeah, Pierce does that sometimes. They were throwing you under the bus. Pierce says this to me. I said, how is it going to turn out? How is it going to turn out? And my kids, profound, right? Theologians. They said, horrible. It's not going to turn out. Is it going to look like the picture? No. And my son even went further. He goes, you could maybe try to figure it out, kind of get it on the outside, but the insides are going to be all messed up. The structure isn't going to be there. I'm like, that is profound when you think about that. Apart from this, You might have it all together on the outside. Apart from this instruction manual that God has given us, it might look okay. You might be smiling. You might have sweet Facebook posts making it look like your life's going great. Family's always doing good. Everybody's smiling all the time. You know, that facade. But on the inside, the structure's all messed up. And I said, how long will it last? No, no, no, it'll fall apart. It won't work, they said. I'm like, profound, these theologians. So I said to this kid that I'm going back and forth with, so you build the Lego set, right? He's like, yeah, I'm not a Christian, though. I'm not trying to get into all that stuff. You're not going to read and study the Bible like the instruction manual for your life, which is far more complex than a Lego set? You're just going to reject that? You know what the inside of your life is going to look like? I just quoted my kids. It's going to fall apart. It's going to have no structure. You won't have peace. Why? Because things will just be falling apart. You try to put one piece on one end and it just falls apart on the other. You guys know what I'm talking about. Anybody who tries to go outside of it. I said, you know, Lego has these people who develop these sets. They're called master builders. I love that. So you know God's the Master Builder. I had you read Genesis 1. I want you to read and I want you to learn about the Master Builder of all things. Jesus Christ is that Master Builder as the Gospel of John says. As Paul quotes in Colossians, as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 1, He holds all things together by the word of His power. He's the sustainer of all these things. Yet, this dude's just like, nah, man, I'm going to do me. Okay. How's that going to go for you? How's the cursed state working out for you so far? You want to murder your son twice. You're leaving your girlfriend now to just basically raise this child all on her own. Your mom is upset with you because you're doing things outside of marriage you shouldn't be doing. Your family is, you got people who want to kill you because you're a drug dealer and you did a drug deal that went bad. Life's going great for you, man. Awesome. Under the sun. And what is he terrified? The reason he wanted to take the life of his child is because he's worried about these people taking his child and killing them anyway. Pretty sad state. I mean, good grief. He's not following the master builder's instructions. Ecclesiastes takes it one step further. You could follow all of the master builder's instructions that you want, and things are still going to go rough in your life. That's what I believe the point is here. I believe the very thing that Solomon's trying to drive home is there is wisdom when things go wrong. Even if you're following the master builder's instructions. There is wisdom to be discovered. Right? There's wisdom to be known. And it's through all the hard stuff, like trying to maintain a great name and building and developing a great name. Like seeing things from God's perspective so your heart is rent and broken and that you want to mortify your sin in your life. That you're broken in spirit. You have a contrite heart. You're willing to hear and learn and listen. And you're willing to do the hard thing when maybe other people aren't. You're not capitulating. You're not falling over. You're willing to receive a rebuke and a correction from a friend, a person who loves you and cares about you, no matter how bad they said it. Maybe, you know, didn't come across the right way. Think about all those hard things. And note here in something I brought up last week, this stood out to me and blew my mind when I read it, and it forced me to dig a lot deeper. Verse 13 says, consider the work of God. This is the very work. The master builder says, who can make straight what He has made crooked? The Master Builder Himself, through this beautiful work, the work of His hands, who He took great joy in in Genesis 1, beheld it at the end of all creation and said, wow, this is very good. Very good. Is now making things crooked. What does that mean? That should stand out to us. Lord, You don't make things crooked, You make things straight. We're the ones that are making things crooked. It should force us to go, wait a second, there's wisdom to be gleaned from God's crooked work. That's amazing when you think about it. And it's that crooked work in your life, like bitter providences, we call them, I believe that's exactly what Solomon's getting at. There are bitter providences that God uses in your life, these sufferings, these trials, these difficulties, these challenges, to do what? to show you His glory, to draw you to Himself. Think about all of the stories throughout all of Scripture where that exact pattern came out. One that comes to mind is Joseph. What did Joseph say to his brothers when they were weeping, begging for his forgiveness when they come to realize who he was? Joseph said, oh, what you meant for evil God meant for good. That God orchestrated it in this particular way for some greater purpose beyond our imagination, beyond our comprehension. And it was good. Very good. So with that said, let's dive in to v. 8. Better is the end of the thing than its beginning. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not wisdom that you ask this." I really try to think hard about what in the world Solomon's talking about here. Because some of this stuff is really hard to understand. I mean, think about it. You might be using a different version, and if you look at the various versions, there's some kind of nuance, there's some change in the various versions from what I just read. Let me drive home what I think Solomon's trying to convey here, based on everything that I just laid the groundwork for. Think of the different examples of things that were not good in the beginning, but better in the end. I'm a brewer by trade. Many of you might not know that. But I'm not a full-time vocational pastor, fully supported. So I'm bi-vocational. I work a second job. I'm a brewer. I work on a brewing staff. I work at Redling Brewing Company, and I'm actually on staff there as a cellarman. What the cellarman does is, once the wort—not to get into all technicals—is brewed, it's sent over to the fermenters, and I manage the fermentation process. all the way to the conditioning process, and I transfer it from fermenters to bright tanks. I condition the beer, carbonate it, and then I can it or I package it into cakes. And so I have a really important job. I'm one of three, four people on staff there, but one of three that have very specified technical jobs. And I have a very important job, and that job means either sink or swim for the company. If I mess up, hundreds of thousands of dollars go down the drain. That's scary. Now, I say that because a good example of something that goes from a rough product that's not good, becomes better over time. You guys all know this. In the Bible, wine and strong drink are examples of that. And I believe strong drink And scripture means beer, because beer is an ancient fluid. Beer has been made for thousands of years. I think it dates back almost 6,000 years. It's one of the oldest. They think it's even older than cereal. I don't know. It's an old beverage, and it was used predominantly for sustenance. But also, it's called strong drink. It was made for enjoyment, to make the heart merry, just like wine. Wine, as you guys well know, becomes better over time, doesn't it? As it ages. So, no one in their right mind would ever say, oh, the wine was so much better when it was fermenting, or the strong drink was so much better when it was fermenting, or just brand new condition than it was when it was packaged and it sat on a shelf for a few years or longer. Right? It gets better as it gets older, as it goes, right? So appreciating the finer things in life takes time, I would say. Again, let me repeat that. Appreciating the finer things in life takes time. You're either going to be the keg stand kind of fool, a shotgun beer kind of person, or one who appreciates a well-developed beer that's sat on a shelf and aged, or one that has been crafted finely that takes a lot of time to make. As a brewer, there are two families of yeast, ales and lagers. Ales, the turnaround time is a matter of a couple weeks. Lagers, many of you might not know this, take months to produce and to do well. This is the reason why many of the smaller craft breweries don't produce lagers. And this is also the reason why the top four beer producers in the world are lager producers. Coors, Budweiser, Pabst, and Miller. It takes a long time. The way they used to have to do it in the past is they would produce the wort, they would put it in barrels and lager it in caves over the winter time, and they would release it in the spring or early summer. It takes months to produce a good lager. And some of you out there, I'm about to bust your chops with beer, on your beer knowledge, for those who drink beer. If you think that these doused with hops beers, or these juicy beers, or these stouts are way better than these watered down lager beers, you're dead wrong. The lagers are far harder to make, and you can't disguise a well-produced lager with a bunch of hops, can you? With a bunch of juices, can you? So when you think about it next time, have a Pabst. We'll have a Pabst together, and you'll drink one of the best lagers you've ever drank. And you might be laughing at me right now. True story, I watched Pabst. Blue Ribbon, by the way, the reason why it's called Blue Ribbon is because it's the winningest beer as far as I understand in America in terms of competitions. I watched in 2016 the Pabst Brewing Company take a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the light lager category. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. The next example I can think of is life in general. Okay? Life in general. Think about it. Would you say life in general was better in the past than it is now and maybe in the future? Would you be the kind of person that would say, you know, life was so much better back then. How many times have you caught yourself saying something like that? Right? Amen. There we go. Yep. Maybe you've achieved some triumph, some goal. Maybe it's taken you a long time, and you got it, and then that thing happened. They talk about guys who've won the Super Bowl, or some great award, where they've worked super hard for it their whole life, and they get it, and there's this awesome moment, this exhilaration, this moment. And then it's over, and what happens to them? They're always looking back at the glory days. We call that the glory day factor, right? They look back at the glory days and they're always, oh, it was so much better then than it is now. Well, I would say that that's a lie. That's a lie. Life as it develops should get better in some sense. And it gets better according to Solomon's wisdom here. I think what he's compelling us to look at is it gets better as you've gone through those trials and tribulations. Don't look to that one key moment, that glorious award that you may have won or that experience that you may have. I've heard of musicians who work super hard, they sacrifice a ton of things to go spend 30 minutes in front of a group of people to receive all this glory and exhilarating moment, and then only to get back the van again, pile into the car, right, and go to some next gig, trying to get the same thing, and they never walk away from it. They're always trying to find that exhilarating moment. Whereas someone who is a musician, maybe they've experienced that, is looking at that part as a developmental moment in their life. that has made them to who they are today, and they're growing and learning in the grace of the Lord. I can't tell you how many times as a general manager at 24 Hour Fitness, when I would oversee, it was probably like 120, 150 employees, and most of them were very young. I can't tell you how many times I had these conversations with these younger folks who were like, you know, Jeremy, I never saw myself being that person who just checks people in at the door. You know, we call them the scan man. Yeah, you didn't think that all that schooling that you went through got you to this wonderful point in your life where you scan people in, you had to work the overnight shift. Yeah, this is just not what I thought it would amount to be. I had a gal sit down in front of me one day, she's failing in her sales job, just failing miserably. And I'm like, hey, listen, I have a limited amount of slots for the sales position. And I had some intel that they were in a rough situation, so I wanted to help her out, like get her on her feet. And I knew that as soon as she'd get on her feet, this kind of person, she would just excel. She interviewed awesome. And in her interview, she gloated about her two master's degrees. And then when I'm holding her accountable, she's began to gloat about those things again. I'm like, no, you need to follow what I asked you to do. You need to follow through with the things. I'm giving you the steps to be successful. I've been a successful salesperson. I know what this looks like. Please, just follow what I'm training you to do. And she was wanting to change it all the time. I'm like, stop changing it. I'm like, look, you're a lot smarter than I am. You got two master's degrees? At that point in time, I didn't have any degrees. I said, and I'm running this place. And I was successful in my job. And I did it well. And you're sitting here going, I had intel. I said, you live with your family in your mom's basement. You have nothing to brag about. Get to work. And if you don't figure it out, I'm going to fire you. She's like, oh my gosh. Oh, I can't believe this. And just filed this harassment charge against me. It's harassment holding you accountable to do your job, apparently. That's wild. She was always gloating in all these things that she had done in the past. Hung up on them. I said, those things are great. Those degrees really matter. Those are really important, and I think that will carry you in the future. The kind of work, devotion, and dedication it took you to get those degrees, I want you to do here, and I want you to follow through with what I'm telling you so that you can find success. I believe that's exactly what Solomon's trying to drive at. Stop looking at the past. Stop getting hung up on about all these sweet awards and degrees that you have. Get to work, right? Pretty straightforward. So life in general gets better over time when you have the proper perspective. When you realize that what you're doing, if you're the scan man at the front desk, is not your career. I never thought this would be my career. I love what my dad said. God bless him. I don't like quoting him often, but my dad said something profound to me when I was younger. I had the same problem. Dad, I don't want to have to just do this laborist work. I was a laborer on a construction site and I was whining. He said, son, a laborer is part of learning the trade. And once you learn the trade, you grow in it, you grow on, you're not a laborer anymore. If you're stuck in a laborer, something's wrong. And he said, by the way, your career is not what you're doing now. It's a summary of your life's work. Think about that. Your career is a summary of your life's work. Stop identifying with your career. Your career is a summary of what you're doing, not what you're doing overall, not what you're doing in the present. What you're doing in the present now is going to build you later on in life. That's awesome advice. It's so true. It helped me. That perspective changed everything for me, and it made me work all the harder to become better and learn more trades, to the extent where I end up later becoming a project manager, managing multiple projects. It was awesome. I loved it. Another example is marriage. Anybody in here been married for any length of time? Let's say, you know, five years, ten years, fifteen, twenty, more? Okay, good, yes. I see those hands. I see those hands. Just kidding. So many people have been married in here for a really long time. I can't remember who it was that I was listening to, and I cracked up when I heard this. He was sitting down with a couple, they were on their way to their honeymoon, okay? And they're so giddy, you know, it's honeymoon mode, and they're just excited to be in each other, they're just so lovey, everything's gooey, right? And here's this older couple, they've been married for like 50 years or something like that. It was a long time, right? And they're like, you're sitting across from them, and they're like, oh, we don't envy you at all. You know, wouldn't you love to be back in this position again? All honeymoon, lovey-dovey, right? Before you had any kids, you could do everything you ever wanted. Hang out and spend a ton of time together, right? Everything's just fun. It's just glow in the eyes. Everything's glowing. You're just in love with this person. Awesome time, right? And then life sets in. Kids set in. Real life happens. Bill starts needing to get paid. Arguments over the finances start happening. You know all that good stuff, right? The fun life stuff that we talk about in marriage. Anybody who's experienced that knows. People who've been through divorces, they know what I'm talking about too. Many who would say who've been in loving relationships, what I would say, a blessed relationship by God. Many of them would not say it was so much better in the beginning. And if you're not in that position, something's wrong, guys. Something's wrong with your marriage. You might be going through rocky, bumpy, hard times, right? You might be in the ooey-gooey honeymoon phase, or you might be 20 years deep. You might be 10. You might be 15. You might be 30, 40 years deep. I don't know how long some of you have been married in this room. I guarantee you, though, I guarantee you, Your marriage will improve over time as you're walking with the Lord. When you decide not to, when you decide not to follow the Master Builder's instruction manual here, on building your marriage, it will be as my kids say, it might look okay on the outside. You might be one of those Facebook married couples, where everything looks great, the facade is awesome, but that structure is dead. It's rotting away in the middle, isn't it? It's falling apart on the outside. It doesn't really quite look like the picture should. What's the picture of a godly marriage? I point you to Ephesians 5. Where a husband loves his wife is Christ loves the church. Right? Sacrifices His life for her, provides for her, cares for her, washes her in the water of the Word, loves her, nurtures her, and cares for the kids. Raises them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And you look down the years, and you look at some of these marriages, and you're like, wow, you guys have been through a lot of hard stuff together. A lot of difficult trials and tribulations. And you guys are just in love with each other. It's like gross hanging out with you people. That's how it should be, man. Am I right? Yes. Honestly, guys, I want to spend time around people like that. I want to be around people who have been married for 50 years, 60 years. My wife's grandparents were married. How long were they married, babe? Like, it was like crazy. It was like close to 60 years. Yes, they had their rocks and bumps. Yeah, they were, you know, prickly people at times, but they loved each other. They were devoted to each other. I want a marriage like that. And I want to be around people who have been married like that and who have walked with the Lord and loved the Lord and pour into my marriage and pour into the other marriages here, right? Amen. Don't you guys desire that who are married here? Right? For those who want to be married, that's something you should radically desire. You should be looking at other marriages here in the church, and hopefully that could be said here, where you go, wow, I want a marriage like that. I want a family like that. That's who I want to be discipled by. Those are the kind of people I want pouring into my life. So stop looking at the momentary in your marriage. Start looking at ways you can develop it and grow it. Look at what the Word of God has to say about a godly marriage. Expect trials and tribulations, bumps, difficulties, frustrations. But know that those difficulties, frustrations, bumps, and rocks make you a better and stronger married couple. You grow closer together, not further apart. You don't push each other away during those times. You embrace each other all the more. Christianity is another example. Christianity. How's your walk with Christ? Is it getting better over time or worse? Now, let me pause right there briefly. Anybody knows the path of sanctification is not this, right? You're not just like, born again, glorified. That's not the way it works. Yep, I see laughs, faces, yes. Born again, glorified, right? No, it looks a lot more like, You have these highlight moments. My intimacy with Christ and the Lord and His Word is on fire. And then it's like dull, boring, harsh, difficult. I don't know if God loves me anymore. I might think the Job type of moments. God hates me, man! He is intentionally going out of his way to smash me into the ground. And then there's these like highlight moments that you experience where you're just like, dude, I'm like, I could practically float right now. I got the mow glow. The Word of God is coming alive to me. I'm just being flooded by this glorious grace of God's life. Dude, everything is awesome. Everything is awesome. Yes, everything is awesome. You guys know what I'm talking about. Anybody who's walked with the Lord for any period of time knows that. They've experienced that. And some people have walked away. So it's kind of like, I don't know if I'm born again. Clayton taught a wonderful Sunday school this morning, which I encourage all of you to listen to. It's on YouTube. You can go there to Emmaus Road Media. On assurance of the faith. As a matter of fact, chapter 18 of our confession goes through the assurance of the faith. Read that. There's a point in there where I'm like, I was really struggling in my walk, and I hope I never experience that ever again, this feeling like the Lord has turned His face from me. Like I'm not walking in the grace of God. I've left His Word aside and I'm just abandoning Him. And everything is just dark and I'm struggling. Some of you might be in that place today. Some of you might be coming out of that place today. You can say with a hearty amen, it was not better in the beginning. When I first was a baby Christian, it was just a lot like being brand new married, right? Super fire, on fire for the Lord, yes! Hands up, dude, everything is amen and just overflowing with just, oh yeah, you just experienced the love and grace of God. And you're just devouring the Word. And then real life sets in. And Clayton brought up today the example of the parable of the seed sower. Scorching sun comes out. Trials just fry you. Maybe not. Maybe you barely got away with, you know, you're like one of those plants when my wife and I were first learning how to care for plants, you know, they got totally fried and leaves fell off and there was barely a remnant of a plant living. There's a sprout and you're like, there's hope, right? Maybe you're like that. Or maybe you're a flourishing plant that's been trimmed a lot, right? You've been trimmed up quite a bit. Pruned. you might be coming out of an incredibly difficult time in your life, where you maybe have had that experience, that wonderful experience of being born again and newness, and then a trial did crush you, or the cares of the world are choking you out. You might be on thorny ground. You might be choked up with the cares of the world and wealth. Solomon's saying don't. It's all vain anyway. You're going to go face the living God anyway, so why would you be choked up with those things? Jesus Himself said that. Don't be concerned with those things. Store up your treasures in heaven where moth can't destroy and thief can't steal. Lay up your treasures there. Don't be concerned about this life. Don't be anxious. God will provide for you. Maybe you're in that situation. Your walk with the Lord should grow over time despite all the trials, tribulations, sufferings, and difficulties you face, and backslidings, may I add. You should think of that very carefully. Meditate on that. I want you to take maybe some time this week and go, wow, I don't know how long you guys have been born again. I don't know many of your stories. What's happened in your lives. But I want you to take a look. Just think about this. Meditate on this this week. How have you grown me over my life, even though maybe I've failed, even though maybe I've struggled, even though maybe I've resisted you at times or walked away from your Word? And I want you to look at, I like what Francis Schaeffer called him, him and Edith Schaeffer called it signposts. Look for particular providential signposts in your life where the Lord brought you back. The Lord brought you back, He put you on track, and He's walking alongside of you, in some cases carrying you, right? Like footprints in the sand. He's carrying you. He broke your leg. He snapped you and He threw you over His shoulder. And then you grew from that into something far greater. A lesson that you would have never learned unless you had experienced that snapping of the leg moment with the Lord. Think about that this week. Look how the Lord's developed you. And if you're not experiencing that, I'd be concerned. Clayton shared this morning about your assurance in the faith. If you're not experiencing some snapperage, that's not even a word, some snapping, right? If you haven't experienced that, if you haven't really gone through a period of time where you're broken and contrite over your sin, you're not mortifying it and destroying your life, you're not seeing it, and you're maybe justifying it, I would be concerned. Your life should be improving in Christ despite your circumstances. Lastly, church life. Greg did a wonderful series on church life, on what it means to be a healthy member in the church. I encourage you, admonish you to go check that out on the media page. I was trying to think of examples that are just real, just real stuff, stuff we're going through as a church, stuff I know many churches go through together. Church life, it should get better over time, not worse. We shouldn't be looking back to the glory days of the basement. Where the five people came to hear Jonathan preach, because we believe Jonathan had a calling in his life, that Jonathan was to be a pastor. And we said, no, bro, you're a shepherd. You have a shepherd's heart. Bro, man, God has gifted you. And you know what Jonathan always does? It's hilarious. He's not here, so I can talk about him right now. What he would say? You know what they say about year one, right? And this guy's wondering if he should just maybe cut it all off. He had a tough experience up to this point. You know what they say about year two? Come on, bro. Come on, dude. The Lord's the one that builds the house. Just stay faithful. And we're just holding Jonathan's arms up. Like, bro. Bro. He was snapped in half. and the Lord's to sustain him. You know what they say about year three? Stop that. You know what they say about year four? Stop, bro. Seriously, stop saying that. Stop looking at those things in the past. Stop allowing those past indicators to dictate Emmaus Road, Reformed Baptist Church, and our future together. Stop doing that. We had to constantly encourage them in that. But you can imagine, this man was broken. It was really tough. And Greg and I, especially, we're trying to encourage him during this time. We're still trying to encourage him. It's hard when we see people come and go. It's really hard, especially on Jonathan, because I know how much that man devotes to the body. I know how much he cares. A man's got a real heart of a shepherd. He is such an encouragement to me. I love this man dearly. And I so appreciate him. And I know many of you guys feel the same way. And it just wrecks him. It does. It just wrecks him. Well, let's think about church life for a moment. There are some people I know who have been among us. And maybe you might even be in this spot today, where you look at our little congregation and you say, well, not really growing that much. They're kind of little. And we tend to look at the size of a congregation or the population of a congregation as the indicator of whether or not it's a good church. We have a tendency to look at maybe how the people act and behave. Maybe even the pastors, the way they look, the way they dress, the way they speak. And then what we do is we have a tendency to go, well, I had a really great church that I came from, It was totally different from this church. And what they do is they go, the past was so awesome. That's the indicator of what a really great church is like. And then they start assessing the current one they're in, and they're always making a decision on whether or not they're going to make this their church. And they do that for years. And they float. We know people like that. I'm sure you guys know people like that. They float around. And it seems as though they're always looking for that reason to leave. And you're like, what's the matter with you? Devote yourself. Commit yourself. Let's go. But this, this, this, that, and the other was not like my other church or my old church. That was the glory days. Those are the good times. They do that. And sadly, you can try to encourage them and say as much as you want to them. It's like, okay, well, if you had all those sweet things at this previous church, which was the awesome example, why don't you start contributing those things to this church? Why don't you become a contributor? And stop looking at the past as though that were the prime. Maybe, just maybe, there's a providential reason why you're here today. Now, let me qualify this, because things need to be qualified. It doesn't mean that you get to teach false doctrine and still demand people stick around. That's why I quoted the text that I did in our scripture reading today. Shepherds have to be good shepherds. They have to lead appropriately. They have to be good examples. They don't get to be abusive. They shouldn't be doing it by compulsion or sordid gain, right? All those things must be true. But let's say you have shepherds like that that are like that. I'm certainly not that way, and I know Jonathan isn't for sure. We're not going after sordid gain. I'm not doing this by compulsion. If anything, I'd have quit a long time ago. Right? Compel all day long. No. And I'm not doing this for some weird thing because I like to hear myself talk. No. Pastors go through a lot of difficult things. It's hard being a pastor. It's one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing that I've ever done. And I know that's true for Jonathan too. It's really hard. It's difficult. But we love it, guys. We love it. We love the body. We love the people. We want to be able to exercise our gifts as teachers and encouragers and equip you for the work of ministry. We love this. We love what we do. You're in our hearts and prayers often. We care about these people. So that said, that away, how has your church life been? Just examine yourself. What kind of churches do you go to? Where you hop, skip, and jump around, just always looking for that awesome church that you used to have ten years ago. Or twenty. Whatever it might be, right? Are you that kind of member? Are you a contributing member? Are you like, yeah, no, it's a new situation. God's placed me here. What a sweet blessing. They love the Word. They love God's people. They preach the Word faithfully. They observe the elements. These were Calvin's requirements of a godly church, right? Go find one. Are they doing that? Good. Awesome. Plug in. That's what Calvin said. He didn't even talk about church discipline. Church discipline's kind of a part of that, meaning you're going to take God's Word serious and you're going to hold people accountable to it. But it's interesting, in Calvin's Institutes, his key element of membership in a church was, do they love the Lord, do they love God's people, and are they preaching the word faithfully, and are they observing the sacraments? Baptism in the Lord's Supper. Praise God, plug in, and go be a contributing person in there. You all have gifts, talents, abilities. Wonderful gifts, talents, and abilities. Be a contributor, not a consumer. So if you're a consumer, here's what you can expect. You're always going to be critical about your experience, aren't you? You're always going to be looking about those things that appealed to you. Those are going to be your assessment factors for what a quote-unquote good church is, or a good church in the consumer mind experiences. What am I getting out of this, not what I can contribute. And let me say this, you have that mindset, you'll never find the right church. You'll never even find a really good one. You'll be too busy consuming. Taking instead of giving. Serving. Waiting to be served instead of serving. Man, think about how many times Paul rebuked that sort of mentality. James rebuked that mentality. Who are we? What kind of people groups are we? How has our church life been? So if we examine that church life, and we think about our motives behind how we select a church. Is it Calvin's simple principles? They love God, they love God's people, they preach the Word faithfully, and they observe the sacraments. Are they doing that? Are they reaching their city with the Gospel? Is this place equipping you faithfully? Is discipleship happening? Well, then praise God. Plug in and contribute. And all those opportunities that you see where things can be improved, the Lord has obviously opened your eyes to that. Maybe not everybody is seeing that. Be a contributing factor. Be a contributing factor to the local expression of the body of Christ. If you're not, something's wrong. I'm saying something's wrong. Examine your heart. Look at your assessment. Look at your church life. Are you an active member? Are you a faithful member? Are you a member that's prayerful about the body? Are you a member that is looking for ways and opportunities to be a contributor? Or do you always have one foot in and one foot out? Are you always offended by all these little things that have a critical eye, maybe even towards the message and what's being preached and how it's being preached and how long it's being preached? Maybe you like one pastor and not the other so much. Think about all these things. What happens to people over time, right? Are you a contributing factor? Or do you find yourself in a divisive position? Are you high maintenance? Are you always struggling with this one thing or the other? Never really willing to just fully commit because you always got these hang-ups? Think about that. So as a result of studying all these points, just to conclude here, I believe what Solomon is saying is just a clear summary. He says in verses 11-12, wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those under the sun. But the protection of wisdom is like protection of money. And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life who has it. Remember, lady wisdom in Proverbs 8. Those who love wisdom, her, love life. and preserve it. Those who hate me love death. Wisdom is gleaned and gained over a period in a lifetime. And then not only is wisdom gleaned and gained, but think about that discipleship factor, that it begins to overflow from your life into the lives of others and blesses the other people around them. I can't tell you how many times in a counseling session where we said, I really hope you figure this out. I hope you repent and walk with God, and that your marriage is restored, and the blessing just starts to overflow from the situation that was horrible in your life. And that maybe the Lord would use this to be a blessing to other people, that you would be able to counsel people through this kind of difficulty. I can't tell you how many times I've said that in a counseling session, and I'm sure Jonathan has said the same thing. Think about what an inheritance looks like. It's developed. It's leveraged. It's grown over time, carefully, with wisdom, but can be quickly squandered by a fool. An inheritance, practically speaking, is only an advantage to those under the sun, right? Because the ones that aren't are dead. Management of an inheritance is like managing and protecting wisdom, Solomon says. True knowledge is properly applied. It preserves the life of the one who has it. One's experience without trust and guidance of his or her Creator's word isn't true knowledge, in fact. It's not knowledge at all because it's a projection of one's own subjective experience without the appropriate interpretive framework. You start walking and doing what's right in your own eyes is just a simple way of what I just explained. You don't possess knowledge at all. It's just what's right in your own eyes, and it's what's right for now. You're missing out on your Creator, the Master Builder's knowledge to govern your life. And compiling this over time through trials, tribulations, sufferings, and difficulties, you'll come to discover Listen to Proverbs 8. Oh, sons, listen to Me. Blessed are those who keep My ways, hear My instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting beside My doors. Whoever finds Me obtains life from the Lord. Whoever fails to find Me injures himself. All who hate Me love death. So then, think about this. Do you find yourself relying on your own personal experiences? Interpreting your circumstances in your life and your relationship with God as a result of that? Or do you find yourself more often trusting in the Lord with all of your heart, not leaning on your own understanding, and in all your ways acknowledging Him? Trusting that He'll make your path straight. Not wise in your own eyes, but fearing the Lord and turning away from evil, knowing that it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 3.5-8 Now, as Solomon says, consider the works of God. Who can make straight what He's made crooked? Do you have a good name or a bad name? Are you mourning and weeping over your state because you fear the living God, knowing that you'll face Him one day, and quick to repent and mortify your flesh? Are you sad about it? Are you quick to receive correction, rebuke if necessary? Are you stand fast in the face of adversity in your faith? Or do you find yourself often crumbling to capitulation to make people happy around you or to just go along with the mainstream? Do you get stuck in the past or are you more concerned about building a future in Christ? Do you look to God's Word and find hope in your circumstances? Or, are you defined by them? Are you overwhelmed by them? Are you relying on God or are you relying on yourself? Let me leave you with this passage. out of Philippians. Greg shared an amazing devotion, Devo with Stevo, Steve Lawson, on running to win. Let's listen to the Word of the Lord on what Paul thought on what it meant to run to win. Let me leave you with this. Paul says, not that I've already obtained, I've already attained this, or I'm already perfect. But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, I forget what lies behind and I strain forward to what lies ahead. I press on to the goal for the prize of the upward call in God, Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, that if anything you might think otherwise, God will reveal to this also. Only let us hold true to what we have obtained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly and their glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things under the sun. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." Now, if anybody had an opportunity to glory and gloat in the past, it would have been Paul. Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Benjamin, right? He had all of the indicators of what it meant to be a spiritual man, and God knocked him off his horse. Quite literally, revealed himself to him. He did not glory what was in the past. He didn't even look into the past. Matter of fact, Paul could have gotten hung up, super hung up, over his decision to guard the clothes of those who stoned Stephen to death. Can you imagine being there present? Here was a godly man that Paul was affirming, yep, stone him to death, I'll guard your clothes while you do. Imagine that. He even says that he sees himself as the worst of all the saints, the least of all the saints. Why? Because he ravaged the church. He imprisoned and killed God's faithful people. If anybody could have got hung up on the past, it was Paul. But what Paul is saying here is, no, no, no. What Christ has got a hold of in you, press on. Leave what's in the past behind you and press on to the upward call in Christ. Press on to what Christ has embraced in you, not your past. So with that said, we'll conclude our time together in prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this time that we have together to worship you. I pray that your word would have been faithfully conveyed. That the ideas here, of course, there's so much more that could have been expounded upon. But Lord, it was impressed upon me as I studied this Word and worked through it that there's so much... I just know what's going on in this congregation that they need to hear. I know what's going on. Trying to be a faithful shepherd and delivering Your Word pointedly, practically. Things that we can grab ahold of, Lord, and walk in in our lives, Lord. I pray that these words would be well-driven nails. that it would change and have an effect, Lord, for the better or even for the worse. I pray mostly, Lord, for those who don't know You today, Lord, that as in hearing these words, that maybe their heart would be softened and they would want to turn to You, forsaking their wickedness and bowing their knee to You, Lord, living a blessed life. In Jesus' name, Amen.