WEBVTT 00:00:03.887 --> 00:00:05.790 So you know I was thinking about. 00:00:05.790 --> 00:00:13.451 We've been going through the series on Ecclesiastes and if you got your Bible, we're going to be looking at Ecclesiastes, chapter four, this week. 00:00:13.451 --> 00:00:16.164 And I was considering today. 00:00:16.164 --> 00:00:19.292 The Lord kind of gave me a different thought this morning. 00:00:19.292 --> 00:00:38.073 I don't know how many of you enjoy this, but I love going out and watching the stars and you know, just this whole past week I got this notice on my phone that said that this whole past week was going to be a great week for meteors and a meteor shower. 00:00:38.073 --> 00:00:44.125 In fact, last night was going to be the best of the year, right, and I don't know how many people got to see them. 00:00:44.125 --> 00:00:44.887 I didn't see them. 00:00:44.887 --> 00:00:49.631 We went out like it, and I could do this because I didn't have to go to work next day. 00:00:49.631 --> 00:01:10.013 We went out like at 2 am up into the mountains, and this sky, when we were out at first, was fairly clear and by the time it got to the point we got up on the mountain over in near Townsend and got up there, the clouds had slowly moved in and our chance to view the stars was gone. 00:01:10.013 --> 00:01:17.048 And that happened last night, I think too, and I just thought about that and I thought you know that's the way life is sometimes. 00:01:17.048 --> 00:01:20.986 I said what it looks like from at first. 00:01:20.986 --> 00:01:22.248 Look eventually. 00:01:22.248 --> 00:01:30.146 Sometimes the clouds come in and we can't see heaven at all and things don't look like we hope they will. 00:01:30.146 --> 00:01:32.471 But God's still there. 00:01:32.471 --> 00:01:44.921 I want you to hear that God is still there, god's glory is still there in your life, and so with that, I just want to kind of give you some take on what chapter 4 is about as we get into it. 00:01:44.962 --> 00:01:59.465 Last week, mark talked about some things that had to do with how the things that Solomon who really, we think, wrote the book things that he observed, things that he saw, and Mark kind of made a point about that. 00:01:59.465 --> 00:02:16.209 This morning we're going to look at four common realities that Solomon observed, which reflect what he calls life under the sun Not under the sand, but under the sun, which is a statement of reality of life. 00:02:16.209 --> 00:02:19.328 Things are not always what we hope they'll be. 00:02:19.328 --> 00:02:23.385 Sometimes they're not very good at all, and so these are the things. 00:02:23.385 --> 00:02:25.326 Let me just give them to you and then we'll read the passage. 00:02:25.326 --> 00:02:38.391 The first one is oppression, envy, aloneness or loneliness I think aloneness is a better way of thinking of it and then arrogance, oppression, envy, aloneness and arrogance. 00:02:38.391 --> 00:02:41.549 And I got to thinking why did he pick these things out in particular? 00:02:41.549 --> 00:03:09.802 And I think it's because the problems they represent are like, sometimes, like our naive attitude about the way we approach life, the way we adopt our practices, based on the way we see life and it's a lot of times it's the way the world sees things, and what God wants us to see is things from his perspective Life above the sun and not from down here, and we have that as Christians. 00:03:09.883 --> 00:03:15.825 As one of the early church fathers said, ecclesiastes, instructing us through enigmas. 00:03:15.825 --> 00:03:17.189 You know what enigma is? 00:03:17.189 --> 00:03:18.764 It's a question you can't answer. 00:03:18.764 --> 00:03:24.748 Instructing us through enigmas guides us to the other life. 00:03:24.748 --> 00:03:29.229 We need God's wisdom and grace to choose what's better. 00:03:29.229 --> 00:03:33.950 We need to look through the lens of scripture to know what we should do. 00:03:33.950 --> 00:03:42.836 And so Solomon gives these observations, and it ought to make us stop and consider, as he goes through these, how we should navigate life in a fallen world. 00:03:42.836 --> 00:03:49.733 Because, folks, this is where we live, but we're not there where we will be yet, but we still have to live here now. 00:03:50.662 --> 00:03:52.590 Let's just read through this passage and we'll begin. 00:03:52.590 --> 00:03:56.700 In chapter four of Ecclesiastes, and beginning verse one, it says. 00:03:56.700 --> 00:04:05.048 Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun and behold the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. 00:04:05.048 --> 00:04:11.640 On the other side of their oppressors, there was power and there was no one to comfort them. 00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:18.341 And I thought the dead, who are already dead, more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 00:04:18.341 --> 00:04:27.447 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 00:04:27.447 --> 00:04:34.190 Again, I saw that all toil and skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. 00:04:34.190 --> 00:04:38.228 This also is vanity and a striving after wind. 00:04:38.228 --> 00:04:42.586 The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. 00:04:42.586 --> 00:04:54.283 Both is he who has not yet been and has not yet seen the evil, that the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 00:04:54.283 --> 00:04:57.584 And so let's just stop right now. 00:04:57.605 --> 00:05:02.327 I want to ask God to just apply these truths that we are going to read this morning, and he can do that. 00:05:02.327 --> 00:05:08.665 I want you just to see here that the word of God has power, and I hope you're expecting that God will speak to your heart this morning. 00:05:08.665 --> 00:05:10.228 Ask him that right now. 00:05:10.228 --> 00:05:11.291 Let's just pray together. 00:05:11.291 --> 00:05:12.886 Father, we're thankful for your word. 00:05:12.886 --> 00:05:27.192 We ask you that you would apply it to our lives and Holy Spirit, just put it deeply into our hearts, speak to the things that we need to know to change us, and we ask for that in Jesus' name. 00:05:27.192 --> 00:05:33.088 And so he begins here this morning with this idea of oppression. 00:05:33.088 --> 00:05:45.209 And this first one is oppression in which means injustices, if you will, or extortions, and this is something that we're really familiar with. 00:05:45.209 --> 00:06:07.430 When Solomon looked at society, he saw how people are often mistreated for money by those who hold more power, and I'm sure you and I could think of many places in our world today, in the political realm and in the governmental realm and in the court system, and all these places where people experience injustice, and we don't have to look far for that. 00:06:08.279 --> 00:06:24.250 I was, a few years ago, back in the 1980s, had a chance to go with a friend of mine who was the leader of Campus Crusade over at the University of Tennessee, and he selected one student to go with us it was just three of us to go to China and I was very excited. 00:06:24.250 --> 00:06:31.887 We went there and the purpose was to minister to students who were working sort of with the underground church there in China. 00:06:31.887 --> 00:06:33.045 It's been long enough. 00:06:33.045 --> 00:07:03.524 I don't think it's a worry to share this with you, but basically we got over there and one of the days that we got to go and kind of tour some of the places as well as minister to the students, we got to go to Tiananmen Square, and I don't know if you know anything about Tiananmen Square, but if you know your history, you know that it was a place that there was a lot of things going on that were not good and we had to have a person that was a tour guide for us, because hardly anybody at that time spoke English. 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:18.411 And so this little gal from our tour company actually ended up being a member of the underground church in China, and we were so thrilled, and so she began to take us around Tiananmen Square, which is a massive place. 00:07:18.411 --> 00:07:36.920 It's like the square in Moscow, they have one there in China and all around the square there were soldiers stationed at different places, and as we were walking around the middle, one of the students said whatever to the tour guide. 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:55.189 He said whatever happened to that Tiananmen Square incident, and if you know your history, there was a picture in Time Magazine at that time where you have this man who's standing in front of a tank trying to prevent the communists from taking their rights. 00:07:55.189 --> 00:08:07.274 They were treating people with many injustices and it's just a classic picture of the man standing in front of the tank defying the government for what they were doing. 00:08:07.274 --> 00:08:09.411 And that guy that was with us, the student. 00:08:09.411 --> 00:08:20.529 He said whatever happened to that Tiananmen Square incident and the look on our tour guide's face you could see she was terrified and she said let's keep walking. 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:22.826 And she said let's keep walking. 00:08:22.826 --> 00:08:30.384 We got about probably 30 more yards and the student must not have heard her and he brought it up again. 00:08:30.384 --> 00:08:31.341 He said whatever. 00:08:31.341 --> 00:08:35.049 I didn't hear whatever happened to that Tiananmen Square incident. 00:08:35.049 --> 00:08:52.684 And the girl said we need to go right now and we left no-transcript, which kind of gives you an idea that the oppression that they were under absolutely terrified them and so many things happened in the underground church and to the people over there. 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:58.606 It's just an example of injustice in our world and it happens in so many places. 00:08:58.606 --> 00:09:05.610 Sometimes what should happen when we think the things that are ought to be in place don't. 00:09:05.610 --> 00:09:18.793 What should turn out to be right has done wrong, and we even think of this all the way back to how this applies, even in our childhood, and I can think about this. 00:09:18.793 --> 00:09:21.004 What do we say when we're on the playground? 00:09:21.004 --> 00:09:30.759 We say, hey, that's not fair, and we understand injustice, even as a child, but it doesn't stop at the playground. 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:37.644 It goes always to the pinnacle of power, the greatest heights, people who have control. 00:09:39.203 --> 00:09:44.528 Someone said the problem here is that even the place of justice is unjust. 00:09:44.528 --> 00:09:52.365 The very place where we most expect and most need to receive justice turns out to be a place of unfairness. 00:09:52.365 --> 00:09:55.126 Even the court system is corrupt. 00:09:55.126 --> 00:10:03.870 This is not merely a frustration, like some of the other problems we read about in Ecclesiastes, but a manifestation of genuine evil. 00:10:03.870 --> 00:10:07.849 Innocent people are convicted for crimes they never committed. 00:10:07.849 --> 00:10:13.847 They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood. 00:10:13.847 --> 00:10:17.368 Just as frequently, other people get away with murder. 00:10:17.368 --> 00:10:27.725 They have the money to hire better lawyers, or else they hide behind the structure of a large corporation to take advantage of people who were less fortunate. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:32.647 And so Solomon is looking out on his own society and he's seeing all these things. 00:10:32.647 --> 00:10:43.227 He sees all these injustices that he sees, just like we see them today, and his focus is not merely on the I think, just the evils of the opposition. 00:10:43.227 --> 00:10:46.783 But if you go on and you see the personal pain, it comes from it. 00:10:46.783 --> 00:10:49.527 The real tragedy, he says, is why? 00:10:49.527 --> 00:10:52.769 Look at verse one there was no one to comfort them. 00:10:52.769 --> 00:11:02.626 And he's not just complaining about it, because there is wickedness around us and this is a hard place to live and there's not justice in a lot of cases. 00:11:02.626 --> 00:11:06.544 But the wickedness in the place of justice cannot be corrected. 00:11:06.544 --> 00:11:08.224 Do you ever feel like that? 00:11:08.224 --> 00:11:19.190 You see things going on around you and in the halls of government, in the places of power, and you wonder can anything be done about this? 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:26.448 Sometimes it's just not in our power to make those changes and correct the unfairnesses of life. 00:11:26.448 --> 00:11:33.886 And even so, I think God uses such things to test us, to see what we will do. 00:11:33.886 --> 00:11:37.368 He says as much in chapter three, verse 17,. 00:11:37.368 --> 00:11:39.124 We're gonna get to that. 00:11:39.124 --> 00:11:52.740 But there are times you and I could do something when we don't, for various reasons, and rather than push back against the tide of darkness and evil, we just kind of watch it and we go. 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.269 We sigh that's the actual word that's used here. 00:11:56.269 --> 00:12:01.331 It's to sigh because we don't or can't do anything. 00:12:02.201 --> 00:12:10.823 Martin Luther King Jr once said the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. 00:12:10.823 --> 00:12:14.072 Darkness cannot drive out darkness. 00:12:14.072 --> 00:12:16.120 Only light can do that. 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:21.099 And that's the end of that. 00:12:21.099 --> 00:12:28.548 An older gentleman by the name of DeCittiris Erasmus, who was in the early centuries, he said he who allows oppression shares the crime. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.831 Well, notice how Solomon has kind of structured his words in this chapter. 00:12:35.831 --> 00:12:45.360 He uses a series of comparisons that we're going through and he's basically saying this one is better than that one, this one is better than that one. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:49.605 He does it all through the four examples where he goes through this morning. 00:12:49.605 --> 00:12:53.240 We make comparisons all the time, don't we? 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:58.039 So this one is better than that and this food is better than that food. 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:01.028 That person is better at this than that person. 00:13:01.028 --> 00:13:08.971 But the comparison Solomon uses really help us to consider how God's wisdom is better than human reasoning. 00:13:08.971 --> 00:13:11.989 It's better than the way we typically think of things. 00:13:12.561 --> 00:13:29.846 And so, with all the evil in the world, solomon ends up by saying the scope of human misery can lead us A lot of times, when it doesn't seem to get resolved, to despair and hopelessness because we can't see anything done. 00:13:29.846 --> 00:13:30.823 He says as much. 00:13:30.823 --> 00:13:38.708 In verse two he says I thought the dead, who were already dead, more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 00:13:38.708 --> 00:13:45.889 But better than both is he who has not yet been born and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 00:13:45.889 --> 00:13:47.645 Now, that's a reality statement. 00:13:47.645 --> 00:13:51.625 It doesn't mean that he wants to take his own life or that life's not worth living. 00:13:51.625 --> 00:13:59.129 He just it's an expression of things are hopeless, and I'd rather not see all the evil that I see in the world. 00:13:59.129 --> 00:14:15.485 That'd be true, wouldn't it, if your existence was just limited to this life, if all you saw was the clouds, right, and if there was no heaven, if there was no hell, then it really wouldn't matter. 00:14:15.485 --> 00:14:16.663 There would be no future hope. 00:14:16.663 --> 00:14:20.648 But there is, and that's what we know as believers. 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:29.009 And I want you to remember what Solomon had said in chapter three and Mark went over this in a bit in the scripture, in verses 16 and 17. 00:14:29.009 --> 00:14:32.610 Here's what he said earlier, solomon. 00:14:32.610 --> 00:14:42.365 He said I saw under the sun that in the place of justice even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness. 00:14:42.365 --> 00:14:47.892 I said in my heart God will judge the righteous and the wicked. 00:14:47.892 --> 00:14:50.666 See, he had this perspective, and it wasn't just here and now. 00:14:50.666 --> 00:15:04.509 Even though his words sound pretty pessimistic, there was a hint that there was something beyond this life, something beyond the misery, and so he sort of hints at that. 00:15:04.509 --> 00:15:10.965 But you can be sure, if there is injustice, god sees it and he knows it. 00:15:10.965 --> 00:15:16.863 Even in your life, in my life, you ever get in a situation where you said that's just not fair. 00:15:16.863 --> 00:15:21.124 It's just not fair and it happened to you. 00:15:21.124 --> 00:15:26.602 But God, here's how he feels about injustice, about impression. 00:15:26.663 --> 00:15:33.488 Psalm 103, verse six, says the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 00:15:33.488 --> 00:15:42.570 He in scripture, consistently reminds his people all through the Old Testament about the abuse of power. 00:15:42.570 --> 00:15:50.231 And here's an example in Deuteronomy he says in verse, in chapter five, and two different standards. 00:15:50.231 --> 00:15:51.320 Here is kind of what he's saying. 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:56.346 You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. 00:15:56.346 --> 00:16:02.826 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small, a full and fair weight. 00:16:02.826 --> 00:16:05.326 You shall have a full and fair measure. 00:16:05.326 --> 00:16:06.740 You shall have that. 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:16.932 Your days may be long in the land that the Lord, god, has given you, for all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord, your God. 00:16:16.932 --> 00:16:22.349 What he's saying is he doesn't like it when someone puts their thumb on the scale of justice. 00:16:24.764 --> 00:16:33.267 Proverbs 17, 15 tells us that God hates those who pervert justice by declaring guilty people innocent and innocent people guilty. 00:16:33.267 --> 00:16:43.639 Proverbs 6, verse 17, says God hates those who commit the ultimate act of injustice, which is the murder of the innocent. 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:55.938 So you think of all these things, whether it's abortion or human trafficking, and I'm so thankful for the ministries that we have in our church that try to help people who are caught in these things. 00:16:55.938 --> 00:17:00.519 But there's so many, and but God has a word to say. 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:09.336 He will judge those people, He'll correct those problems, even though it might take a while, and our timing is not his timing. 00:17:09.336 --> 00:17:19.497 But here's the thing In a way, as God's people, we're not just to refrain from agreeing with him by oppressing others. 00:17:19.497 --> 00:17:26.298 We're supposed to actively see God's kingdom and keep people who are being oppressed from being oppressed. 00:17:26.298 --> 00:17:33.278 Part of the problem with the church is that we've said it idly by and just watched things happen and didn't say a thing. 00:17:34.650 --> 00:17:38.097 Leviticus 19 says you shall do no injustice in court. 00:17:38.097 --> 00:17:44.817 You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 00:17:44.817 --> 00:17:54.960 Isaiah 1, verse 17, says Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widows' cause. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:02.882 And so what are you saying is that people who can't do that for themselves, who don't have power, you need to take up for them? 00:18:02.882 --> 00:18:17.076 I can't remember how many people in our church that I've heard say that they were put out of their house or their apartment because the landlord said they didn't want to let them pay what they're paying and they just kind of put them out of their house. 00:18:17.076 --> 00:18:30.595 These are the kinds of things that we need to take up for people for, and you can be a part of God's justice, his program of making things right, if you don't sit ollie by. 00:18:30.595 --> 00:18:31.699 This is what Solomon sees. 00:18:31.789 --> 00:18:35.098 Solomon next turns his eyes into the working world. 00:18:35.098 --> 00:18:42.277 So, from oppression and injustice to envy, to envy Notice what he says in verse four. 00:18:42.277 --> 00:18:48.277 Then I saw that all toil and all skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. 00:18:48.277 --> 00:18:52.358 This also is vanity and a striving after wind. 00:18:52.358 --> 00:19:01.096 So Solomon sees, a whole lot of our work is motivated because we want to be and we want to have what that other guy has. 00:19:01.096 --> 00:19:10.311 In fact, a lot of our capitalism is built on having ambition, and not all of it's bad, but some of it. 00:19:10.311 --> 00:19:15.959 If it's to step on the other guy, it's not what God would choose and it's not right. 00:19:16.730 --> 00:19:28.694 Think of these examples of your coworker, for example, gets a promotion that you applied for and you congratulate him while secretly wishing he didn't work there at all. 00:19:28.694 --> 00:19:30.953 You ever felt any of that? 00:19:30.953 --> 00:19:47.657 Your friend goes on a fantastic vacation and they decide they're gonna send you all the pictures and they send it to text it to your phone and you usually like their stuff, but this time you don't. 00:19:47.657 --> 00:19:52.777 This is envy, a business competitor. 00:19:52.777 --> 00:20:05.439 He has strings of successes and you have people that do so well and you start thinking about all the things you don't like about him because, simply, he's succeeded and you and your attempts to do that you haven't. 00:20:05.439 --> 00:20:12.512 I mean you can think of a lot more, but envy's a common problem and you say, well, what is envy? 00:20:12.512 --> 00:20:18.695 If I ask everyone here what is the definition of envy, I'd get probably 10 or 15 different answers. 00:20:18.695 --> 00:20:23.759 Let me give you one that Aristotle laid out. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:28.739 It was a pretty clear definition and it's found in his famous work, rhetoric. 00:20:28.739 --> 00:20:29.531 He says this. 00:20:29.531 --> 00:20:32.536 It's a definition that I think has stood the test of time. 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:37.739 According to Aristotle, he said envy is pain at the good fortune of others. 00:20:37.739 --> 00:21:09.492 Envy is pain at the good fortune of others, so it's kind of like you can't really celebrate with them because you want what they have, and that's why some people work long hours, that's why some people make unethical decisions, that's why people step on their fellow workers to get ahead, so they can have more, get more, and what we think is well, that could have been me, that could have been me. 00:21:09.492 --> 00:21:11.378 That's envy. 00:21:11.378 --> 00:21:24.577 So I confess, I make a confession last week I was full of envy because Mark had a fantastic message and I wanted what he had. 00:21:24.577 --> 00:21:27.720 No, but it was good, and it was good. 00:21:29.549 --> 00:21:30.374 What Solomon's saying? 00:21:30.374 --> 00:21:32.517 He's saying this is an empty, vain way to think. 00:21:32.517 --> 00:21:39.278 This attitude of wanting what somebody else has instead of appreciating what God has given you. 00:21:39.278 --> 00:21:47.272 And so you know what it produces something else than just besides an envious person. 00:21:47.272 --> 00:21:50.616 He talks about someone else, and that is the dropout. 00:21:50.616 --> 00:21:58.816 So if you can't have what you want and you continue to get pushed down and get disappointed, some people just drop out of life. 00:22:00.630 --> 00:22:04.009 He says this the fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. 00:22:04.009 --> 00:22:08.178 You say what in the world does that mean he folds his hands and eats his own flesh? 00:22:08.178 --> 00:22:17.461 Well, folding your hands means he's lazy, he's not doing anything and, as a result of that, he ends up consuming what he has. 00:22:17.461 --> 00:22:19.417 And then what happens? 00:22:19.417 --> 00:22:22.874 He has nothing left, he's consumed it all. 00:22:22.874 --> 00:22:26.374 And then, after he's consumed it all, he starts. 00:22:26.374 --> 00:22:33.337 Because he's so complacent and self-focused, he eats up his self-respect. 00:22:33.337 --> 00:22:43.772 You never see somebody who gets to the point where they don't value their own life and they don't respect themselves because they're not doing anything, because they're lazy. 00:22:43.772 --> 00:22:51.116 So we can get so inwardly focused, and that could happen to us when we get discouraged and we lose our hope in Christ. 00:22:51.116 --> 00:22:57.838 So you see two errors here consumed with work because of envy or destroyed by laziness. 00:22:57.838 --> 00:22:59.890 This is what Solomon is seeing Now. 00:22:59.931 --> 00:23:08.202 I just ask you this morning which is more of a temptation for you Consumed with envy or laziness? 00:23:08.202 --> 00:23:13.497 Maybe you're tempted to envy what other people have and you weigh yourself trying to get it. 00:23:13.497 --> 00:23:22.358 Or maybe you think you're above all that and you don't have a problem with envy, and yet you have such a negative attitude about work. 00:23:22.358 --> 00:23:25.640 When you go to work, you avoid certain things. 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:31.215 You don't work as unto the Lord, your heart's not in it, you're just getting through the day. 00:23:31.215 --> 00:23:35.076 Well, this should speak to. 00:23:35.135 --> 00:23:39.094 Solomon's wisdom tells us there's a balance to be found, and it's in verse six. 00:23:39.094 --> 00:23:42.660 He says better, this is the better than something else. 00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:48.357 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. 00:23:48.357 --> 00:23:54.578 The Hebrew there literally reads who are content with a handful of quietness. 00:23:54.578 --> 00:24:07.833 So for those who found the balance between just going at it full bore and giving their whole life to something, and those people who just decided they're gonna give up on life and drop out, there's a balance. 00:24:07.833 --> 00:24:09.638 And he says it's quietness. 00:24:09.638 --> 00:24:14.554 It's like a handful, not two handful, but a handful, that's enough. 00:24:14.554 --> 00:24:18.439 He's basically says that's enough for me. 00:24:20.230 --> 00:24:26.419 And so we have to ask ourselves are we content with what God is, at, what he's given us? 00:24:26.419 --> 00:24:28.092 That's a question. 00:24:28.092 --> 00:24:28.634 Paul says. 00:24:28.634 --> 00:24:30.258 He says learn to be content. 00:24:30.258 --> 00:24:32.074 Learn to be content. 00:24:32.074 --> 00:24:37.299 The Bible says that, like this, godliness with contentment is great gain. 00:24:37.299 --> 00:24:48.096 And so what you get in return is less stress, and that's because there's less worry, and there's less worry because you're trusting God to provide every need you have. 00:24:48.096 --> 00:24:51.715 So have you learned to be content. 00:24:51.715 --> 00:24:56.557 That's the question, you know, if we model ourselves after Jesus Christ. 00:24:56.557 --> 00:25:14.656 If you look at the gospels, he was a hard worker, he was a carpenter, but he said at one time he said my father is always working and I'm at work, and this is the better way work hard, be content with what God has given you. 00:25:14.656 --> 00:25:21.858 So the problem is is that we're not satisfied so often with what God has given us. 00:25:21.858 --> 00:25:25.400 The grass is not always greener on the other side. 00:25:27.590 --> 00:25:42.913 It's like the little girl who who, thinking of Psalm 23, she spoke better than she knew she said, instead of saying the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, she said the Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want, that's all I want. 00:25:42.913 --> 00:25:46.836 Is that the way you think, and most of us? 00:25:46.836 --> 00:25:48.170 So we want so many things. 00:25:48.170 --> 00:25:58.297 This is a hard thing to say the Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want, because, whether we admit it or not, we want some other things. 00:25:58.297 --> 00:26:04.930 Well, let's look down, and I want us to skip over and jump down to verses 13 through 16. 00:26:04.930 --> 00:26:13.797 We're looking at a third problem that he talked about oppression, envy, the problem that Solomon sees here, and we'll come back to verses seven through 12. 00:26:13.797 --> 00:26:15.074 Solomon sees. 00:26:15.134 --> 00:26:20.440 At the end of this section he makes this observation about arrogance. 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:25.019 Arrogance, and it relates to our human bent toward this problem. 00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:38.238 He says better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice, for he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. 00:26:38.238 --> 00:26:45.219 I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place. 00:26:45.219 --> 00:26:48.919 There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. 00:26:48.919 --> 00:26:53.240 Yet there was one who came later, who will not rejoice in him. 00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:56.237 Surely this also is vanity. 00:26:56.237 --> 00:26:58.142 And striving after when? 00:26:58.211 --> 00:27:06.289 Oh, this is a little hard to follow, but this is the only story or illustration he gives in this passage, and let's see if we can get the gist of it. 00:27:06.289 --> 00:27:18.595 So this time, solomon, he begins instead with this is better part, and the contrast first that he gives, and then he goes on to give us the rest of the story to illustrate the lesson. 00:27:18.595 --> 00:27:19.252 Let's look at it. 00:27:19.252 --> 00:27:29.737 So the contrast he gives is between a poor, wise youth and an old, foolish king, and, by the way, some people take that to be two different characters. 00:27:29.737 --> 00:27:31.837 I take this to mean this is one and the same guy. 00:27:31.837 --> 00:27:39.972 The young wise youth becomes the old foolish king, solomon says. 00:27:39.972 --> 00:27:42.440 He says I saw all this happen. 00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:43.512 I'm watching this. 00:27:44.269 --> 00:27:53.278 Though the wise man grew up, and though he landed himself in prison, he ended up being low and behold the king. 00:27:53.278 --> 00:27:55.143 Who would have ever thought? 00:27:55.143 --> 00:27:57.718 I mean, this is a true rags to riches story? 00:27:57.718 --> 00:28:02.059 And he goes from obscurity to royalty. 00:28:02.059 --> 00:28:04.375 Who would have thought that possible? 00:28:04.375 --> 00:28:10.357 So this young king, he said, had a large empire and he had therefore great influence. 00:28:10.357 --> 00:28:18.173 He had a lot of people he says in verse 16, there was no end to all the people, all of whom he led Great influence. 00:28:18.173 --> 00:28:28.881 But after being in that position for a number of years, he lost the most important thing he needed to be effective. 00:28:28.881 --> 00:28:29.491 What was it? 00:28:29.491 --> 00:28:34.039 The willingness to listen to the advice of other people. 00:28:34.039 --> 00:28:42.259 That was his downfall, and the result is no one liked him anymore. 00:28:42.259 --> 00:28:46.515 Though they were being led by him, they didn't care for him. 00:28:46.515 --> 00:28:48.616 That's what they he's making. 00:28:48.636 --> 00:28:53.721 This point, solomon's point, is terrible, then, to stop being teachable. 00:28:53.721 --> 00:28:55.712 Are you teachable? 00:28:55.712 --> 00:29:08.217 This morning Story here he gives us should be a warning for all of us, basically just not to be so full of ourselves, like that old king who was unwilling to hear what others have to say. 00:29:08.217 --> 00:29:16.060 In fact, I would say being teachable is the most important life skill that you could ever learn. 00:29:16.060 --> 00:29:25.176 Proverbs 13, verse 22, says refuse good advice and watch your plans fail. 00:29:25.176 --> 00:29:29.318 Take good counsel and watch them succeed. 00:29:31.690 --> 00:29:37.615 I was looking at a blog by a guy named Dave Murray and he wrote on this subject. 00:29:37.615 --> 00:29:40.664 He tells us what unteachability looks like. 00:29:40.664 --> 00:29:41.730 Take it the opposite. 00:29:41.730 --> 00:29:42.859 What is unteachability? 00:29:42.859 --> 00:29:47.144 That's not all you got to word, but this is what he coined to tell us what the opposite looks like. 00:29:47.144 --> 00:29:49.308 Here's what it looks like according to Dave. 00:29:49.308 --> 00:29:59.602 He says don't take notes, read books or learn anything unless it's the bare minimum or what's essential for exam purposes. 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:06.823 Don't ask questions or attempt anything that might reveal your ignorance or risk you looking stupid. 00:30:06.823 --> 00:30:12.661 Don't accept responsibility for your failures but blame anyone and everyone else. 00:30:12.661 --> 00:30:21.369 Don't seek or accept one-to-one personal guidance or mentoring from parents, teachers, pastors, elders. 00:30:21.369 --> 00:30:23.996 Don't talk, but talk. 00:30:23.996 --> 00:30:24.336 Talk. 00:30:24.336 --> 00:30:30.460 Talk about yourself, especially when you're with someone you can learn a lot from. 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:35.662 Don't take criticism or correction without resentment or retaliation. 00:30:35.662 --> 00:30:45.377 Resist, moving out of personal comfort zones and on work, study, ministry or relationships, but always look for the easy and familiar route. 00:30:47.009 --> 00:30:54.856 Don't read, listen to or learn anything that challenges existing presuppositions, practices and prejudices. 00:30:54.856 --> 00:30:57.015 That's being unteachable. 00:30:57.015 --> 00:31:02.661 There's another word for it about teachability. 00:31:02.661 --> 00:31:05.073 It's called humility. 00:31:05.073 --> 00:31:06.878 Humility. 00:31:06.878 --> 00:31:11.491 So he tells a story, and you know what I think about this story. 00:31:11.491 --> 00:31:22.460 Also, it's not just for those who need to be teachable, which is all of us, but it's about the young person too, who has something to offer when we don't think they do. 00:31:22.460 --> 00:31:29.599 This is an encouragement to young folks, really, because they can bring a lot of wisdom to the table. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:37.772 That's what this young man brought, and so we need to affirm that and value their contribution to God's kingdom. 00:31:37.772 --> 00:31:43.653 And we have such a great group of young folks here and they're actually putting themselves into ministry. 00:31:43.653 --> 00:31:45.714 You ought to be thankful for that. 00:31:45.714 --> 00:31:49.298 They bring good things to our church body. 00:31:50.250 --> 00:31:56.434 Well, let's finish up by going to this, the middle of the passage which we skipped over verses seven through 12. 00:31:56.434 --> 00:32:03.853 We see a final problem that Solomon observed in this fallen world that we can learn from, and that is aloneness. 00:32:03.853 --> 00:32:25.717 Aloneness, he says in verse seven again, I saw vanity under the sun, one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asked for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? 00:32:25.717 --> 00:32:29.339 This also is vanity and an unhappy business. 00:32:29.339 --> 00:32:33.056 Verse eight literally reads there is one and not a second. 00:32:33.056 --> 00:32:35.435 There is one and not a second. 00:32:35.435 --> 00:32:37.857 So this is not a feeling about being lonely. 00:32:37.857 --> 00:32:46.599 It's about a choice to be on your own, to do things independently and in isolation from everybody else, thinking I can do this by myself. 00:32:46.599 --> 00:32:53.102 And we kind of pride ourselves in that in America, don't we? 00:32:53.102 --> 00:32:58.277 It's like we call it rugged individualism and they're like way to go, way to go. 00:32:58.277 --> 00:33:02.278 Well, that's not necessarily what God would say. 00:33:03.549 --> 00:33:15.238 Solomon sees this time this solitary individual who he's working only for himself, not for the benefit or blessing of anybody else. 00:33:15.238 --> 00:33:18.396 And so this guy you think about this. 00:33:18.396 --> 00:33:23.075 This is a guy who maybe works 60, 70, 80 hours a week, but he doesn't do it for anybody. 00:33:23.075 --> 00:33:27.057 He has nobody, he's just working, he's working, working, working. 00:33:27.057 --> 00:33:30.000 He's in the rat race, but he doesn't really need to be. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:35.596 And so he's just working and he's putting all his money and mutual funds and everything else. 00:33:35.596 --> 00:33:37.736 And Solomon says for what? 00:33:37.736 --> 00:33:42.798 Why in the world he doesn't have any purpose to his work. 00:33:42.798 --> 00:33:49.099 He has all this stuff that he buys and he stores it in his garage, but for what purpose? 00:33:49.099 --> 00:33:51.472 And he never stops. 00:33:51.472 --> 00:33:54.276 He says he never stops and asks why am I doing this? 00:33:54.276 --> 00:33:57.805 And that's a deception. 00:33:57.805 --> 00:33:59.977 And the deception, what does it cause him? 00:33:59.977 --> 00:34:02.958 It causes him to be so busy. 00:34:02.958 --> 00:34:07.695 He doesn't ever make any friends or maybe even start a family. 00:34:07.695 --> 00:34:09.019 He's on his own. 00:34:09.019 --> 00:34:15.378 There's no really clue as to whether this guy is married, or maybe he's just a bachelor, who knows? 00:34:15.378 --> 00:34:17.456 But he hasn't any time for anyone else. 00:34:17.456 --> 00:34:30.054 He's making really costly sacrifices for wealth and really what we could say is money is his only friend. 00:34:30.054 --> 00:34:32.474 Know anybody like that? 00:34:32.474 --> 00:34:37.974 Solomon's clear, he said this makes for a really unhappy life. 00:34:39.759 --> 00:34:42.628 You know I was thinking of when I was working through this. 00:34:42.628 --> 00:34:48.802 I was thinking of the old recluse Howard Hughes, and many of you may not know him, but many do. 00:34:48.802 --> 00:35:01.166 He was a billionaire who, back in the 20s, he had so much of the world's wealth but he died alone, and some of these things that you find out about Howard Hughes are amazing. 00:35:01.166 --> 00:35:09.918 His life, by the way, was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie the Aviator in 19 or 2004. 00:35:09.918 --> 00:35:13.864 And so, for Howard Hughes, his life was really amazing. 00:35:13.864 --> 00:35:23.329 He was a brilliant guy and from 1927 to the 47, he became a really successful film producer and an aviation magnet. 00:35:23.329 --> 00:35:25.940 He was well respected around the world. 00:35:25.981 --> 00:35:27.525 But he suffered from one little thing. 00:35:27.525 --> 00:35:47.425 He suffered from what we call OCD obsessive-compulsive disorder and over the years that began to get worse and worse until he started to defect him and he started to isolate himself and he had this intense phobia by the way of germs. 00:35:47.425 --> 00:35:50.161 So he did all kinds of stuff. 00:35:50.161 --> 00:35:55.065 He would get in his hotel room, he would pull the shades and be in a darkened room. 00:35:55.065 --> 00:36:00.445 He'd watch movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, months on end. 00:36:00.445 --> 00:36:02.657 But he had enough money. 00:36:02.657 --> 00:36:06.378 He could stay in these hotels and pay people just to stay there, but he never left his room. 00:36:06.378 --> 00:36:12.425 He died April 5, 1976. 00:36:13.655 --> 00:36:19.146 And at the end there's pictures on the internet where it shows him he looks like a homeless guy. 00:36:19.146 --> 00:36:28.498 In the earlier pictures he looks like a well-dressed businessman, but they show him with because he had this fear of germs. 00:36:28.498 --> 00:36:33.487 He had like boxes on his feet, things on his hand. 00:36:33.487 --> 00:36:36.000 He let his fingernails grow long. 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:37.661 He just became really odd. 00:36:37.661 --> 00:36:40.181 And the reason he became odd is because he was alone. 00:36:40.181 --> 00:36:50.007 He left a big estate $2.5 billion to 11 cousins that he didn't even know. 00:36:51.815 --> 00:36:58.400 Working, working, working, but having no one Sad. 00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:08.840 I used to work with a guy that I ever, once in a while, I dropped by his office and invited him to lunch, and so many times I'd go in. 00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:10.284 He said I can't go. 00:37:10.284 --> 00:37:12.762 He said I am, so why not? 00:37:12.762 --> 00:37:22.282 And he said I am planning out what I'm going to buy with my next paycheck and I thought, hmm, okay. 00:37:25.454 --> 00:37:36.025 So in contrast to this drivenness you remember, there's contrast on all these Solomon tells us that companionship is better than being and doing life alone. 00:37:36.025 --> 00:37:39.719 That's why we meet here, folks. 00:37:39.719 --> 00:37:49.762 That's why people that are not here are losing out, but they don't sometimes even know it, and that's why we need to reach out to them and invite them back. 00:37:49.762 --> 00:37:51.960 So you need to be in community. 00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:56.244 You don't know what this does when you're not together. 00:37:56.244 --> 00:38:01.126 God does things here, folks, when you're here, that he doesn't do anyplace else. 00:38:01.126 --> 00:38:12.786 When we have communion, we have baptism, god works and he gives things to us that we cannot get any other way. 00:38:12.786 --> 00:38:31.820 So, like this, every Batman needs a Robin, every Sherlock needs a Dr Watson, every Calvin needs a Hobbes, every Frodo needs a Sam, every poo needs a Tigger, every Tarzan needs a Jane, every burger needs fry. 00:38:31.820 --> 00:38:35.659 Oh sorry, I'm getting a little close to lunch so I didn't mean to say that. 00:38:35.800 --> 00:38:41.168 One but two are better than one. 00:38:41.168 --> 00:38:42.650 That's the title of this message. 00:38:42.650 --> 00:38:43.778 Two are better than one. 00:38:43.778 --> 00:38:48.161 Solomon gives us four advantages to this. 00:38:48.161 --> 00:38:49.905 Look at them. 00:38:49.905 --> 00:38:51.880 Let's look at them one by one. 00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:55.101 The first one is why is two better than one? 00:38:55.101 --> 00:38:58.708 In verse nine, because they are more productive in their work. 00:38:58.708 --> 00:39:02.485 When you've got two people, he says, they have a good reward for their toil. 00:39:02.485 --> 00:39:06.686 So we have a cleaning business on the side. 00:39:06.686 --> 00:39:13.177 And when I have to, for one reason or another, or my wife or my daughter goes and has to do that by themselves. 00:39:13.177 --> 00:39:17.005 It takes three times as long or maybe longer. 00:39:17.005 --> 00:39:22.804 But when we do it together as a team, it gets done faster and we make more money. 00:39:24.815 --> 00:39:28.239 Simple, two are better than one. 00:39:28.239 --> 00:39:41.942 One reason, he says, is because they can help each other in times of trouble, he says, for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. 00:39:41.942 --> 00:39:55.599 You know, I was so thankful when both of my parents, at different times, went through cancer and we cared for them. 00:39:55.599 --> 00:40:06.681 But it was a whole lot easier because everyone in the family pitched in and we had a rotating schedule, so it wasn't too heavy on anyone. 00:40:06.681 --> 00:40:08.317 This is what he's saying. 00:40:08.317 --> 00:40:26.164 In times of trouble, when you have someone to count on, who can pick you up when they need a ride or to help you with a project or do things that you just need help on, you can't do by yourself, it's good to have a friend, good to have a friend. 00:40:27.297 --> 00:40:32.123 And the third reason two are better than one, he says, is because another person can help you literally survive. 00:40:32.123 --> 00:40:36.500 If two lie together, he says, they keep warm. 00:40:36.500 --> 00:40:39.867 But how can one keep warm alone? 00:40:39.867 --> 00:40:43.925 You know, that may make us think about marriage, but it's really about something else. 00:40:43.925 --> 00:40:56.208 It's about like a traveler out walking the open road, and in that day, if you got caught out in the open fields or open on the open road, guess what? 00:40:56.208 --> 00:41:00.697 When it got to be nighttime, you could freeze to death, it would get cold. 00:41:00.697 --> 00:41:15.458 And so you know, I think, thinking about someone who has got a friend, you could kind of get back to back and you could stay warm, you could survive. 00:41:17.175 --> 00:41:18.398 But it's also true about marriage. 00:41:18.398 --> 00:41:31.777 If you're privileged to have a maid, you know, when Nikki and Ollie down at night, she says you are like a furnace and I'm hot, you're making me hot. 00:41:31.777 --> 00:41:35.737 So that's not what I'm talking about. 00:41:35.737 --> 00:41:40.168 But guess what? 00:41:40.168 --> 00:41:43.663 When you have another person to help you survive, that just doesn't mean physically. 00:41:43.663 --> 00:41:46.079 It can be spiritually too. 00:41:46.079 --> 00:41:55.661 When you're cold in your heart, when you need people to warm your soul for the Lord, and it's just you have a cold heart, guess what? 00:41:55.661 --> 00:42:00.777 Somebody comes alongside you and puts their arm around you and says it's not as bad as you think. 00:42:00.777 --> 00:42:02.342 There's another day. 00:42:02.342 --> 00:42:04.121 This was today, but tomorrow's coming. 00:42:04.121 --> 00:42:06.039 There's new mercies tomorrow. 00:42:06.039 --> 00:42:07.757 Things like that. 00:42:07.757 --> 00:42:09.181 It can warm you up. 00:42:09.181 --> 00:42:12.300 Solomon knew what he was talking about. 00:42:14.025 --> 00:42:18.360 Being cold, though, is not the only danger that people faced on the open road. 00:42:18.360 --> 00:42:21.083 Very often there were dangerous people out there. 00:42:21.083 --> 00:42:35.760 If you got caught out there, we know the story of the prodigal son, the good Samaritan Thank you, patty the good Samaritan who got beat up on the road, and there was only one guy who stopped to help. 00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:39.800