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Hey, so we're glad to be back. We're still going through as a as a staff, as a church, we're going through just reading through the Bible. And so we're going to dive into that today. But before we do that, next week. Next week, it is the 4th of July. So we are doing something we've never done before because we didn't want to have to cancel anything again. So we are next week, this will be the men's luncheon and the 60 plus lunch together. Okay, we're just going to do it all together, fellowship, and do that because of the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, different things are going on, getting ready for Sunday. And so next week we'll do, we'll still have the men's luncheon, everything will be the same, but 60 plus will join us that particular day for the activities for that. Okay. Also, uh, if you have not, I just want to challenge you that if you have not read through the Bible, like chronological, that's what our church is in. Today I was reading in um 2 Corinthians or Chronicles, I mean. 2 Corinthians, we're not that far. But I would just tell you this: it's just amazing all the different stories. Uh Solomon has passed, his son's on the throne, and the kingdom has split. I'm saying all this to say it's not too late to start today. Join us. Get in that, just reading through the scripture. Um, it's it's it's it, man. I just every day I read something and it's like, wow, that fits there. And I've done it before. That's the one thing about the scripture. It's not like a old historical book you're gonna read and be done and put on your shelf. The more you read through it, the more your eyes are open, the more things are revealed, the more the Lord speaks to you. And so it's just dive into it, please. It's great. Okay, today I we're gonna be in ecclesiastics. And I got a question before we start. Think about this. What good is wisdom? Think about that just for a second. What good is wisdom? Now, in the book of Ecclesiastics, I want to um, I'm gonna go through it real quick because I think it's listen, listen to these little subheadings in the book of Ecclesiastics. It says this everything is meaningless, pleasures are meaningless, wisdom and folly are meaningless, toil is meaningless. There's a time for everything. We go through ecclesiastics here and we see to the point that the teacher, which we think is King Solomon, the teacher says this. He says, I've had it all. I've had any woman that I wanted, which is pretty scary, and the Lord awarded him that, but I've had any woman that I wanted, I've had more money than I wanted. We were reading something just in Sunday. He he already had a throne, he decided to build another throne of ivory and then covered it with gold. This guy had whatever he wanted when he wanted, and then he was known as the smartest man ever. This guy had everything going, but he still hadn't found anything. This is how he ended the book of Ecclesiastics. Listen to this. It says this. Now all has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is what the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. He said that none of this stuff matters except for what?

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Obedience to God.

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Obedience to God. And how easy it is in our world to get so and I'll just say this there's times I have done something and I've got so wrapped up in it that it distracted me from my walk with the Lord. And listen to this, it was something good. It's not always something bad, if you know what I mean. And so today, as we as we look at this, and I'm gonna get into this, and I want to be careful with this because it's not supposed to go this direction. This is sometimes used at a funeral. But it reminds me uh up to about six years ago, I hadn't even done but like two funerals. And after this, I've done quite a few funerals. And it's amazing that each time I go talk to a family at a funeral, they are working through something. Tom Bull, and I don't think he would mind me telling you this, but Tom Bull's wife died. I mean, it was just kind of a surprise. She got sick and it wasn't long and she passed away, but uh, right before the funeral, I was doing the funeral, I had talked to him. He calls me. And this was the day before the funeral, and he says, Hey, I've just got a call from the funeral home. My wife is ready for the viewing. I don't have anyone to go with me. Will you go with me? And you know, I again I'm thinking, why would he ask me? You know, in my mind, I'm like, what? I'm like, sure. So he swings by, picks me up, and we go over there. And I will never forget this. We go in, it's over here at Edwards, we open the front door, and the lady catches us, and she says she's in the chapel. So the chapel has many doors, and I'm telling you, I couldn't keep up. Tom goes walking in, I'm trying to follow him. I'm and in my mind, I'm thinking, what is it I'm supposed to be doing? You know what I mean? This isn't about me, but I'm there to help him. And he he pauses right before the double doors. He takes a deep breath, and then he heads down that middle aisle almost in a sprint. And I will never forget, I will say this. When you hear the scriptures say, For God so loved the world, there's times you're like, what does that love look like? You know what I'm saying? I get it. God loved me so much and loved you so much that he sent his son Jesus, but sometimes we hear the word love and it's like, what? We can't even put, we cannot define God's love for us because there's not a word that describes that in our vocabulary. We do not even, you understand where I'm going with this, but this particular day, the way Tom was going to his wife, and when he got to his wife, listen, there was not a tear, even though there was sorrow. You understand what I'm saying? He looks at her, and I'll never forget he looks at her, he says, You are so beautiful. And he says, I miss you. I mean, these are but then he says this. Because she said this. About four or five days, I went to visit him in the hospital when all the news happened, and she says this. She says, This has not taken God by surprise. God, my God, is still is still in control. Now, you are so beautiful. We're in the you are so beautiful. I already miss you. But then he says, right there, he says this. But God is still in control. That's taking us to what I want to read today. And look in, if you will, look at, let's let's look here. This is Ecclesiastics 7 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart. Now, I'm reading this, but we are going to leave on a positive note. Okay, hang in there with me, okay? Okay, so it says, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart. We see this. I want to compare the two. The house of feasting represents. Now, is there a time to go to a feast and spend time with your family? These are pictures here, okay? Listen to me. Says the house of feasting represents distraction and temporary illusion that the world, this is all the world is. Okay? Okay? So the house of mourning represents a reality, a depth, a clarity, a remember, a reminder, a reminder of there's an end. Okay? Now, so we look at the house of mourning gives us truth. Truth that a house of feasting simply cannot provide. Okay, and what do I mean by that? Here we go. I think there's about five things that I want to point out that I think we see in this passage of scripture. Says the first one, it delivers a reality check of our morality. You know, as I was growing up, and I'm still even to a point of this as um, let's just forget it. I mean, okay, it delivers a reality check of our morality. Okay, morality, have you been there? Have you seen it? I taught school, I saw it with boys. Nothing's ever gonna happen to me. I've got it. I've got life all figured out, no one can hurt me in a way I'm what's the opposite of immortal. And you see whether the idea of I'm good. Acknowledging our morality isn't meant to make us despair, it's meant to ground us. Because we see it here, for death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart. There's the warning. Testing. Okay, there we go. Hey, let me just say a prayer. Can I pray real quick? I gotta get back together. Here we go. Dear God, thank you so much. Lord, I thank you for your word. Thank you for your challenge today, even in my own life. Lord, just help us be able to finish this. And Lord, I just forget my voice. You speak to these guys. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Okay, so the first one, it delivers a reality of a check on our morality. The next one is it fixes our broken perspectives. When we are at a party, we focus on the immediate and the trivial. When we are confronting, when we are confronting loss, our perspective undergoes a massive switch. I was at another hospital visit. This lady was sitting by her husband. The doctor comes in, her husband's kind of had a stroke. He was laying there. The doctor comes in and says, This, sorry, there's nothing else we can do, he's gonna die. I mean, it was just flat like that. And the lady that I was with looked at the doctor and said, This, have you ever loved someone for 56 years? And you know, you think about something just for a second and you think, well, she just said that. Listen, I know that that marriage was not perfect. Because none of them are, right? But at that moment, she had forgot the things that he had done wrong, the times that he didn't mow the yard, the times that he had said something he shouldn't have said. You see what I'm saying? She was at a point of what? When she was confronting loss, there was a difference. In that moment, all she could remember was what? How much she loved Ralph for fifty-six years. Isn't there something about when we come to confronting loss, all of a sudden our thoughts, our ideas, concepts change? Number three, it cultivates genuine humility. The house of feasting feeds our egos, encourages us, and escape from a reality. The house of mourning encourages self-examination. And what is self-examination? It takes us back to what what were we created for? You know, when we go back, we were created what to have a relationship with the Lord. And what does sin do? Sin separates that, makes it hard. I mean, it just but when we really get down to self-examination, it really takes me back. It reminds me of John 3.30. This is John the Baptist. And his disciples were coming to him, and they were like, hey, there's a guy out there that is that is taking your disciples from you is talking about Jesus. And what a statement he says to his own disciples. He says this, he must increase. Who's he talking about here? Jesus, right? Listen to this evaluation. John the Baptist says what? He must increase and I must decrease. You know what? There's just something about an evaluation of where we're at in a certain time that it should lead to this. It's not about me. It's about my walk with the Lord and who the Lord wants me to be in him. Number four, it enhances our uh capacity for true joy. That day in the hospital, I mean, not in the hospital, that we were in the the uh funeral home, and Tom was looking at his wife. I don't want to say there was the joy that we think of, but there was a joy in that room. There was a sorrow, there was a pain, but there was a joy in that room. And I think sometimes we we've we've we get mixed up and we forget what joy means. The joy I'm talking about that I thought Tom experienced that day was the joy, listen, it was the idea of God is in control. And when I live in that speck of that time when I realize that God is in control, it brings us joy knowing that I'm not in control. But when we look death in the face and recognize how fragile life really is, we return to the everyday world with a deep sense of gratitude. I have never talked to anyone that was in a deep sense of gratitude, did not realize what God had done in their life. Now, when Matt Passmore gets running fast and Matt Passmore starts talking and Matt Passmore does different things, all of a sudden what? I can think Matt Passmore is pretty good. You know what I'm saying? The more money Matt Passmore has in his wallet, look what Matt Passmore did today. Wow, look at this advice I gave someone. You see what I'm saying? And I think that's why there's a warning. That Solomon even makes a warning. Be careful about your wisdom. Because what does wisdom bring if we're not careful? It brings our self-kudos. Um, I love this verse. Listen, this is uh Samuel. Samuel's at the end of his life. Remember, Samuel was the one that he didn't want a king because he thought God was the king and they were wanting a king, and God said, Give them a king. You remember this is what so at the end of Samuel's life, he gives it, he gives it to him. He says, You remember, and he went through all the things that had happened to him, all the things that God has done for him. And he goes through, he's encouraging them, and then he ends this. He ends, he says, This. But this is what I think you should know. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. You know, so many times we think that if you know what, if I'm right with the Lord and I'm doing everything he's asked me to do and all that, life's just gonna be easy. But that's not anywhere in Scripture. And the thing I want to challenge on that is, and we see it and I see it, life is hard. And you know what? It's those hard times that the Lord really does something in my life and shows himself even more than the times that are easy and good. I mean over and over I've heard people say this. I would not give up this hard time. Because it was through that hard time that made me realize how big God really is. You know what I'm gonna say? I mean, it's it's those tough times when I have no way to turn, I have nowhere to go, that what? It makes me rely and realize how big God is. So the last one, it drives us toward eternal hope. For the believer, confronting, I'm sorry, for the believer, confronting death forces us to anchor our hope, not in our own current circumstances, but in the eternal promise of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This last passage of scripture, I want to just, you remember, Jesus was with his disciples, and he gets word that Lazarus has died. And he goes to the disciples, and the disciples say, Oh, we don't want to go there. You remember last time they tried to kill you? He's just asleep. You remember the whole thing? And Jesus says, No, we need to go. So they go back, and as they're going there, Martha comes running out. She's talking to Jesus, but Jesus says this one of the greatest, and there's a lot of promises about death in Scripture, but this is one of the greatest ones that Jesus says. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. What a promise. So my thought of thinking about eternity is the idea of remembering how big God is. And remember, there is going to be a day as a believer that I should look forward to. When I pass, and Brother Dell does a great job of this, when my earthly tent is done, I'm headed to heaven. And I will say this, this isn't to scare you, but this is the idea if, and this is one of the great look, listen to this question. So he asked Martha this. I am the resurrection of life, the one who believes in me will live even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. And then he looks at her and says, Do you believe this? I think it's a great question to ask today. If you're in this room and you're struggling with, do I believe this? Please talk to someone today. Because today's message should leave here. We should leave here excited and knowing who God is. And if I have a relationship with him, I know where my eternity is. And the purpose of today's lesson is knowing where my eternity is should dictate, should encourage, should help me live my life today to be more like Christ. Not that I'm earning my spot in heaven because of my relationship with God that's in heaven. See what I'm saying? So today, I want to challenge you, depending on where you're at, depending on if this is a question you have, do you believe this and you're uncertain, please talk to someone at your table, come talk to me, because that's what we want you to leave here. I don't want you to leave here gloom and doom. I want you to leave here excited because we have a God that loved you so much, that sent his son Jesus to die for us, and through that we have eternal life, and death has no power over us. So let's pray. And thank you for being here today. Dear God, I come before you now. If there's someone in this group that does not know you, that does not have the assurance of salvation, Lord, I ask you just to stir in their hearts. Give them the courage, the boldness to ask, to talk. Help them not leave here. And Lord, I know many of us, myself included, I can get wrapped up in the things of the world, just like the verse said, the party of the world and the things that are happening now. And Lord, just uh help me keep my eyes on eternity, not to sit back and not do anything, but think my on the eternity that there is a task that you've given me to do here on the earth, and it will it will it will be going until the day of my eternity. And Lord, I thank you for that, and thank you for that challenge. Lord, thank you for these men. I ask you to bless them as they leave here today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thanks, guys.