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Men, Ecclesiastes chapter number 5, beginning in verse 1, the Bible reads, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. This is a really interesting verse because it shows us that even in the Old Testament, the house of God was a place of learning, a place to actually learn the Word of God, or to listen to God's Word, listen to teaching, listen to preaching. And he's saying you should actually be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. And one of the things I thought about with this verse is the Roman Catholic Church. Because if you think about it, at a Roman Catholic Church, obviously they have all kinds of hocus pocus going on where they're kind of emptying out a dust buster and sprinkling holy water, chanting. There's a lot of funny outfits and a lot of different rituals that they go through. But one of the things that they do at the Catholic Mass is that they read sections of the Bible. And so if you're going to the Catholic Church week after week or day after day, you will end up hearing some selections from the Bible. And I guarantee you that they are going to hear some stuff that just completely debunks the doctrine of the Catholic Church. I guarantee you that they're going to show up on some Sunday and if they actually paid attention or listened to what's being said, they're going to hear things telling them not to make graven images, not to have molten images and bow down before them. They're probably going to hear things about salvation being by faith, being by grace, not being by works. They're going to hear that you're not supposed to call any man father upon this earth. One is your father which is in heaven. You know, but most people that go to the Catholic Mass are probably not really paying much attention to these things. And if they would actually be more ready to hear than to just give the sacrifice of fools. And of course, I'm not saying that the Roman Catholic Church is the house of God because it's not okay, but they think it's the house of God. They're going there to worship God. That's what they think they're doing. And so this verse would apply to them. Hey, if you go to the house of God where they think they're going to the house of God, hey, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. You know, they're not even paying attention. They're not even listening to the tiny bit of truth that does come across in that Catholic service. Obviously, it's mostly lies. But you know what, though? If somebody is actually paying attention, they would actually hear some truth from the word of God and realize that they're in the wrong religion. You know, I have a perspective on this from being married to my wife who was raised Catholic. And she grew up going to those Catholic services. And she didn't like it. And she ended up rejecting Catholicism and leaving the Catholic Church. And for a while, she was just an agnostic. But while she was there, certain Bible verses and certain things from the word of God caught her attention and stuck in her mind. And she thought about those things and meditated on those things. And lots of other people have the same testimony of being introduced to certain scriptures there. And so when we go to church, we should be going there not to just make a sacrifice or do an offering, but actually to hear, actually to listen. If you talk to the average Roman Catholic and ask them why they're going to church on that Sunday morning, they're probably not going to tell you, I'm going to hear the sermon. Like, when was the last time you heard a Roman Catholic talk about being excited about the preaching down at the Catholic Church? Man, you know, I can't wait to hear what the priest has to say this week. That's not why they're there, are they? They're not there to hear. They're not there to listen. They're not there to learn. And here's the thing about a lot of false churches is that they're not places where people are going to learn or hear anything. They're going there to give the sacrifice of fools. They're going there to just offer some sacrifice that God didn't even ask for, light some incense that he told them not, you know, he never told them to light. Light some candle, genuflect, confess to the priest, go through some kind of a ritual or some kind of a process that's not even mandated by scripture. It's a sacrifice of fools. They're not there to hear or to learn or to grow. And then, okay, forget the Roman Catholic Church. What about a lot of the non-denominational fun center type churches? You know, are people really going there to listen and learn and hear or are they mainly going to have a worship experience, man? You know, and they're going there and they could worship with all their might and maybe even put a bunch of money in the plate. But you know what? The Bible says be more ready to hear. The primary thing that we need to have in mind when we go to the house of God is we need to be ready to hear from God. And that's what we emphasize as Baptists. And a lot of other religions would look down on us for that. And they think we overemphasize reading of the Bible or that we overemphasize the preaching or that we overemphasize learning and so forth. But actually, that is what we should emphasize. That's what we should be most ready to do when we go to the house of God. We should be more ready to hear. So if I go to church, what am I ready to do? I'm ready for God to speak to me. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And yeah, God can speak to us through the psalm singing and God can speak to us through the reading of scripture and God can speak to us through the preaching of God's word as scriptures are read and expounded and taught. And you know, we need to go to church not to just check a box that we went to church or just to give an offering or just worship the Lord. And I'm for worshiping the Lord. I'm for giving an offering. I'm for doing those things. But really, and I'm for checking the box, amen? Check that box because God tells us to do that every day. We better check that Bible reading box. Check that prayer box. And yeah, check the box that you went to church. But you know, when you come, be ready to hear. And if you're going to a church that's not teaching you anything where there's nothing worth hearing, then go somewhere else. Go to a church where you're hearing from God, where you're learning the Bible, where there's something worth hearing. And even people in false religions like Mormonism, like Catholicism, like these even possibly even these non-denom fun centers. I don't know how much Bible they're going to hear there. But even a Roman Catholic or Mormon, if they actually paid attention, they'd actually hear some truth just from the Bible that's read and realize that they're in the wrong church, that they're in the wrong religion. And so we need to go to church ready to hear. And there's nothing in the world wrong with Baptist churches emphasizing the preaching of God's word. That's why we have the pulpit in the middle of the platform. Whereas a lot of these Protestant churches will have it off to the side, you know, because that's kind of where preaching has been put in their ministry. That's where the word of God has been put. It's kind of a side issue. And we got the choir right here. We've got the singing right here, you know, or we've got the Eucharist right here, or we've got the, you know, the pipe organ right here and the preaching and the word of God's kind of no, no, no, it's primary here. That's why we do that. That's why most of our service is devoted toward preaching. You know, that's why we read the entire chapter of the Bible before the sermon starts, because we have a 15, maybe 20 minutes of song announcement and everything. And then it's like an hour of preaching. OK, as opposed to some church, like an hour of music, 20 minute sermon. It's literally reversed from faithful word. You say, I've never been to a liberal church. What's it like? It's the opposite of faithful word is an hour of music and a 15 minute sermon instead of 15 minutes of music, our sermon. That's the big difference. And the sermons are a little different as well. So look at. So look, it says at the end of verse one, they consider not that they do evil. So because they're not hearing in the house of God, because they're not listening to what the spirit sayeth unto the churches, they don't even know that what they're doing is evil. So it's not like Roman Catholics are like, yeah, let's out for the sacrifice of fools. We're going to do evil. Yeah, let's worship the devil. Yeah, that's not what they're doing when they bow down to idols. Right. But guess what? They don't consider that it's evil to bow down to an idol. They think that when they bow down to an idol, that they're doing something good. I mean, if a Roman Catholic gets on their knees in front of a saint, they're like, yeah, this is me being spiritual. Whereas what they're doing, not only is it not something that God wants them to do, it's a sin what they're doing. Amen. Praying to Mary is a sin. Amen. Okay. Because you only worship the Lord, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. You don't, you don't venerate Mary and the saints and all this stuff. It's, it's a sin, but they don't consider that they do evil. But if they just paid attention in their own church, they would consider that they're doing evil because I guarantee you that the Bible is being read in Roman Catholic church. You can look up a calendar of what they're going to read. I could tell you what they're going to read for the next 20 years. I could tell you what they're going to be reading in the month of May in the year 2027, because they follow this, this, uh, plan of reading this chapter, that chapter. But the problem is they're not listening. The problem is they don't get it. They can't understand it because there's no one there to guide them. But if they at least paid attention and listening and started asking the right questions, the Bible says that anyone who seeks will find. And so, uh, it's important that we as Baptist, when we come to church, that we listen to the Bible that's read before the sermon, that we listen to the preaching, that we bring our Bible with us and look things up and be ready to hear. That's the most important part of the service is, is hearing from God. And so I make no apology about that as a Baptist, you know, that we, that, that preaching is central in our services. It is the main thing because we're more ready to hear. We don't want to do evil and not even know it because we didn't even know what the commandments were or what the Bible says. Look at verse number two. It says, be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. And what the Bible saying in verse two here is, you know, number one, he said in verse one, keep thy foot when thou goes out of God, meaning behave yourself, know how to act, know how to behave, sit down, shut up and learn something, right? Be ready to hear. But then he says, don't be rash with your mouth and don't say anything hastily before God. Okay. What are we talking about here? He says, look, God's in heaven. You're upon earth. Let, let thy words be few. He's saying, know your place, understand that, that you are not God. God is far above us. He's far wiser than us. He's far more knowledgeable than us. We don't want to start getting arrogant or prideful and blowing off our mouths at church. What am I talking about? Well, again, let's think about false religion. You think about the charismatic movement, you know, where they start screaming at the devil and, and you know, uh, COVID-19, I bind you in the name of Jesus. You know, I mean, Kenneth Copeland cast out COVID-19, but it didn't really go anywhere. It got worse after he cast it out. He said his incantation wrong and he ended up multiplying it. You know, he said the wrong, uh, abracadabra or whatever. And so, you know, this, this just blowing off their mouth. And here's one of the biggest thing that irritates me about people being rash with their mouth and, and forgetting that God's in heaven and they're on earth. Therefore they should let their words be few is how about this thing? Here's what God told me this week. You know, people telling you what God told them. And I always want to know, well, well, what chapter and verse is that in the Bible? And then they don't have a chapter and verse. Here's what I say to those people that say like, well, God told me this. I say, okay, well, I want you to slow down and repeat that because I want to write it in the back of my Bible because I want to have all of the word of God. And if God told you that, that's God's word. Let me write that in the back of my Bible that day. You know, I mean, but, but yet you even have an independent fundamental Baptist saying, you know, God told me and it's some totally non biblical thing. And let me explain to you about these private revelations. Okay. If private revelations agree with scripture, then they're unnecessary. And if private revelations contradict scripture, they're false. Any questions? If they agree with scripture, they're unnecessary because we already have scripture. I don't need your private revelation to tell me what the Bible already told me. And if they're false, then that just tells me that it's another spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit. You know, if anyone comes preaching any other gospel or any other doctrine, let them be accursed. And so be careful to blow off your mouth about what God said to you and God told you and all these things. We don't want to ever put words in God's mouth. Add that not into his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar. So we don't want to just flippantly blow off our mouths and hastily utter these things in the house of God. Another thing that we don't want to do when it comes to hastily uttering anything before God is we don't want to be hasty to make promises to God or to make vows unto God. Right? Sometimes people will promise that they're not going to sin and, and they promise that they're, you know, and, and we want to be careful because the Bible says, swear not at all. It's better not to vow. Look at verse five. Jump down to verse five. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. So the Bible is saying, look, it's just better not to vow. So this is being written, you know, approximately a thousand years before Christ. Book of Ecclesiastes. Okay. Somewhere around that neighborhood. And he's saying, look, be not rash with your mouth. Don't be hasty. Don't blow off your mouth. Don't make these vows. If you do make a vow, he says in verse four, when thou vows to vow unto God, defer not to pay it for you have no pleasure and fools pay that which thou has vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow. Okay. Fast forward a thousand years later and you know what Jesus says? Look, just swear not at all because I guarantee you that between a thousand BC and the time of Christ, people mess this up a lot. And people made a ton of vows that they didn't keep. And so Jesus in the new Testament just says, look, just don't swear at all. You say, well, why would God change the rules? Well, friend, here's the thing. God has changed the rules many times. You know, before the flood, there was no death penalty for murder. But then after the flood, he had to institute that and institute the death penalty on first degree murder. And so as we go through history, God will change the rules. I mean, think about it. The Bible says the priests are being changed. There is made of necessity a change also of the law. Hebrews chapter seven. And so we see that God will sometimes change the rules midstream because of the fact that he's trying to show us how man's failure causes him to have to make this new rule. Okay. So I do not believe for one second that we should be vowing vows onto the Lord in 2021 because we have two clear scriptures. We have Matthew and we have James both telling us not to swear at all. Don't swear by heaven. Don't swear by Earth. Don't swear in the Old Testament. He said, hey, don't swear by false gods. Only swear in the name of the Lord. But then people are messing that up too much. And then he tells them, look, be careful. Don't make these rash vows. And then finally a thousand years later, it's like, just don't bow at all. And so don't be stuck in the Old Testament on this particular doctrine when we have clear New Testament scripture that supersedes the Old Testament scripture. We need to go with the most recent version of the code book, right? You construction guys, you got to go with the most recent version of the code, the New Testament, which tightens things up a little and says, hey, no more vows. Do not make vows to the Lord. Now, if you do make a vow, you better keep it. But he's saying in the New Testament, don't even make these vows whatsoever. And he's already kind of leaning that way in verse five by saying that it's better just not to vow. Look at verse six. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? From the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also divers, vanities, but fear thou God. You know, what's he saying here? Well, first of all, in verse six, when he says don't say before the angel that it was an error, the word angel in the Bible simply means messenger. This is not always some kind of a heavenly being or something. It's often just messenger. That's all that that word means. And so, you know, whoever comes to you and I guess the way I would interpret this, whoever comes to you and confronts you about the fact that you didn't pay your vow or that you're in sin, you know, you can't just say to him like, oh, it was an accident. You know, that's not an acceptable answer. That's not repentance. Oh, it was an error. It was a mistake. It was an accident. No, it's called sin. It's called lying. It's called breaking your word. It's called for swearing yourself. And so don't just say that it's an error. God could get angry at that and destroy the work of your hands. And then he says in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also divers, vanities. Divers means various vanities, but fear thou God. So we need to be careful that we don't just every dream that we have, that we just latch onto it and just assume that it has some kind of a spiritual meaning from God. It's God communicating to us every time we dream. That is not the case. You know, and I, who remembers their dreams a lot? I do too. I mean, man, if we were trying to interpret that stuff, that'd be, we'd be making some weird decisions. All right. Because dreams are a natural, normal thing. Now in the past, God did sometimes reveal things to the prophets through dreams. Okay. But the Bible talks about how God who at sundry times and in divers manners and lots of different ways, God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he's spoken unto us by his son. You know, we have the word of God. We have 66 books here. We don't need a dream to tell us how to live because everything that pertains to life and godliness is right here in this book. Just like when they got into the promised land, they didn't need manna anymore because they just ate of the fruit of the land and they planted and they harvested and they worked for a living. They only got the manna when they're out in the wilderness and that's all there is. You know, before God's written word was complete, you have the prophet speaking in time past and God communicates to them in divers manners. And one of the ways he would communicate to them is through dreams. But that is not as reliable as what we have right here. We have a more sure word of prophecy in the scripture right here. This is better than trying to interpret a dream. Now what are dreams? You know, if you think about it, dreams are just your brain processing everything that happened that day. And it's really interesting because sometimes something will happen first thing in the morning. I'll think about something or talk about something first thing in the morning and I will completely forget about it the rest of the day. It never re-enters my mind, but then it'll be in my dream that night. Because it's like the dream time is just your body kind of just processing everything that happened today, all the information. That's why people tell you to study right before you go to bed because then overnight you kind of dream about it. You're like studying in your dream and then it's like, boom, there was my study time, eight hours. So, you know, your brain is, that's just natural, normal. So a lot of your dreams are just going to be completely meaningless. That's why most of them are weird and don't make any sense. Oh, so you can't just read into everything and make life decisions. I'm going to make life decisions based on this book. So hang all the private revelations and dreams and all of these other things and go with the revealed written word of God, black and white, more sure word of prophecy right here. Welcome to the New Testament. You don't need to worry about that because in a multitude of dreams, I'm not making this up. It's what the Bible says. In the multitude of dreams, there are diverse vanities, meaning that there are going to be, let me just translate that into our vernacular. There are going to be a lot of meaningless things in your dreams. Diverse vanities means various meaningless things. In a multitude of dreams, there are various meaningless things. And in many words, you know, you ever listen to people talk and sometimes they're just blathering about nothing. Just kind of just blah, blah, blah. You know, there's just a lot of vanity in people's talk and a lot of dreams are meaningless. A lot of conversations are meaningless. That's what the Bible is telling us. So there's God's word and then there's just a lot of other fluff out there. So we need to be able to separate the two and understand what's what. Now the Bible says also, I kind of skipped over this part, so let's back up to verse three. It says for a dream cometh through the multitude of business. Everything that you do that day is what comes back in your dreams because your brain is just kind of processing everything. And a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. A fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Have you ever noticed that sometimes the people who know the least talk the most? And I thought about this exact verse this week because I went to the gym and I was walking through the gym and there was this morbidly obese man in the locker room just loudly at the top of his lungs telling a dirty story. Like he was confused. He thought this was like a junior high locker room. He didn't realize this is like an actual gym for grownups. L.A. fitness, you know? And so he's basically just telling a filthy story, telling some obscene story. And you could tell like nobody was really into the story. I only heard like 10 seconds of it because I was just walking through. And I'm just thinking to myself, you know, be more ready to work out than to just be rash with your mouth in the locker room blowing off your mouth. But just when you hear somebody just kind of just dominating the locker room with a loud mouth, even before I heard that it was a dirty story, don't you just kind of think like this guy's a bozo because he's just kind of just blowing off his mouth super loud in the locker room. He's not in there preaching a sermon or something. You know, he's just kind of, you know, and so the Bible says a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Sometimes the and obviously the exception proves the rule, but sometimes people that are constantly talking are kind of just blathering or talking garbage, just nonsense, foolishness. All right, so that section kind of ends at the end of verse seven. So verses one through seven are basically all boiled down in this thought of, hey, be careful what you say, don't run your mouth all the time unless you actually have something meaningful to say. Don't be rash with your mouth to just say everything that's on your mind. You're making vows. You go to church and you're more interested in hearing yourself talk than listening to the word of God that's being taught. And, you know, you want to tell everybody every dream that you've had because you think it means something and you've got all these private revelations. He's just saying, look, just quiet down. Listen to what the Bible says. Listen in church and don't be a know-it-all. Don't blow off your mouth all the time, that type of thing. So look at verse eight. There's a change of subject here. It says, if thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter. He's saying, don't be surprised when you see the poor being oppressed, crooked judges, unfair decisions, government making, you know, wicked decisions or ripping people off or showing favoritism. He's saying, don't let that surprise you. And this goes with what we talked about last week, that, you know, the world is an unjust place. The world is in a fallen state. The world's full of sin. And so we should expect it to be so. That's what the Bible tells us to expect. And then he says next, he says, you know, when you see it, marvel not at the matter. Halfway through verse eight, for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they. So the Bible is saying, look, God, who is obviously the one that is higher than the highest, God sees all that. So it's not like God's just asleep up there. Whenever some crooked judge, you know, rip somebody off or decides the wrong way in a case or whenever the government is oppressing people and being unfair, every single time, God knows about it and God sees it. And the Bible says he that is higher than the highest regardeth. And then the Bible says there be higher than they. What that's referring back to are those that are violently perverting judgment. You know, those judges down there at the Supreme Court, you don't have to worry about the fact that they make all these wrong decisions and are corrupt because there be higher than they. Amen. And the higher than they is God. The Lord is the one who is the higher than they. The higher than the highest and the higher than they are the same person. Because the reason I point that out is because, you know, I misunderstood this verse the first time I read it because I was like, OK, the highest, the higher than the highest, that's God. But then there be higher than they. I was like, how do you get higher than God? And how is God a they? You know, maybe I'm the only one who had that misunderstanding, but might as well bring it up in case someone else got confused by that wording. But the higher than they is the same as the higher than the highest. They're both referring to God. It says in verse 9, moreover, the prophet of the earth is for all. The king himself is served by the field. And what the Bible is teaching in this verse is that it's in the leader's best interest for his people to do well. A righteous leader, a godly leader realizes that it's in his best interest that the people prosper. So a good leader wants his country to do well because he himself is served by the field. You know, I mean, in the country's prosperity, he prospers. So even just from that perspective, he should want his people to prosper. Unfortunately, a lot of politicians and leaders, you know, they're just greedy. They're just in it for themselves. And all they care about is getting reelected. And they're very short sighted because all they care about is just, I mean, what do you think Biden's biggest concern is just getting reelected in 2024? I mean, that's the big concern. That's probably paramount for him. Get reelected. And here's the thing. Let's say the country does great during the eight years that he's in office. And then let's say it just goes down the tubes the next year after he's out. He would probably like that. Because then it's like, see, things were great when I was in charge. And now look how it's all going down the toilet. But isn't that a wicked mentality? You know, obviously the leadership should love the people and want them to succeed and want them to prosper and not just, you know, be in it for themselves. And then in the next verse, he talks about, you know, he that loveth silver. Because that's what a lot of these guys that are running our government, that's them. They love silver. They love money. That's what they care the most about. He that loveth silver should not be satisfied with silver. Not only do they love money, but they'll never have enough money to where they don't want money anymore. They always want more. And if it's power that they lust after, they're always going to lust for more power, more prestige, more fame, more money. Whatever carnal thing they're lusting for, they're never going to be satisfied because those things don't satisfy. This is also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. Verse 11. And what good is there to the owners thereof saving the beholding of them with their eyes? And so a lot of people, they're seeking fame, fortune, riches, power. Those things will never satisfy. So they're going to keep wanting more, keep wanting more, and they'll hurt other people to get it instead of actually looking out for the people, instead of looking out, you know, the prophet of everyone in the kingdom. You know, and the Bible says in verse 9, the prophet of the earth is for all. The king himself is served by the field. What does that make you think of? The prophet of the earth is for all. You think of things growing from the earth, right? The prophet of the earth is for all. The king himself is served by the field. You know, so basically in a godly or a just leader is the desire for the earth to bring forth food so that everybody's got food, everybody's prospering, everybody's doing well, and then that filters up to him as well. You know, he gets a piece of that as well. And you know, if we think about one of the most wicked, ungodly leaders of the 20th century, Mao Tse Tung would come to mind as one of the most evil. I mean, this guy was so satanic, even when he was a teenager, he was writing like demented poetry, loving death, and he faked suicide, or he didn't fake suicide. He attempted suicide or threatened to attempt suicide. He threatened to attempt suicide in order to manipulate his family. Like he was threatening to drown himself and hurt himself to try to manipulate them. He was just a rotten, lazy jerk, refused to work as a teenager, demented evil. Once he became a leader, he actually lamented that his dad didn't live long enough to be around when he was in leadership because he wished he could have used the government's apparatus for torturing people to torture his own father. That's what he said. This is how evil Mao Tse Tung is. And if you understand the history of communism in the 20th century, and I, you know, you say, why are we hearing about this in church? Well, you know, you probably don't even hear about it in school. So, you know, I guess Pastor Anderson might as well tell you a little bit about this stuff. Since you might not have learned about it in school, you're probably too busy learning critical race theory in school to hear about this. But let me tell you something. Let me tell you how literally tens of millions of people died in China. And not to mention the tens of millions of people that were murdered. There were literally tens of millions of people murdered. But not only that, how about the 30 million people who starved? And that is a low estimate. Why did they starve? And you can verify this in mainstream history books. People might not talk about it a lot, but it's there. Look it up in any mainstream history books. The tens of millions of people who starved in communist China. Let me tell you why they starved. It's very simple. Okay? This is why. Because the government took the food that was grown in China and sold it to other countries. So that they could buy weapons. Because China wanted to be a superpower. They want to be a big shot on the world stage. They want to be like the Soviet Union. They want to have that clout. They want to have nuclear weapons. Well guess what? Having a giant military is expensive. Have you seen our national debt lately? Having a huge military, nuclear weapons, cutting edge technology, space program. That stuff's expensive. And they literally took the food away from the farmers that are growing it. People are all over China growing food. They gather up the food, export it. While the people are starving to death, buying weapons. Because otherwise why would they be starving? I mean they're farming, they're growing food, why don't they just eat it? No, because the government comes and takes the food away and ships it out of the country. And so go verify what I'm saying and you will see that I'm telling you the truth. Because communism murdered so many tens of millions of people in the 20th century. It's mind-blowing. But you have idiots today still saying like, not there's anything necessarily wrong with communism. You know, I mean, you know, not there's anything necessarily wrong with, you know. I mean the Soviet Union, you know. I mean it wasn't so bad, you know. I mean China, I mean they're successful. Look how good they're doing. Look at their army recruitment video, you know. Well, you got a point there compared to ours, but that's not saying much. But folks that, you know why, when you look at that Chinese army recruitment video and you see how awesome their military is, just realize how many people they murdered to build that military. Where they took the food out of people's mouths that they starved to death so that they could be, hey look at us, we're powerful, we're military might. You know, instead of just doing their own thing in China, they have to be a big shot, world power, world leader, world superpower. They didn't know this Bible verse, did they? Prophet of the earth is for all, right? It's supposed to be, you know, the people that work are supposed to eat of the fruit of their labors. You don't muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. He that ploweth should plow in hope. How wicked when someone plows the ground and they're not even allowed to eat the food that they're growing in their own field because it's being confiscated and shipped off to other countries. And you know what? Socialism is communism. Communism is social. It's the same garbage. Basically communism is a turd and then socialism is a turd with rainbow sprinkles on it. Okay, that's the difference between socialism and communism. Any questions? But if you would look down at your Bible there, it says in verse number 11, when goods increase, they are increased that eat them. And what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? You know, he's saying, look, you know, if your life is just all about riches and money and wealth, what good is that to you? Except just to be able to look at it. I mean, think about people who have millions and millions of dollars. What are you going to do with all that money? There's only so much money you could spend in one day. I'm thinking about like, what would I do if I had a million dollars? Like I don't even, I can't even think of anything because I already have everything I want. I mean, how many tacos can you eat? I mean, there's only so many tacos you can eat. I can only wear one outfit per day. And why would I want to wear something other than this? Like what, what's the difference? I mean, a hundred percent cotton. Why would I want to wear anything other than cotton? Why don't I want to wear some, what else do you wear? What's the expense, what's expensive clothing made out of? Silk? Hemp? What? Yeah, exactly. But I'm saying like, like, what am I going to wear besides a hundred percent cotton? Silk? Que, it sounds queer. Isn't that for women's nightgowns or something? It's like, give me a break. Like, like, so it's like, how much food can I eat? Like I can only eat three meals. How much does it cost to get a really awesome meal? I mean, it's not a thousand dollars folks. I mean, 20 bucks can get you a killer meal. And even if you want to get all crazy, what's it going to cost? A hundred bucks at the most, the most expensive place I've ever gone to. You could order everything you want for a hundred bucks. I've never gone higher than that. I've never gone beyond that. I don't want to go beyond that. You know, you pay a hundred bucks a meal and, and you're getting french fries, fried and duck fat. Who cares? Right? And it's like, oh, you have all these cars. You can only drive one car at a time. And I don't even like driving. It's, you know what I mean? And if you really just wanted to drive a hot rod so bad, you could go somewhere, just rent one for like an hour and then drive it. And then it's like, okay, that was fun. Now let me get back in the Hyundai Sonata. Amen. What else do you need besides a Hyundai Sonata? That's all you need. This message has been brought to you in part by Hyundai. But the message is, you know, I'm not going to be able to drive one car at a time. You know, it's just, if you think, what good is it except to be holding you off with their eyes? What do rich people buy with all their money? Artwork. Okay. But I could go see art whenever I want. I just go to an art museum whenever I want. Right. I could go to Sedona. I could go to Jerome and there's all these little art galleries around. I could go to downtown Phoenix, the art museum. You know, I could just go to some other rich person's house and look at their artwork. I can go to museums and government buildings and I could travel. How can you possibly spend millions of dollars, my friend? There's nothing to spend it on. So wouldn't you think these people would be like, okay, I have enough money now. This isn't, no, they just want more, more, more, and they just buy all this stuff and then it's just, they can just look at it. Just a hundred pairs of shoes, a hundred outfits, right? All these changes of raiment, you know, all the chariots out in the garage. It's like, what good is it except the holding of them with their eyes? And then it says in verse 12, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Look, if I am eating, you know, cinnamon toast crunch for breakfast, tacos for lunch. Okay. If I eat three square meals a day and I'm wearing a hundred percent cotton and I go to bed at night and sleep for eight hours and I go to work all day, that's a pretty good quality of life. Amen. What else do you need? But look, how would you like to have insomnia? And you know, there's in a, in a, in a congregation this size, I'll bet there's some people here that do suffer from insomnia. And you know what? Insomnia is horrible. Not being able to sleep is horrible because it's not that you're not tired. I mean, you're super tired and you can't sleep and it's literally torture. I mean, you know, speaking of communist China and gulag and everything, you know, that's one of the biggest ways they would torture people is not letting them sleep, keeping people up for days and days and days so they can't have those dreams where they process everything. See how the sermon's all coming together now? But the point is, you know, not being able to sleep is literally torture. Okay. So ask yourself this question. Would you rather have a bunch of hot rod vehicles in your circular driveway and your silk underwear and your whatever, you know, foie gras filet mignon and your, your, your wagyu and, and whatever. Would you rather have all that stuff and then you go to bed at night and you're tossing and turning and feel like feeling like junk because you can't sleep? Or would you rather just, you know, eat a humble meal, wear humble clothes, hang out with your family, serve God, go to church, read your Bible, go to work and sleep like a baby. Wake up feeling refreshed, right? Get up in the morning, pray to God, read your Bible, right? Go to work, go to church, hang out with your family, have fun and good, clean fun. Folks, what would, why would you desire to be rich? But there are people right now, I bet you there are even people in this auditorium right now that fantasize about being rich someday or just desire having great wealth. Think about that. Why? What an, an ecclesiastes explained to us, it's not going to satisfy you. It's not going to make your life better. It makes you more anxious and worried and you can't sleep. But the laboring man, even if he has to skip meals, still sleeps like a baby. And I'll tell you, there's no substitute for sleeping. Being able to sleep is a blessing. You know, some, whenever I've had trouble sleeping, sometimes I quote the verse that says, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. I'm like, what's going on, God? You love me or what? Cause you said you gave your beloved sleep. I'll have, I'll have some sleep now. Thank you. And then boom, I fall asleep just like that. So then, you know, the point is though, you know, here's how you sleep at night. By working hard. Here's how you sleep at night by having a clear conscience. Here's how you sleep at night by not being rich. Cause if you're rich, you're worried about all your assets and your portfolio. I don't worry about the stock market at all cause I don't have any stocks. Right. I don't, it doesn't bother me. I don't worry about, you know, oh, the economy's going to go up or down or whatever. Hey, as long as you're essential, amen. You know, I mean, most people's jobs, you know, made it through that pandemic pretty smoothly in this church. You know, some people were affected and I'm sorry if you were affected. I'm not downplaying the, what you went through there. But the point is that, you know, going through these types of things when you're poor is easier than when you're rich, because when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. But when you got all these assets, it's just more to worry about. You know, and that's one of the reasons why our church doesn't own anything. You know, our church isn't sitting on a bunch of assets. Cause that'd be kind of stressful to me. You know, and a lot of churches, by the way, they own millions of dollars of property. Then they're always afraid of getting sued. They're afraid of being sued because they don't want to lose everything or the IRS man is going to put a padlock on the door because they preach too hard. And now they're considered a hate group or whatever. You know, if the IRS man puts a padlock on our door, we'll just toss him the keys. And I'll, you know, I'm going to go across the street and start a church called Living Word Baptist Church. And literally we won't even miss a beat. It's like, all right, everybody, new location, new church. The corporation's been dissolved. We're starting a new church, Living Word Baptist. And we're, this time we're doing it all in a Brother St. Gora's name. He's the owner. And I'm just, I'm just basically just get up and preach. And, and I, you know, I'm just an employee, but here's the thing about that. We have nothing. So we have nothing to lose. And the problem, and look, I know there are a lot of great churches out there that own a lot of property. I'm, I'm just explaining the philosophy behind what we're doing here. Okay. Is that we don't stress and worry about losing everything because we don't have anything to lose. You know, or, or what, what if, what if our church were bombed by the sodomites or something? Yeah, I, I'm not, that would ever happen. I mean, that's a crazy thing that would never happen to anyone anywhere. But, but, you know, let's say that were to happen. It's like, so what, as long as nobody's inside the building when it happens, amen. It's like, what do, what do we got? We got a couple of computers, a couple of cameras, right? This bass guitar, I paid $200 for that. So it's not exactly, you know, a super hot item down at the pawn shop or anything. It's a really cool bass guitar though. I really like it. 200 bucks, guitar center. I mean, all right, they've robbed us of our chairs. Then we'll sit Indian style. Amen. It's Arizona. Hey, I got nothing to lose. I'm not worried about it. Our church has nothing to lose. Our church has nothing to lose. So the more you have, the more stressful life can be when you've got just millions of dollars of assets and you've got all this stuff to worry about. You know, it's, it's, it's better to just have what you need, your daily bread, you know, and not to get too crazy with riches. Okay. But I'm telling you there, I guarantee you there are Christians all over the world, all over America, and possibly even in this auditorium right now that just long, someday they long for that. You know, someday they're going to have that gigantic mansion and the circular driveway and they're going to have all the vehicles and they're going to drive the Corvette. What was that thing we saw on the way over here? The mid engine. What was it called? Help me out, John. What was it called? He's, he's being like Jesus when he's questioned by, he's like, that'll say, that'll say, that'll say, what, what did you say about the engine though? Mid engine. We saw this Corvette on the way here and my son's like, Hey, it's mid engine. And I'm like, what does that mean? The, is the engine in the middle? And it's, yeah, and it's like, well, it's not in the front, it's in the back or it's between the two wheels or the, and then I said, well, what's in the front then? Well, the trunk is in the front. Hey, I drive a car where the trunks in the front. It's a frunk. You know what? That's good. You know what, you know, what's good about having that car just to behold it with your eyes. What good is that car doing you? Is that car going to make you sleep at night? Is that car going to make you healthy and happy? Is that car going to fix your marriage? Is that car going to give you love and joy and peace in your life? No. So don't lust after riches. It's, it's vain. It's not worth it. It's not anything, you know, we should just, we should just want to be able to take care of ourselves, right? And just feed ourselves, feed our family, have what we need. There's no reason to be rich or to desire riches is vanity. Those riches. Oh, look at this. This is good, man. How could I have almost skipped this? It says at the end of verse 12, the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. How about this verse 13? There's a sore evil which I've seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. Folks, not only are riches vain and not important, they can actually hurt you. Imagine that. Oh, you just work so hard and just desire to be rich your whole life and then you finally get there and it hurts. You find out you were better off without it. Wow. But those riches perish by evil travail and he beget at the sun and there's nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit hath he that have labored for the wind? Laboring for the wind is what you're doing. If you're working to be rich, if that's your goal, that's your life. Oh, you just want to be so rich. You're laboring for the wind. You're going to go out of this world in all points as you came in. Have you noticed how when people get very old, they become like a child again? Because they, you start out in a diaper, you end up in a diaper. You know, there's two people that will always tell you how old they are every time you meet them. People that are really young and people that are really old, right? Because if you run into like a little kid, they're just like out and just apropos of nothing. It's just like, I'm six. I'm three. And it's the same thing when you get around really elderly people, they're just like, I'm 98 years old. Like, all right, good. You know, you revert back, right? You start when you're a little toddler, you got a walker, you end up, you're going to end up with a walker. I'm not, I'm not making fun of old people. I'm telling you the reality of life. You start life with no teeth and you end life with no teeth. Am I telling the truth or not? We started with no teeth. We end with no teeth. We start with someone having to feed us and take care of us. And if you live long enough, eventually you'll get to a point where somebody has to help you use the bathroom, help you eat a meal, help you walk. You're going to start telling everybody how old you are once again. Okay. Because it's just a circle is what God's showing us here. That basically you are going to leave this world the same way that you came in. You came into this world naked. You're leaving naked, meaning that you're not going to bring your, your, your, your silk clothes or your, you know, fancy outfits, your money, your wallet. You don't bring your wallet with you. You don't bring anything. You came in with nothing. You leave with nothing. And so don't labor for the wind. You know, labor for the meat that endureth. Jesus said, you know, Jesus said, don't labor for the meat that parishes, labor for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life, right? Work for something that matters. The Bible says, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, but the labor on this earth is in vain, according to the Bible. It says in verse 17, and I'll end here with this verse 17, all his days also he eateth in darkness and he have much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. Because think about it. Riches cannot bring light into your life. When you're living in darkness, riches cannot make you happy. They can't prevent you from having sorrow. And riches cannot make you healthy because it says at the end with his sickness. Think about it. I mean, you can have all the money in the world, but diseases could still take you out. I mean, weren't there some pretty wealthy people who died of coronavirus? Does anybody know of any celebrities or politicians or people who are probably getting the ultimate medical care? And yet they died from coronavirus or, you know, died of other illnesses and things. Because money can buy you the best doctors and the best medicine, but that can't solve everything because doctors don't know everything. You know, science can't cure everything. And so I want to encourage you tonight to not become focused on money and wealth and riches and because I'm telling you, that's what our nation teaches us is important in many ways. Our culture glorifies making money as the ultimate goal, success. And you know what? Don't ever look down on someone because they live in a crummy house or something and think like, oh man, this guy lives in a ghetto neighborhood. Oh, we're going over to brother so-and-so's house. Look at this neighborhood. I mean, is this all he can afford? What's with this beat up old house? Why isn't he living in a nice house? Folks, that's wickedness. You know, do not ever despise the poor or those who are lower income because you know what? That's not what life's about. And how do you know that that guy who's living in a ghetto house isn't going to have a mansion that's way bigger than yours when he gets to heaven? Because many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first. And so don't get focused on money. Don't measure your own success by money. Don't measure the success of other people by money. Don't think that gain is godliness. Realize that getting rich will do harm to many people. How many people won the lottery and their life was destroyed? Because money, the Bible says the prosperity of a fool shall destroy him, right? The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. And so do not fall into this trap. The Bible tells us the deceitfulness of riches can choke the word so that we're unfruitful. Yes, you need to go out and work hard and make a living. But be happy with what you have. Be happy with the money that you have. And don't fantasize about being rich. You know, when those thoughts enter your mind, just push them out of your mind. Just be like, you know, this is stupid. I need to quit thinking about this. You start fantasizing about all the fancy things. Just think like, yeah, that's stupid. You know what? I like my house. I like my car. I like my clothes. The thrift store has everything I need. You know, forget about it. Amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for all the blessings that you give us, Lord. I mean, the greatest blessing that we have is your word. And we've got your word. We've got the local church. We've got salvation. We've got a home in heaven. And Lord, we've been blessed with so many other things. Everybody in this room is different, but some people in this auditorium have been blessed with houses, vehicles, wives, husbands, children. Whatever the blessings are, Lord, we've all been blessed in one way or another. Spiritual blessings, earthly blessings, Lord. Help us just be happy with that stuff. And Lord, the reason why people are looking for another revelation is because they're not even content with what you gave them in your word. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that it's all we need. And Lord, thank you for the money that we make at our job, Lord. Help us not to lust after more. And Lord, if there's anybody here tonight who's struggling with covetousness or the love of money, Lord, I just pray that this sermon would help them correct that. And in Jesus' name, we pray.