May 17, 2026 - Morning Service

We continue our studies on Caution with cultural/ancient proverbs from Ecclesiastes 7:15-29.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

You're turning with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. We're going to attempt to walk through verses 15 to the end of the chapter. But before we do, I want to mention two things. And if you know me, you know I'm a stickler that when we come to worship, it's all about Jesus lifting up his name because he's the only one worthy of our praise. But sometimes I want to say things and do things that are not normal for me. People do it all the time, but I'm just not a big fan of it. But I want to just let you in on a little secret on something, on this first issue. Tell you something that happened Wednesday night at church. Wednesday night we had our missions night, our normal night. The second Wednesday night of the month is always missions night. We have a nice meal, and then the men and the women break up in two groups. So we're serving our meal. And normally when we don't have a meal, we've got two different activities going on at the church. We've got our you know Wednesday night prayer meeting. I call it, we call it prayer meeting, but it's really prayer meeting slash Bible study because we're still going through the book of Acts. The other event that's going on is our English as a second language classes. As you know, we've changed the time a little bit. It's been a little bit awkward trying to figure out how that's going to work. But I want you to understand this church is not my church. This church is not your church. Yeah, I do a lot for it. Yeah, everyone in this room, you do a lot for it, but this is God's church. And God is going to do what he wants done. Despite how good or bad a preacher I might be, or how good or bad or faithful or unfaithful of a member you might be. God's going to have his will done. And this ESL class, I just want to mention this. It's been a little bit of a struggle, been a little bit nervous, you know, because you don't know who's going to come up and how it's going to go. And the Lord's provided us some teachers. We're grateful for those of you in the room that are hearing me, they're teaching. We're grateful for that. And the craziest thing in the last couple weeks, we've been having new students come in, inquire, we want to take the class. That's a God thing, okay? Because all we do is we'll go around and we'll put announcements up at their Mexican restaurants. It's not much of announcing, but that's something, right? And even Wednesday night, we had two more people coming and inquiring about the class. Now, truth be told, the ESL class, the last week of it for the semester, is this Wednesday. We're going to give them some certificates, those who've been faithful to come. And then after that, we're going to do some surveys and we're going to check in and we're going to plan for the fall to get ready for the fall. But the reason I brought it up to begin with is Wednesday night, I'm trying to enjoy my meal. Matter of fact, I think I was probably talking to Larry Fields. And I look over to my left. And you know what I see? Joyce Henley's back in there on the other side of the table, sitting across from one of our students. Now, Joyce, I know you probably don't know much Spanish besides Taco Bell or something like that. I know you don't know a lot. But what I observed is kind of what we're looking for to help them teach English, to merge a little bit together. Yeah, it'd be awkward if we if we spoke in Spanish and thought them all to come here. It would be awkward if we all spoke English and they don't have a chance to practice their English. They have a chance in the class, as you know, but it's not a lot. But it blessed my soul. So I want to say thanks. Because there's an opportunity for people who come on this campus to practice a little bit of English. I don't even know what they talked about. Maybe they didn't talk at all, but it looked like they were both talking. Are y'all talking in English? Yeah. So thank you for that. Just a small example. No, no, other people have done that too. You know, we all do that. So just I'm not trying to pick somebody out, but it just blessed my soul to see that. Uh, the other thing I want to mention is I'm going to tell a quick story about my own life because I think it applies to the sermon. The title is Costum of Cultural and Ancient Proverbs. And we're going to look at that. If you remember last week, we did a little test about what proverbs do you know. I think that was last week, wasn't it? And we said, like uh the early bird catches the, and everybody said worm. You know, and we did a few others, so okay. So that's what we're going to look at today. But one of the proverbs sort of kind of hits closer to home. And we're going to look at the proverb in a minute, but I want to tell you my story first. So you'll think about it as I walk through this. Don't remember the year. But Debbie and I were living in Texas, working on my studies for PhD, so we'd come off the mission field. And we were serving in this church, active in this church, and one day the pastor resigns. And as soon as he resigned, like up at the pulpit, as he turned away, another gentleman stood up. And the pastor was kind of saying, This person is going to be the one that's going to kind of lead us forward as a church to go forward. I'll have to be honest with you. In that very moment, God said to me, That man that stood up is going to be the pastor, and you're going to have to leave the church. Sometimes God can say things to me. And I'm like, I don't know about that. Or yeah, right, or whatever. What I didn't understand at the time is that God was at work in his church to do what he was trying to do. At that same time, he was at work in my life, in my family's life, to eventually get us back on the mission field. Had we not left the church, we would not have those same opportunities that put us on a fast track with another church to go overseas four or five times to Peru, which led to us actually being back on the field and me working with theological education. The reason I mentioned that is that little brief period of time when I stayed at the church, I got put on the pastor search committee. I've been on one before, passion for the Lord, passion for his truth. But as we delve, dove studied more about this candidate, there were some things I didn't like. You see, because I was so zealous for the faith that I was looking for the perfect person to pastor the church. The apostle Paul could have come in, or Peter could have come in, and I said no. Jesus would have come in, yeah, I'd have been different. I'd said yes. Okay. But we went through probably three months of going back and forth around and around with this pastor. Even getting off the committee, it got bad. Before the church finally called them to be the pastor. Now, as God had said, we left the church not long after that. Not out of anger, we still loved everybody there, we liked the guy that was there, just didn't think he was fully qualified. But the reason I mention that is to say that during that time of struggle, I wasted a lot of time thinking that I knew me and a couple other people of the community knew better than everybody else about what God wanted for his church. And God's not looking for the perfect person to pastor the church because they don't exist. He's looking for those who are humble, who know they have been forgiven, no matter what the sin is, who are willing to serve him and who have been called to serve him. So that little zeal I have for the Lord and for his word caused me a lot of stress. And when I look back, I'm like, oh my goodness. God was doing something. God was bringing a man, his chosen man for that church who's still there today. And this was probably in 2010, maybe. So we're talking probably 15, 16 years, he's still at that church, to my knowledge. And God was at work in my life to move us to another church that was very mission-minded that was gonna help us get back on the field. But I lost a lot in between because of my religious seal. So today, as we walk through this passage, think about the different proverbs that you're gonna hear and listen to the spirit, unless seek to walk humbly before God, finding meaning in our relationship with Him and enjoying life no matter what comes, be it the good, be it the bad, or anything in between. So we think about these ideas of these cultural proverbs, you're gonna see in here a couple of times I've got the word proverb written out, a lowercase. In that case, I'm talking about like a proverb or a saying. If you see it with a capital letter, usually I think I've got it abbreviated. That's when I'm actually talking about the book of Proverbs and something in the book of Proverbs. So let's let's take a look at this. This text today, we've got it broken down in three different sections. We'll take them one at a time. The first one talks about caution with religious zeal. Okay. Now, when I say religious zeal, I'm not sure we know what I'm talking about. This idea that we had this strong desire to serve the Lord, to be in the word and preach his word and make sure his word's upheld. Okay. If that's done properly, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. Remember the case with Jesus? Didn't he have religious zeal? He walks into the temple one time and that's supposed to be a place of worship, but when he comes in the doors, he doesn't see people worshiping. What does he see? He sees some tables light up with a bunch of different types of money on the tables. They were exchanging money. And what does he do in that religious zeal? Well, he walks in and flips all the tables, all that coins, they go everywhere, right? That's a holy, that's a righteous, that's a good type of religious zeal. But then there's also people like the apostle, before he was the apostle Paul, his name was Saul. We've looked at this in Acts. Wasn't he very religious? Zeal so much that he was prosecuting those who were going against what he thought was the church? Right? It was like a Pharisee. He was trying to hold up man's law. That kind of goes into legalism almost to an extent. Paul talks about how he was uh zealous. And that kind can get you destroyed. So we're going to take a look at that. So we're going to look at first caution of religious zeal. Let's move on into it and start us off. But as we read the first proverb that we're going to look at in Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 15, before I read that, I want you to hear this other proverb, okay? In the actual book of Proverbs, there is a saying, a wise saying, that says, The fear of the Lord prolongs life. But the years of the wicked will be cut short. I've read that verse in high school. I found it at the time with a friend of mine who used to ride the bus together who was mean as a dag of snake, younger than me, so I wasn't scared of him because that could whip him, but just mean as I'll get out, tragically died in a motorcycle wreck or like a four-wheeler, not a four-wheeler, just a moped, or just uh, we didn't have ATVs back then, but just a dirt bike. That's the word I'm looking for, a dirt bike, right? And I got to thinking, well, Lord, is that really true, this saying? Because he was so bad, God took his life. But in that same time period, two of my best friends in church lost their fathers, who were good, godly people. So I got a little bit confused. Well, wait a minute, if the Lord, if the righteous are gonna live a long time, why did these two men die? Was there sin in their life or something we didn't know about and God struck them down? No, that wasn't the case. Life happens. Yes, God's in control, but life happens. And there's gonna be times where things are just not gonna work out like we think. Yes, there's value, there's a proverb. This is a wise saying that those who fear the Lord, he may prolong their life. Okay? Those who are wicked, their life can be cut short. Okay, that is a proverb, that is a saying, that is not a command, that is not a promise, it's simply a wise saying. It's God's word, but it's a wise saying. So I say that to say when we think about this idea of Proverbs, just because it says it as a proverb doesn't mean it's law and it's gonna happen every time. If so, some of y'all might have been taken out a long time ago in your old wicked days, right? And some of us should still be here who've gone on because we're holy and righteous and loving people that God chose to take early. So just kind of keep that in mind when we think about the Proverbs, think about how that looks. Now let's take a look. Verse 15. Solomon's talking here as the wise teacher, the king, the preacher. Listen to what he says. In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in doing evil. Now, when you see that word in his vain life, don't think necessarily we're talking about just that Solomon's had a bad life. Okay, Solomon's had a good life. He was the son of a king, he became king, and the Almighty God asked him, Hey, what do you want? I'll give you anything you want. And he asked for wisdom. So, what did God do? God blessed him with wisdom and gave him everything else. Fortune, wisdom, everything else he needed. Okay. When you see the word vain, it can also mean breath or vapor. So in his short life, this short amount of breath, a little bit he's been on the earth up until this point, as he's observing things in his wisdom, he finds out, he sees that there are people who are righteous and they die probably too soon. But yet there are those who are wicked, very wicked, and their life seems to go on and on and on. Verse 16 do not be overly righteous and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Now think about that. Could we be overly righteous? Righteous being right before God, being holy? Never could be holy enough because we're sinful people, we're still gonna sin. But is there something about what I mentioned a minute ago about that religious zeal? To where we think that we're right, so much so, that we're gonna fight for it till death? The illustration in Texas. Nobody died over that. I spent a lot of nights ticked, upset you and asked Debbie how many times I come home and complained about the search committees meeting we had. What did that gain mean? High blood pressure. That's all it did, you know, stress. It was worthless. Don't be overly righteous and don't make yourself out to be too wise. Seeking to be religiously zealed, fighting for truth, and trying to learn and gain wisdom. It's okay to do that, but you've got to have a balance in that. Because if not, the question he asks is, why would you destroy yourself? What do you mean by that? Well, if we seek to get so much wisdom and don't know how to properly use it, instead of trying to use it for God's glory to encourage and love on people, we might end up turning people off from listening to us. Same with religious zeal. What if we try to so much so to be holy, we follow all the right rules, do all the right things, and then condemn those who don't or don't have the same convictions as we do, you're gonna turn them off? It's one thing if it happens in the church, okay? It's a whole nother thing if that religious zeal gets out in the street. Let me give you an example. Can I just be straight up with you and give you an example? Let's talk about homosexuality for a second. Bible is very clear, black and right, on what that means, okay? But that is a sin, just like any other sin you want to mention. Sin is a sin, okay? Gossip, abuse of drugs, alcohol, whatever. Okay? So, yes, we know what the Bible says. So, do I need to go out in the streets, find people who are living a homosexual lifestyle, and say you're going to hell, or God don't like you? That's a religious zeal. What if when we come across people who are struggling with that, or maybe married or whatever, we seek to do like Christ did, to be their friend, to love them, to help them understand more about who God is. Now, I'm not God. I don't get to choose who goes to heaven or not. I know what his word says. But if I can get people to be closer to Jesus, you know what? Jesus is God. So he can clean up that person. And I just pick homosexuality, the first word I thought of. Pick something else, somebody with a foul mouth. I can come to, let's let's pretend Howard's a sailor cusser or something like that. Before he comes to church and say, no, you got to clean yourself up before you come into church. That's what the Bible says. Bible says we've got to take people to Jesus. So if I know Howard's a cussing all the time and got a real foul mouth, let him come on into church, not necessarily being a member, but come into church. Let him hear the preaching the word of God on a daily basis or every Sunday. And watch how the Holy Spirit can change that person's life. See, if I had that religious zeal, I'd be like, you know what, Howard, you got a dirty tongue. The Bible says, you know, speak good to your neighbor, speak good, don't say anything, you know, all this stuff. For him, it's like, I'm not worthy to come. I'll never be good enough. But when we show the love of Christ, a holy zeal, righteous zeal for us living holy, understanding they're not at the point where they have those same convictions, let's let God do that and watch what he'll do. Now, Howard comes into church, he's got this mouth. Howard, I don't mean I approve of everything that comes out your mouth, okay? I probably haven't heard half the words you're gonna say. But I still love you and pray that God will get a hold of you and watch what he's gonna do. Does that make sense? Really, for any sin. If we had a prostitute walk in the door, I don't know any prostitutes. Um yeah, obviously I think we've all seen them in the streets and places like that. I've seen them overseas a lot, but somebody could come in like that. I'm not gonna say, excuse me, you need to leave, and then when you get right and start living right, then you can come. It's not how it works. We need to introduce people to Jesus. So you get what I'm saying about this religious zeal? It's good to have for the holiness of the Lord. And God convicts us about holiness in our own selves. That's great. But other people, we got to be a little bit gentle. Not pulling off some kind of false love for them or faking anything, but true acceptance as a person, even though we don't agree with their lifestyle and their sin, whatever that sin may be. So let's watch. Because that holy righteousness can destroy us. The idea, what's the big picture? A simple way to put it, don't be a fanatic. You know what a fanatic is, right? You got people who love sports, and then you got people like what happened to me yesterday told me to leave the premises of their building because I was wearing a Clemson shirt instead of a Carolina shirt. And I don't want no amens on that. Okay, those are fanatics, okay? They were a jest, it was just we were having fun, and you know, they were just jealous because I made the shirt look good or something. I don't know. But we can love Jesus, we can be a religious fanatic, but in the sense that we're gonna show love as Christ showed love. Okay, because when he showed love to people, he showed love to people that I don't feel comfortable being around. You know what I'm saying? So let's love. And if you're gonna have a religious zeal, make sure it's the right reason, the right place. Hope that makes sense. Verse 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. So why should you die before your time? Now be careful with This one, okay. It says, be not overly wicked. That's not giving you permission to be a little wicked, okay? Okay, be careful because you could the way you read that in English, or in Greek for that matter, is the same thing. It could get you thinking, oh, it's okay to be a little mischief. No, no, no, no. But the idea, the reminder here is, hey, in the midst of your living, make sure you're not falling after the ways of fools, follow after the ways of wisdom and godly people. Because it is true, sometimes God can take people out early because of their sin. So be aware of that. The generalization, the problem people thought of back in the day was that if you obey all the rules, you're safe. You obey all the rules. And what I mean by that, well, but didn't we just read that the righteous could have a longer life? And then those who are wicked are going to have a shorter life? Okay, if that's the proverb, people think, oh, that's the rule. Okay, well, I'm doing all the right things. I come to church, I tithe, I give a little extra, I donate my time, da-da-da-da. I'm doing all the right things. I'm super righteous. I'm okay. Well, duh, good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. So what are we saying here? Solomon's trying to say, look, live your life, follow after the Lord, enjoy the life. Whether you have a short life, long life, whether you're rich or poor, be grateful for what God's doing in your life and enjoy life. Don't don't go into that sin, and don't overly sin. No, no, don't do that. But just because you obey all the rules doesn't mean you're safe. Be aware of that. Next one, verse 18. It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Now, I'm gonna read the statement here. And seeking wisdom. And the second one is enjoying the good things of life, which is the whole theme of Ecclesiastes. You know, seek after the Lord, seek after wisdom, not overdoing it, but also seeking to enjoy the life that God's given you. Whether you're fighting for your next meal or you've got plenty. Make sure you're enjoying life. We've heard sermons on this, right? People who've got more than they don't know what to do with are not happy because they're always worried about making the next dollar or somebody taking what they've got. And then they ain't gonna take it with them when they die. We've heard that part, right? And the idea of not having enough or always busy, always stressed, be grateful for the lot and life that God's given you. Give him thanks for that. All right, so that's two things they're talking about when it says here uh it's good that you should take hold of this, those two things, those are the two things that we're talking about. All right. Uh so quick application on this. Do you display a healthy religious zeal? Looking at it from the standpoint of two different examples I gave at the beginning. Jesus' religious zeal, he was angry but didn't sin, went in and flipped the tables upside down. Saul had this religious zeal, but that religious zeal was actually killing people and going after the people who were seeking to follow after Christ. Do we have a religious zeal? Are we willing to stand up for truth? But are we able to do that in such a way that we can do that with love, not anger, not on the defense, but do it out of love. Take a look at this next part. The idea has to do with coping with evil. Let's look at these next couple verses. And these are pretty self-explanatory. It says, Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than 10 rulers who are in a city. The concept that you've got people that are trying to rule a town or community, we have a president trying to rule a nation. He's asking us for prayer. Why? Because even though he might be in control, he can't help to make sure everybody follows out the Lord and everybody's going to be wise. But you have wise men who are around, and wisdom gives strength to those wise men more than the political leaders. So just kind of think about that. The next verse surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Now, this kind of makes sense if you think about Romans 3.23, right? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So you think that everybody in here is a saint. Well, theologically they are, but spiritually we know that we're still going to have times where we step into sin. Something we've struggled with the past, something with our nature, our sinful nature, when the flesh is getting at us, or maybe the religious zeal. All who've walked the earth except Christ are sinful people. And we'll be that way until he comes back to take us home. Verse 21 do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. People talk to us all the time, do they not? We hear all kinds of stuff. You ask questions, sometimes they'll tell you the truth, sometimes they won't. I've said this to a lot of people the last couple months or so. You know, when people make decisions, you ask why, and sometimes they'll tell you the truth, but a lot of times they won't tell you the truth up front. Be careful getting caught up in that. Why? Well, if you keep listening to too much, you're gonna find out some people are gonna be saying some things about you. And not only are they gonna be saying some things about you because of their evil people, but guess what? You're not gonna like this one, but look at the next verse. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. So we got to watch out for evil, protect ourselves from that, but remember that we too have had evil tendencies because we have a sinful nature. And that's just how it is, right? I told this people hundreds of times, and I've done it in my own life. Sometimes the things I don't like about other people, what they do, and I complain about, even if it's privately, within the next week, month, or year or two, guess what? I do the exact same thing. Maybe the context is a little bit different, but I do the exact same thing. Why? Because I'm human just like everybody else is. Yeah, we have a high standard, yeah, we say we're believers, we're not gonna do this and that. We're seeking to be holy, but we have to remember what we don't like about them. Sometimes that's a reflection of us too, because we're sinful people too. Maybe we're a little bit further along in our spiritual walk, but we're sinful as well. And lastly, finding a person of virtue. Now, I look around the room. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, sixteen. We're about half and half with men and women in the room. So before I start this next section, let me explain something to you, okay? You gotta understand when this was written, King Solomon, he's writing to a lot of wise men in the nation of Israel, okay? He's gonna use the example of women and talk about how they can be troublesome, okay? And I ain't arguing with him because this is God's word. But I want you to understand the context it was written to was written to men. And the same could be said about men, okay? So read this, you can get mad at me. I don't care. It's not my words, not my ideas. These are God's, all right? But just understand that the way it was written at the time and what it refers back to goes back to Genesis. So let's like take a look at this to understand what they're talking about here. Listen to what it says here. Verse 23. It says, All this I have tested by wisdom and said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. Simple looking to be wise. He thinks he's wise, he's learned a lot, but he still doesn't know everything. Then in verse 24, that which has been far off and deep, very deep, who can find it out? A struggle to figure out about what wisdom is, real simple. But look at 25. I turn to my heart to know and to search out to seek wisdom and the schemes of things, to know the wickedness and the folliness and the foolishness, that is madness. Get a little bit deeper. But then we're going to turn to women. So to look at the part on women, let me preference it. I've already said at the beginning who the audience was, but look now to what he's referring to. Remember the garden with Adam and Eve? Everything was great. Then all of a sudden, Eve committed sin by taking hold of the fruit she shouldn't have eaten and then gave it to Adam. They both sinned. Yeah, we know that Eve did it first. That's how it's recorded, so there's no jokes about that. We're just gonna leave it like that. But listen to what it says when they gave, when God gave the punishment. God's speaking here to Eve. Listen to what her punishment is. To the woman, he said, I surely will multiply your pain in childbearing. Tells me part of the punishment was, even though it might have been difficult for her or would be difficult when she goes to have a kid, a little bit of pain. Well, because of her sin, it got multiplied. Now I can't relate to that because I ain't never delivered no baby, never had no babies. I know it probably looks like it now, but it ain't, okay. But look at what the next part is. After it says, in part you shall bring forth children, the next part, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. That's where it gets a little bit tricky on translating this. She's gonna love her husband, but yet he's gonna be the boss. That sounds real good. You gotta be submissive, is what it says, right? But understand when you look at the Hebrew, I put a little asterisk by the word for. That can also mean to, toward, or against. In other words, what we're looking at here, and you're gonna see this when we read this in um in Ecclesiastes here in a second, the idea that man and woman were to come together to be one, to be united, and their faith and love. But yet there's always gonna be difficult. Why? Because it was the man who was God had ordained to be the head, as Christ is the head of the church, man is the head of the home, head of the family. But there's gonna be something within the woman to where she wants to resist or fight against that or be the one to be in control. I'm just gonna leave that there, okay? But that's where they're coming from, okay? That's where we're looking at this, this two for or against, okay? So let's take a look at this. It says in uh oops, verse 26, and I find something more bitter than death. Death being something you don't want to experience, being bitter, being difficult. It says, the woman whose heart is snare or whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters, he who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Now, as we read this, you might think, oh, they're talking about a prostitute. Well, no, he's going back to Genesis. So think about women and men in their marriage relationship in general. The one who is not leading this house, falling after the Lord, walking with the Lord, could see a woman who is not godly or does not seek after the Lord, who seeks to take over and take it in by the wife. That's not how God designed it. Verse 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among these I have not found. The idea that a man can have a friendship, a companion with another man, but it's difficult to have that with a lady, maybe his wife because there is tension. Now notice up there I put the word vice versa. I did that where the woman is. Because it's true could be of a lady who marries, has a husband who's overbearing in the ruling in the relationship, who doesn't live for the Lord, but she's got a close friend who walks with Jesus and they spare they have a special friendship, bond relationship because of that. So the catch is to make sure that husbands and wife were living in such a relationship that we understand Genesis, and even though there's going to be a desire for the woman to be the one in control, they have to submit to their husbands. But this husband has to be living for the Lord, because if he's not, there's going to be problems. The last verse, see, this alone I found, that God made upright, but they have sought after or out many schemes. God has the plan, He has the design, He sent Christ down the cross for our sins so we could be forgiven, so we could be upright people. But even in the midst of that, we still have this sinful nature, this flesh that we have to fight. Yes, we know we accept Christ, we were a new believer, become a new creature, new creation, excuse me, new creation, but yet there's still gonna be that battle. We have to put that flesh aside. If we mix that flesh with that religious zeal, like I did, I thought I was right and that dude shouldn't be a pastor. But what I've realized, and hopefully I practice today, is when people come into this church and they're not perfect, when they've truly asked forgiveness of their sin or sins, truly done that, then they're forgiven. Now that don't mean that I've got to be stupid, just let them have free reign. Depending on what that sin is, I want to be careful with that. Okay? Somebody come in as a previous alcoholic, well, I'm not gonna invite them over to have drinks at the house. Of course, I don't drink anyway, so it's not gonna happen, but just an example, right? You have somebody that's served time for this or that. Well, based off what the issue was, we want to be cautious with that. But we all have a sinful nature, we've all been forgiven. And how much easier my life would have been if I'd have just said, okay, yeah, this pastor had had some sin in his past, but he'd been forgiven just like I'd been forgiven. God was doing something. Let God be God, let me listen to God. I eventually listened to God, and we left the church and on good terms with everybody, and then we went to another church and ended up on the mission field. So God was doing something there. God's doing something in that church, there's still there. See this alone I found. God made men upright through Christ. But many schemes, sin still creeps in. I gotta fight that every day. Fight that when things are going my way, fight that when things are not going my way. Fight that with things I can control, and especially fight that with things that I can't control, but I just gotta step back and let God be God. So, in closing, do we understand the problem of sin? We probably do. We know that we're sinners, we talked about that, you know. Uh, but the catch is are we willing to seek a balance and finding meaning in our life by devotion to God, shunning sin, shunning evil, and enjoying the life that God has given us to live. I hope that makes sense today. I pray the Lord will speak to you and the Spirit help you understand more. Ecclesiastes is not always the easiest thing to understand, but the whole premises of the whole book, Solomon's seen it all, he knows it all. And he's like, look, live your life. You're created to worship God, do it. Get rid of the sin in your life and enjoy life. And when I say enjoy life, I don't mean get out there and go have a little fun in the sin world. I mean be thankful that he woke you up. That even though it might be difficult, you might be going through an ailment of sickness or something like that. God's still God, he still loves you, and you can find inner peace with him. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you, Father, for your love for us. Thank you, Father, for your word in Ecclesiastes. Now, Father, I ask forgiveness in my own life in times where I think I know better than you and think that my knowledge is better than decision that needs to be made or things I need to work on. Help me, Father, to walk humbly before you. Thank you, Father, for a place to serve over people who love Jesus. And help us, Father, as a church, to walk humbly before you each and every day, knowing that you're God, you've got a plan for us in our own personal lives as well as our church and our community. So help us, Father, to be faithful today and the days to come to walk holy and humbly before you. We love you. We pray all this in your name and ask that during this time of invitation you speak to our hearts. We love you, pray this in your name, the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.