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The area that I want to talk about is the scowl. And then between me and the other two guys, we'll go ahead and also show them what it looks like. Right. And they, uh, they, uh, they're gonna be, you know, kind of the most likely kind of pool. And then, you know, by reading the first one, the first eight, you know, grandma, bring everyone, and then it'll be like, three, four, three, eight. That's how it's gonna be. Right. Okay. Don't worry about it. No, it's not actually his picture. It's just, it's... Oh, yeah, that one. You know, it looks like we don't have followers or anything like that. Yeah, that one got me. It's like 17, 20. I thought it was like a red. This picture might be a bird's skull. No, it is like a bird's skull. It's just a high skull. You know, cause... It looks like a red picture. He was on the same. Yeah. He was on the same. He couldn't tell. What's up? Okay. Yeah. That's how they... That's how they... That's how they took it. Yeah. Yeah. My mom had the picture. And like, I remember I was like, mom, why are you... That's just like how the style works. Yeah. She wanted to say that they were on the spot where they were in the future. Yeah. Like, come on. Come on. I'm just gonna go ahead and... Yeah. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna... Do you have one of these? That's cool. Picture of my mom. Have you seen any of the Sarah people? The movie with the The Moa Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. It's like, you know, Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's my phone. I got your car. That's mine. Yeah. Here's the word. Oh, there. Yeah. Oh, thank you. She comes and She comes and she She comes and she Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, good morning. How are you doing? Good morning. Good morning. How are you doing? I was watching the video. You can say anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Sunday morning service at shield the faith Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this morning. And when you get there, grab a hymn book. It should be directly underneath the chair in front of you. And turn to song number 369, I Know the Bible is True. Song number 369, I Know the Bible is True. On the first, I know the Bible was sent from God, the old as well as the new. Inspired and holy, the living Lord, I know the Bible is true. I know, I know, I know, I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired the whole way through, I know the Bible is true. I know the story of Christ is true, his virgin, glorious birth. His life, his deadly hope and tomb and his return to earth. I know, I know, I know, I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired the whole way through, I know the Bible is true. I know the Bible is true, for peace it gave me within. It binds me, comforts me day by day and gives the victory or sin. I know, I know, I know, I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired the whole way through, I know the Bible is true. The fools deny with a spear now a message old but still new. His truth is sweeter each time God's told, I know the Bible is true. I know, I know, I know, I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired the whole way through, I know the Bible is true. Amen. Brother Mike, will you open this with a word of prayer, please? Amen. All right, let's turn to Psalm 134. 134, my anchor holds. Great song, Psalm 134, my anchor holds. Though the angry surges roll on the first, Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul, I am peaceful for I know, while you go the winds may blow. I am an anchor safe and sure, that can evermore endure. And though my anchor holds, I am wild as an old gale, On my mark so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. My new tide come out this way, there's earth within the deep. Angry clouds or shade of sky, and the tempest rises high. Still I stand, the tempest shot, for my anchor grips the rock. And holds, my anchor holds, for I am wild as an old gale, On my mark so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. I can feel the acres fast, as I lead each sudden class. And the cable though unseen, bears the heavy strain between. The storm I safely ride, till the turning of the tide. And holds, my anchor holds, for I am wild as an old gale, On my mark so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. Shores onto the soil, brings like billows o'er me whole. Temptors seek to lure astray, storms obscure the night of day. By Christ I can be bold, I've an anchor that shall hold. And holds, my anchor holds, for I am wild as an old gale, On my mark so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds. November 24th, so that's a Wednesday, so after the Wednesday service, November 24th we're having a pie social, so bring a pie, sweet, savory, homemade, or store-bought, doesn't matter. Birthdays and anniversaries for November, so next up is the BK Bruiser. She's not here today. She's sick, that's alright. Well, she'll have no problem singing, so I have to do something else for her. And then we have Skulk on the 24th. This week's memory verse is 1 Timothy 6-8, which says, In having food and raiment, let us be there with content. We are a family-integrated church, and that means children and infants are always welcome in the service. If you need privacy, there is a daddy baby room right over here to your left. The mother baby room is right across the hallway over there. The monitors should be set up and ready to go for you. Don't forget to turn your phones off or place them on silent so they're not a distraction. And the very bottom line says we can beat overthinking by ramping up our decision-making. And that was from last Sunday. So, with that being said, we're going to have one more song before we receive the offering. Alright, let's grab those hymn books one more time and turn to song number 396. A great song, great inspiration for soul winning. So Little Time. Haven't sung this one in a while. What a great song. Some are 396. So Little Time, the harvest will be over. On the first. So little time, the harvest will be over. Our reaping done, we reapers taken home. Report our work to Jesus, Lord of harvest. And hope he'll smile and that he'll say well done. Today we'll reap on this our golden harvest. Today he's given us lots of souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. How many times I should have strongly pleaded. How often did I feel so strictly warm. The spirit moved. Oh had I pled for Jesus. The grain is fallen, lost ones not reborn. Today we'll reap or miss our golden harvest. Today he's given us lots of souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. Despite the heat, the ceaseless toil the hardship. The broken heart for those we cannot win. Misunderstood because we're all peculiar. Still no regrets we'll have but for our sin. Today we'll reap or miss our golden harvest. Today he's given us lots of souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. A day of pleasure or a feast of friendship. A house or car or garment fair or fame. We'll all be trashed when souls are brought to heaven. And then how sad to face the slacker's shame. Today we'll reap or miss our golden harvest. Today he's given us lots of souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. The harvest white with reapers few is wasting. And many souls will die and never know. The love of Christ, the joy of sins forgiven. Oh let us weep and love and pray and go. Today we'll reap or miss our golden harvest. Today he's given us lots of souls to win. Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. Amen. All right, well let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this morning. Let's pray. Bless the service, Lord, and bless our tithes and offerings. We thank you again for all that you do for us, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Open your Bibles. Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter four. Ecclesiastes chapter four. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter four starting in verse one. So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter. And on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praise the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they which have not yet been who have not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. Again, I considered all travail and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a vexation of the spirit. The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh. Better is an handful with quietness than both the hands full of travail and vexation of spirit. Then I returned and I saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone and there is not a second. Yea, he hath neither child nor brother, yet is there no end of all his labor, neither is his eyes satisfied with riches. Neither saith he, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good? This also is vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth. For he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Better is poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign, whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor. I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them. They also that come after should not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit. Brother Caden, you want to preface? All right. Amen. Well, the title of the sermon this morning is actually a question. And it's, can you afford to not ask this question? Can you afford to not ask this question? Now, I got that from verse number eight. So you're in Ecclesiastes four, look at verse number eight. It says this, there is one alone and there is not a second. Yea, he hath neither child nor brother, yet is there no end of all his labor. Then notice what it says next. Neither is his eye satisfied with riches. Neither sayeth he, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good. This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. And so what Solomon's saying here is like, hey, I've observed there's this guy, right? There's this person and sometimes this is us in many different ways. He doesn't have a second, I mean he doesn't have a spouse, doesn't have any kids, doesn't have a brother, doesn't have anybody to leave anything that he earns to. But notice what it says, yet there is no end of all his labor. And it says he's not satisfied with riches. So it's never enough, you know, the advancements, the accomplishments, the achievements, the wealth. The more he gets, he's never satisfied. And the worst part about all of that is Solomon says he never asks himself this question, which is basically, who am I doing this for? Why am I doing this? What's the point? What is the purpose? And so you can see right away that that teaches us we ought to ask this question. Because Solomon's saying, hey, you know, a lot of people, in fact, I would venture to say most people probably never stop to even consider this question. Why is it that we do the things that we are doing? I guess another title for this could be how to pace the rat race. I was struggling, you know. I was like, well, that's really what this is about. Do I title it this? But this question's really where the sermon starts. But that's really what this is about, how to pace the rat race. It's the secret to contentment. We're going to learn what that is and how to obtain that today. Because we're in November, obviously Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. And so you're going to see culture in our society, right? It seems like in the month of November they've got a thankful heart. Well, what happens in December? Well, the shopping cart, right? So you go from the thankful heart to the shopping cart. That's how it goes. That's the way of our world. And it's so easy for us to get caught up into these things that we need to learn the dangers. We need to learn how to base those desires and things like that and how to have the proper balance, if you will. And so basically the reason why this is so important, if we don't ask ourselves this question, if we get this wrong, our lives will be sore travail. It will be vanity. Well, what does vanity mean? Meaningless, empty, right? That's what he's saying. If you fail to ask yourself this question, why is it that you're doing the things that you're doing? Your life is empty. It's meaningless. It is vain. It's for naught, right? But notice what else he says. It is sore travail. That is intense labor. Remember when Rebecca gave birth to Jacob and Esau, right? What does the Bible say? It says that she had sore travail, right? It was intense. That's what we are trying to avoid, okay? And we're going to talk all about that. We're going to unpack all of that. Now, what kind of inspired me to write this is that I'm starting a new job on Monday, okay? So I will be working 40 to 60 hours a week. It just kind of depends. But I'm still running this business that I have, right? So I'm going to be extremely busy again. I had to take a little time off just for sanity's sake after working for the appliance repair. And I have to ask myself this. Why am I doing this? You're taking care of my dad who's obviously in the final stages of dementia, a very difficult situation to deal with. And if I didn't ask myself this question, I could easily get thrown off truck. I could start to just maybe want to earn more and more and more and more. But that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because it's a means to an end. It's to get myself to where I need to be and to where I want to be. And obviously, you know, we've got a big vision for this church. You know, there's things that I'd like to purchase in the future, places that we would like to go, you know, marathons we want to do, Indian tribes. We've got all sorts of things out there that we want to do. So, you know, I have to ask myself this question. And this isn't a question that you just ask yourself one time, okay? You want to ask yourself this question often because it's profitable. And when we ignore it, what Solomon's saying, and you're going to see as we study this chapter, that you're going to get thrown severely off track. And so we just need to realize that, you know, all of us have to labor. We all have to work, okay? But, like I said, in our culture, there can be sometimes this push, once you get some success, to constantly go forward and to add and to just keep piling it on there. And when we bereave our soul of good, there's consequences for that, okay? There are consequences for that, and you're going to see that. Now, we're going to begin here in verse number four, but before we do that, I'm going to give you the main statement of this sermon, which is this. You can't keep it real if you're looking at everyone else's highlight reel, okay? You can't keep it real if you're looking at everyone else's highlight reel. And so I started here in verse eight, but there are two extremes that Solomon gives us. Before he poses this question, we have to understand those extremes. So if you would, look at verse number four and look what it says. So he says this, and again, I considered all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. So what is he saying there? He's like, I considered all travail. So he went and he studied people. You know, he's the original sociologist, if you will. He went around and he looked at all the travail, all the intense work, all manner of jobs, everything that people put themselves through, you know, all the hard training, all the hard working, all the hard studying, all of these different types of things, and he says in every right work. So he's studying the accomplishments that people have, you know? You know these people who put out these videos, you know, get rich or die trying, those types. Well, they were around in Solomon's day, too, and he's basically saying, hey, I studied what makes those people tick, and then he gives us the answer. Look what he says, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. So what is the source of envy? Why is it that people are envied of other people? What is it? It's a lack of contentment. It's discontentment. It's because we haven't learned to be content with the way that we are and the things that we have. So what happens is we look at other people and we're like, man. You know, I had a pastor when we were living in Washington. It was Liberty Baptist Church in Tacoma, and his last name was Richter. Great man of God, great soul winner, and he would start his contentment sermon off all the time and reading about Abraham, how he came from the land of Ur. And then you'd be like, okay, how does that relate to contentment? Well, you know the land of Ur, better, faster, stronger, popular, smarter, right? We're always after the Ur. He's like, Abraham always had a temptation to go back to Ur, and he was just joking around, but it's so true. It's so true. And here's the secret. Here's what hopefully you pick up while reading this. You will never get rid of that feeling inside of you until you get your new body of envy. When someone else around you has what you want, they've got your degree, they've got your job, they've got your family, they've got your spouse, whatever it is, right? That little voice, that voice of the flesh that we've spent time talking about on Wednesdays will be there, okay? I'm telling you, you are never going to get rid of that, again, until you get your new body, but you can learn how to manage it, okay? That is what most people aren't going to tell you. They'll stand up, oh, you can get rid of it, just pray in Asgahn, he'll take it away from you. You know what? No. He'll help you manage it, but guess what? Solomon is very clear here, for every travail, every accomplishment, every right work that is under the sun, he says for this, a man is envied of his neighbor. You see, because we have a tendency to just want to jump ahead, especially in today's day and age, right? We live with the disease of now. We can have all the information we want, like right now, and we just want all of the stuff right now, so there's always going to be this temptation. When you see somebody and they're where you want to be, it's like, man, instead of just trying to work and maybe taking the steps and the years and the sweat and the tears and doing things right to try to achieve that, there is a temptation to want to cut them down, okay? There's a temptation to be like, oh, you know, I'm not there, and you start to become discontent with your life, and then what happens? Contentions. You start to compare yourself to those people. You start to compare yourself to what they have, and by doing that, you are setting yourself up for travail and vexation of spirit, and then what happens? Well, you could possibly start bereaving your soul of good, and the next thing you know, you're not asking yourself this question, and you say, well, I've got a family. Verse 8 doesn't apply to me. Yeah, how many people put their families aside to achieve what they want? They don't even know why they're doing it, right? This happens to pastors all the time. It does, because, you know, as a pastor, you obviously want to do good. You get a vision, hopefully, and you want to go reach as many people, but there's always a danger of neglecting those that are close to you, and then you wind up in verse number 8. It's the same thing for the working man, right? Boss says, hey, I got this great opportunity. The only thing is you've got to give up all these other things that you're doing for God, and when you do that, as a believer, you will be filled with sore travail, okay? So that's what I'm talking about here. That's what Solomon is telling us. Now, keep your place there, and go to the book of 3 John. 3 John. Now, the first point this morning is this. We get discontent when we realize we are not like others, and we decide not to like others, okay? Let me say that again. We get discontent when we look at others, and we realize, you know what? We're not like them. We'd like to be like them, and then we decide, you know what? I don't like them, okay? I was talking to a very honest individual a few months ago, and he was talking about how he was having a rough time, you know, in school and in high school, and he's like, I just don't feel like I fit in anywhere, you know, because I'm not the smartest, and I don't fit in with the smart crowd. I don't fit in with the athletes. And he's like, I don't fit in with, you know, the skateboarders. I don't fit in with the rappers. I don't fit in with the rockers. I don't fit in with anybody. And he's like, I'm just trying to question my purpose on this earth, you know? And he's just, you know, pouring his heart out to me. And, you know, he says something interesting. He's like, yeah, I just realized the reason why I hate those people is because I just want to jump over the hard work that it could take to even get to those people. He's like, I'm just not satisfied, I guess, with the way that God made me. You know, I'm just not satisfied with my gifts and abilities. And that is so true. When we look at other people, you know, because here's the thing, God made all of us unique. We all have different gifts. We all have different talents. We all have a different purpose, right? So why do we spend so much time listening to that voice of the flesh that's just pulling us into envy? Almost any time you meet somebody or you hear about two people and they've never had like some major falling out, there hasn't been like a deal gone bad, but they don't like each other, you start to evaluate them and you see that one's maybe up here in any capacity. One's got, you know, maybe a better look, maybe somebody who's like an absol, no blemish, right? And the other person, they don't get along. A lot of times it's because of envy. It's because this person over here, you know, realizes I will never become this, right? I'll never become six foot four. I'm never going to become as tall as Kate and I don't want to be, you know, I'm never going to have, you know, these perfect genetics. I'm never going to have this absolute super duper thick hair because I can't afford the little treatment, you know, or whatever it is. Right? And so what happens is you begin to become discontent with the way that you are. So then you starting to ignore your purpose and the reason why the God made you and you become filled with envy, all because of that little stupid voice in your head that someone told you, you know what, you shouldn't feel like that. Well, it's true, obviously, but we live in a fallen world and you can't avoid it. You see, that's a problem with a lot of things. The people aren't going to tell you that. That voice ain't going anywhere. It's there. You have to learn how to manage it. And you're going to see that as we study this. OK, so you're there in third John. Look at verse number nine. Third John, look at verse number nine. So this is John saying this here. He's writing it to the elder guy. And he says this says, Hey, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. Then he goes on verse 10 say, Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the church. You know, we're not told a whole lot about this guy, but we're told enough. OK. John's like, you know, he's as you're reading this, you know, does he list down all the different things and the problems that he and diatrophies had? No. Right. It's not like they had a bad deal. It's not like, you know, diatrophies cut him off out so many. It's not like he critiqued a sermon on YouTube. Right. He's just basically saying, hey, he won't even receive us. But diatrophies knows who John is. Everybody knows that he was a disciple, one of the apostles, you know, that he'd seen the trans from the transfigured Christ. Right. He was there. He was in the inner circle of Jesus, obviously had a large part in the Bible, well-spoken of amongst the brethren, had a good report. You know, he was the disciple whom Jesus loved. But this guy, diatrophies here doesn't want him to come and guest preach. He doesn't want him to come to the church. Why is that? Preeminence. OK. He wants the supremacy. He wants that distinction. He wants to be the one that is put up on high. What did Solomon tell us? Because of travail and every good work. These are the reasons why people are envied. You have to understand that when you set your heart out to do something good, look, I'm not preaching against labor. I'm not preaching against working hard. I'm preaching against doing it for the wrong reasons. OK. Obviously, John sacrificed his life, devoted it to the ministry. That's how he was called. OK. He had the right works. He had a lot of travail, did a lot of great things for God. And this guy, diatrophies, realizes, you know what? I'm never going to go and see Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration. I'm never going to be able to live the life that John's lived. So if he comes here, everyone's going to flock to him. And so he decides, you know what? It's easier just to envy him. I'll just start making things up. I'll just start, look at what it says in verse 10, I'll start praying against him. I'll start using malicious words. All because he's not content with the way that he is in the situation that he's in. It's like, wait, you're obviously some kind of leadership. You're obviously in some kind of a leadership position here. You have some sort of influence and you just can't be OK with that. Sounds kind of familiar, huh? Happens all the time, doesn't it? What is the reason why does this happen? Because people can't be content in their current state. It's hard. You know, you want to build influence. You want to build something no matter what it is. Guess what? It takes labor. It takes effort. It takes you knowing why you're doing it. And when you neglect that and you just start looking at everyone else's highlight reel and you start obsessing about that. Guess what? You will become just like this guy here. And look, I'm sure he sat around after their little church services. Oh, you know, I don't like them. You know, at one point he attached himself to John's ministry. Right? Obviously because they kind of they know each other. They're doing some kind of works. They're doing some good things. So he attached himself to the truth. And, you know, at one point probably loved all the disciples. But something happened. Something changed. And I'll tell you what it was. He realized he would never be like them. He can't go back in time and have Jesus select him as a disciple. That's not going to happen. He realizes that. You know what? You have to understand this can happen to any of us. And this is just something that I've seen with pastors my whole life. Not even just new IFB. I'm talking, you know, the liberal churches. They face this all the time. You go out here and you knock on their doors and you start talking to them, the ones that will talk to you. And they will tell you one of their biggest struggles is people constantly coming in and out and just going to the different liberal churches. You know, and it bugs them. It bothers them. Well, what do we always say here? Well, hey, if you don't like it here, that's the door. You know, there's the door. We're not going to change anything. We're not going to compromise. I'm not going to make up words and defame you just because you don't want to come here. Unless you came in here and wanted to cause trouble. That's a whole other sermon. And that's a different story. Okay? But obviously here at Diatrophes, he's got a problem with John. And it's completely wrong. It's completely false. He realized, you know what? I'm never going to be like you, so I'm going to decide not to like you. And then to support that, I've got to come up with this narrative. I've got to come up with this story of how you're not the same. You know, whatever it is. Maybe John was too mean. I don't know. It doesn't say. But obviously, he's in the wrong. And it doesn't say that, you know, that he's a devil or a reprobate. So what we need to understand is we can all become like this. And this is what we have to guard against. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. And look at what Paul tells the Corinthians here. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. Look at verse number 12. I'm going to show you what to do about this. He says this. For we dare not, verse 12, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Okay? Now that doesn't mean that you can't compare yourself at all, right? What should we be, who should we be comparing ourselves to? Now we should be comparing ourselves to the old us, right? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. That's one thing that our kids learned, you know, by doing track. You know, they would always tell the kids, you're not competing against everyone else. You're competing against your own strengths. You're, you know, the last time you threw the javelin, how far did you throw it? Okay, well, that's where you start. You want to beat that, okay? Because they know that once you get caught up into, you know, what everyone else can do, it's discouraging and then you're going to wind up quitting. And look, there are some people that are just gifted and stuff like that, like Kylin. Like she can throw stuff, I've told you guys this before, that girl can throw. I'll never forget, like one day I was walking down the hill and they were at track practice and I seen this javelin just launching. I didn't see anybody anywhere in sight. I was like, I must have been the coach, you know? I'm like, who in the heck threw that? I get down there, I started asking questions. I was like, who threw that last javelin down there? They're like, that was your daughter. I'm like, what? I'm like, that is insane. I'm telling you, if we were, you know, not doing the ministry thing, you know, and just like in the world or whatever, she would be like professional fast pitch. You know, it's gifted. And what I learned by observing that, there are a lot of people that will never be like that. I don't care how hard you train. She's just gifted at throwing things, okay? And you're not going to beat her in that. Now, obviously some of you can't. I know Skulk's like already ready to go out and start throwing stuff. But just, you get the point though, right man? I've got to give you a hard time because you're leaving for a month, so get ready, all right? Anyways, what is he saying here, Paul? For we dare not make ourselves of the number, okay? This is what most people do, the number, okay? Most people, what they do is they look at other people that are just boastful. Hey, why don't you come over to my house for dinner? Let me give you my gate code. Let me give you the gate code, okay? You can part, oh yeah, the gate code, right? They emphasize, you see? You see? Right, what are they doing? They're commending themselves, okay? I'm just kidding. If you live in a gated community, I'm not mad at you. I'm not envious, okay? I'm not comparing myself to you. I'm just using that as an example because being in the service industry, a lot of times I would call people, you know, but hey, I'm going to be about a half hour. Oh, just so you know, we live in a gated community. Okay, thanks for letting me know. Anything else you want to tell me, like maybe the gate code? Oh yeah, yeah, you're probably going to need the gate code, huh? Yeah, otherwise we could just reschedule you, you know? And why am I having this conversation with you is the question that I have. And the reason why is because they want me to be like, oh wow, I'll bet you've got the nicest washer on the market, don't you? Man, I'll make sure and wear four sets of boot covers, eight masks, and I'll comb my hair and take a shower before I come over, and I'll bring you a bouquet of flowers. I mean, what do you want? You see what I'm saying? Why don't they just say, oh hey, you know, like most people do, here's what they do. Like, oh hey, I don't know if they told you, but there's a gate code, here it is. If you have any trouble, let me know. Cool, cool. But when they're like, just so you know, there's a gate that you're going to have to go through before you get to my house. I'm just like, okay. Now I'm dealing with somebody who's not wise. And every time I get there, it's a nightmare. It is a nightmare because people like that, man, you tell them what's wrong. Hey, it's going to be 600 bucks. Oh, now they want to fight, now they just want to cry, everything is just, you know, it's the end of the world. Who wants to be like that? Nobody wants to be like that. And that's what Paul's saying, for we dare not make ourselves with a number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. They measure themselves by themselves. Go listen to some of these stupid little YouTube videos about people trying to get rich. A billionaire explains how he got his billions and how you can do it. It's easy. All you have to do is just die trying. Once you get that, once you adopt that mentality, you'll get there. You need to start investing. You know, I watched, you know, while I was preparing the sermon, I probably watched like, I don't know, too much. Probably like four or five different ones, you know, 20 minutes each. And none of them ever give you the solution. They never give you action steps. Like, go to this website, sign up for this, here's some stocks. No, they never do that. They're just generalities, just invest. You know why? First of all, they're lying. They're not as rich as they're saying they are. And second of all, you know, they want you to start clicking on all the things in the description so you can give them a little commission and then they just keep getting rich on giving you a little carrot. And Paul's like, hey, we don't need anything to do with that. Don't compare yourselves to those types of people. They're just up there commanding themselves. And maybe they do have the yacht. Maybe they do have the new jet ski. Maybe they do have the new truck. It doesn't matter, right? You ought to just, hey, praise God. You ought to thank God that you have that stuff. That's the attitude we need to have, okay? So when you feel this, you're around somebody, and look, it's not embarrassing. This is human nature. And, you know, let's say somebody, you know, a new family comes in here and they invite you over, and they do have the gated coat, you know? And maybe they're being cool. They're being polite to you. Don't be like, oh, I've been soul winning for years, and I live here, and they got all that. No. No. When you hear that little voice and you get that little feeling, you know what? You need to say to yourself, for we dare not. You say, I can't remember a whole verse. That's fine. Just say, we dare not. We dare not. You need to have that mentality. How's that for an action step? When that feeling starts to arise and you start to envy what other people have, whether you can achieve it or not, we dare not. Because when you do that, you know what? You are literally placing yourself in a position to be blessed by God. Because God wants his children to be content, not to be discontent. Hopefully everybody understands that. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number four. So we dare not. We dare not make ourselves of the number. We don't want to be like that. Because those people are not wise. Right? The one uppers. The one uppers, right? The one uppers are everywhere. They'll come into church, and we have to, you know, train that out of them, you know, and thank God for that. But, you know, don't let the one uppers get you. And that's a hard one. That's a hard one, man. When the one upper comes around and, oh, what are you eating, a doughnut? Oh, I ate one that cost $80 this morning. Okay? You know what I mean? It's just everything they do is better than you, right? And if it's not better than you, they know somebody who's done it better than you. Now, it could drive you nuts, and that could take you off on a wild tangent, and I don't want to get into that. But the way to, I guess, get along with those people, the way to not become like them, the way to manage it is to say, for we dare not. We dare not make ourselves of the number. Just realize, you know, I don't want to be like that. And that will calm you down. I mean, that is going to get your emotions right where they should be, and you'll be able to still carry on a conversation with them. Hopefully edify them. Hopefully help them out, you know, and encourage them from that point forward. So point number one, we get discontent when we realize we're not like others and decide not to like others, okay? And so that is the first extreme that Solomon gives us here in verse number four. Now we're going to move on to the second one. So look at verse number five. Look what he says. The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh. Now I can't help but think of my dad because he's been eating his hands lately, and it's been quite the fight, but he's got a different issue. Obviously he's got dementia. He's got Alzheimer's. Now Solomon's saying, hey, you've got this one extreme over here where people just start envying everyone because they have what they don't have or can't have, whatever the case is. And then you have this other example, these other people, this other extreme, and it says, notice what it says, the fool. So the fool, what he does is he folds his hands together and says, oh, because I'm not like that, I won't even try. Because I'm not that smart, I won't even try. Because I can't articulate like that person can, I won't even try. And he eats his own flesh, not physically, but metaphorically, but spiritually, and says, you know what? I'm going to listen to the narrative that I just created. Because I'm not like John, because I'm not like the Apostle John, you know what? I'm just going to go ahead and sit here and hold on to this small group of people that I've convinced that I'm the best thing, some sliced bread, and we're going to be happy. Right? That's what he is saying there. And guess what? That narrative eats away at him. So what happens is when we look at other people that have maybe what we want, where we desire to be, and we haven't asked ourselves the main question, why are we seeking that? Why are we doing this? The Bible says you could possibly go to the other extreme. Fold your hands meaning I'm just going to be like this, I'm not doing anything. And you start to create this false idea in your head, and they eat away at you. So again, we have a situation where other people who aren't even trying to control you are controlling you. They have moved into your dome, and guess what? They set up shop, and they are dictating everything you think and everything you do. And you get a problem with these people, and they don't even know why. And because you don't want to admit the real truth to them, hey, I've actually been envious of you. It takes a strong person to do that, to go up to somebody and say, hey, you know what, the reason why I've been short with you, the reason why I've been having these problems, the reason why I think we're not getting along is because I envy where you're at. If you did that, you know what kind of doors that would open, just being honest like that with somebody? That's a game changer if you can learn to do that, but that takes a lot of courage. And so point number two is this. Discontentment can lead you to becoming discomforted. You say, well, what does that mean? It means being destroyed. It means being embarrassed. It means being perplexed. How often do you read in the Old Testament about God discomfiting somebody with lightning and just basically disbanding them? You see these situations where large numbers of people are coming to attack Israel, and God just destroys them all, and they're embarrassed because they didn't even get to fight. They run back to their country, and they're just like, what happened? That is how we live our lives when we become like this guy here in verse five. We just fold our hands together and just allow other people and their successes and their highlight reels to eat away at us. That's what he's saying there, eateth his own flesh. Now, go to Genesis chapter 37. Genesis chapter number 37. You know who this kind of reminds me of, though? A person who eats his own flesh is Ahab. Because if you think about it, when Ben-Hadad was coming after Ahab, what was he, hey, I'm going to take your wife. I'm going to take all your money. And Ahab's like, whatever you want, sure, it's fine. What did he do? Folded his hands and just accepted it. It wasn't until Ben-Hadad was like, well, you know what, now that you're going to give me that, I'll go ahead and just send everybody that I have, and they're just going to walk around your whole kingdom and take whatever they want. And then he was like, oh, we can't have that. But in chapter 21 of 1 Kings, what does it say that Ahab did when Naboth wouldn't sell him his vineyard? Pouting. Yeah, he started pouting. He folded his hands, and he lays down, and it's just eating away at him. He does nothing. He's the king of the nation. He could have maybe gotten and done the proper thing and just bought property somewhere else, hired farmers, and just basically built his own vineyard. But he didn't do that, right? He decided, you know what, Naboth's got this great setup here. It's perfect. I could never have anything like that. He's mean. So he starts pouting. This guy's pouting. And then his wife comes up to him and is like, you're the king. What are you doing, right? And obviously she goes off and wickedly kills him because she's a reprobate. But you get the point here. Here's another situation, though, where we see this here. So Genesis 37 here. Look at verse number 3 just to give you some context. So it says this. Now Israel, or Jacob, it says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. So obviously in any family, in any situation, when you have this going on here, you're going to have some problems. But you know what? The problem that Solomon's giving us can actually help you to overcome this. It can help you to live in this type of situation and still flourish and still prosper. Because you say, well, I don't have that problem. Look, you go to work, you're going to have this problem. Because you're a Christian and your boss probably isn't, and you know what? They're going to gravitate more towards the worldly type of people. Who's ever had the old boss that wants to live vicariously through the young guy with the gauges that's fornicating out of his mind and just taking everything under the sun, just partying it up, right? Who do you think is going to get the favor, him or you? It's going to be him most of the time. It's going to be unfair is what I'm saying, okay? He's going to love that person more than you, but you can still have success. Just listen to me here. I'll show you this. Look at verse 5. It says, and Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him, yet the more. So to add on top of the unfair treatment that's going on in this family, God has given him a gift, and it's to dream these dreams, which are obviously prophetic and going to come to fruition. Now let's skip ahead in the chapter here and look at verse number 18, and let's see what happens. Look at verse 18. It says, and when they saw him, that's Joseph, so his brethren, it says, and when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, behold, this dreamer cometh. Well, there it is. Because Joseph has this ability here, they envy him. Because he has a right work, because he has a good work, like Solomon said in verse 4, now his neighbors are envying him. You see that? Look at verse 20. Come now, therefore, and let us slay him and cast him into some pit, and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him. We shall see what will become of his dreams. The fool foldeth his hands and eateth his own flesh. Joseph is their own flesh and blood. And instead of just accepting the fact, you know what? God has given him something that is going to help them out, and he's going to be above them. Instead of just accepting that and praising God for that, what do they do? They fold their hands and they eat their own flesh, metaphorically speaking. Go to Proverbs chapter number 6. Proverbs chapter number 6. So again, point number 2 is discontentment can lead to becoming discomfited. Because what ultimately happens? Well, they go into sore travail and vexation of spirit. They had to live many, many years after this with the guilt and with the shame of what they did to their own flesh and blood, all because they were discontent with their current situation, with what God gave them. And again, I'm going to bring this up again. You know, this happens to leaders all the time. Why does he get 10,000 subscribers? Could you imagine, you know, if I got mad at Pastor Menace because he's got like 14,000 subscribers, and he's the guy that trained me, you know? That is just ridiculous. It's absolutely absurd. Proverbs 6. Here's what we do about this. Look at verse 9. What does Solomon say here? How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Verse 10. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man? So obviously, look, sleep, physical sleep is good, okay? Having these different emotions in your inner being is there. It's not going anywhere. You have to just realize that. So deal with it a little. Make sure it stays a little. I already showed you one way to do that by saying, For we dare not. When those feelings arise, those feelings of envy arise because somebody around you maybe came back and actually got five people saved, you know, something like that, right? Don't let that feeling of envy that could possibly come on you take over because it will ruin you. And what he's saying here, hey, a little sleep, a little slumber, right? That is good for you. We don't want to allow this to take over us because it's another extreme is what he's saying. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number 4. And by that, I would also say this. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. You know, it's okay to be mad. It's okay to be upset. But what happened here in this story in Genesis 37 is his brethren, they let many days of sun come up and go down on the wrath, and they never dealt with it. They never got rid of it. And what ultimately happened? Hands folded, and they ate their own flesh. They destroyed their own flesh and blood for a season in their brother. And you know what? It's not like they just hurt Joseph. Obviously, they hurt themselves too, but they hurt their father. You know, they hurt their father. They hurt the chances of that nation actually prospering quicker. What would it have been like if they didn't do that? They probably wouldn't have wound up suffering from the famine as long as they did. Okay? So we're going to move on here. So point number 2, discontentment can lead to becoming discomfited, destroyed, perplexed, right? We see that here. That is what we are trying to avoid. Look at verse number 6. This is the solution here. So he gives you these two extremes, right? You've got verse 4, you've got verse 5, and then in verse 6, look what he says. This is awesome here. He says, Point number 3 is this. The key to contentment is balance. Okay? The key to contentment is balance. Notice what he says here. Better is one handful. Why does it say that? Why does it say unhandful, meaning one, with quietness? Then both hands full of travail and vexation of spirit. Well, one reason is because you're always going to have, if you're working, and we should be, right, you're going to have some travail. You're going to have some vexation. It comes with any kind of labor that you do. I don't care if you're trying to put a kid's toy together in the bag. I don't care if you've got the easiest job on the planet. You're going to have some travail and vexation of spirit. But what he's saying is don't become like these guys that put these videos out. You know, get rich or die trying. That is having both hands of vexation of spirit. The reason why I keep bringing that up is because, you know, when I originally had this idea and I went on YouTube here to check something, like that was the first thing that popped up. And I'm like, that is so weird. It's like our phones are listening to us or something. You know, get rich or die trying. You know, I click on it, you know, of course, because I want to see what it says. And the guy's just like, you know, if you're sleeping more than five hours a night, you know that kind of thing, look, that's violating Proverb 6. You need to get a little sleep, you know, and by a little for me, I need like seven hours at least. I can do six. A lot of times I'm forced to do six. But when I start getting less than five or four, me personally, like I don't function very well. I can do it for a couple days, then I start getting real mad and upset. Everything starts to bother me, right. So obviously that is the wisdom of the world, which we are trying to avoid. And so Solomon's saying, hey, better to have a handful of quietness, meaning what? You know what? We ought to be using some of our labor to put some good in our soul. You know, it's good to save money. It's good to work hard. It's good to work some overtime. But, you know, it's good to go soul-winding. It's good to read the Bible. It's good to do all these things. But if you do too much of any of that stuff, you're going to deprive your soul of good, and you are going to wind up in travail and vexation of spirit. Okay, go to Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. And so he makes this great statement here. He says, better is one handful with quietness than both handfuls of travail and vexation of spirit. And I find it just very interesting. You know, he doesn't even mention, you know, better than both hands full of just foolishness, okay, because obviously that shouldn't even cross your mind. That shouldn't even be an option. It should never be spoken of God's people that we, you know, are just envious of one another. You know, and this is why churches will develop cliques, right? That's why a lot of these big churches, you know, it never ceases to amaze me. We'll go out sowing in a lot of time. I think probably one of the big questions people will ask us here, and I hear this all the time, I heard it yesterday, is how big is your church? Because I don't like big churches, right? Why is that? Because of the clique. Because people are envying one another, and then all of a sudden you get a thousand, and there's nothing wrong with having a thousand people. It all depends on the teaching, right? But when you're a megachurch, and you don't want to offend anybody, and you don't want to say this kind of stuff here, you know what, people are going to naturally clique. That's what Solomon's saying in verse number four. For these reasons, because some people decide, you know what, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to get this stuff. It is what it is, there's nothing wrong with that. But then other people come by and they're like, oh, I wish I had that. And when they're not being taught how to manage it and how to deal with it, you know what, you're going to have cliques. When you don't draw that line on the sand and preach the truth, cliques develop. Now it's natural that some people in church will get along with others better than others. That's just human nature as well. I'm not talking about that. But what I'm talking about here is contentment. We have to have this balance here. And people, they get this idea, oh, well, if you have more than 30 people, I don't want to come. It's funny, they'll say, well, if you have more than 100, I'm not coming. Well, we don't. And they never show up. It's just like, you know, no, that's not the real reason. The reason is because we're Christians. We came to your door. Obviously, you know what we're about. And you're envious. Sometimes I'll even say that. Like, you know, keep doing what you're doing. This is so great, you know. I wish our church did this. OK. Why don't you just come on down then. We'll show you how to do it. So the key to contentment is balance. You want to make sure you have that quiet time, that peace, right? You should be seeking to have some peace. You know, this is why I get nervous when people want to, you know, come in here and start going soul winning seven days a week. And I'll get people that will call. And they'll say, hey, you know, I just want to come soul winning someday. That's it. It's like, what about church? You want to come to church first? Learn how to do that. And then we'll talk, you know. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? OK. What ultimately happened in that situation? You got discomforted. For other reasons as well. OK. So the key to contentment is balance. Look, I went four times last week. I'm sure, you know, there's somebody out there, maybe one or two people would be like, oh, you should go every day. And I would. But working 60 hours a week, coming up here and having a business and, you know, having a family, you know, I have to make sure that I've got a handful of quietness. I need to make sure that I've got some good coming into my soul. You say, well, that's Woodhay and Stubble. Yeah, it is. We all have Woodhay and Stubble. You know, you need some of that. You need to take some time off. Because when you deprive your soul of good, you sit back and you watch people that do this, they're going to crash. They're going to go out. You have to pace the rat race. You have to pace yourself. Otherwise, you will be destroyed. Philippians chapter 4. Let me turn there myself. Look at verse, let's see here. Look at verse number 11. Look at what Paul says. Actually, look at verse 10. So Paul says this. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. Then now at the last your care of me have flourished again. When you were also careful but ye lacked opportunity. Look at verse 11. He says, not that I speak in respect of want. Notice what he says next. For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Verse number 12. He says, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And he says this, very popular verse here, verse 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. But what I want you to understand here is what he says in verse number 11. I have learned. I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. How many people, how many churches, how many families are not teaching this truth to their people? Contentment is a learned behavior. You have to learn that. You see, this is a big deal. Because we get people today that just think there's something wrong with me because I'm not content. There's just something wrong with me because I have these feelings. Why am I just not automatically like so and so? Why am I just not automatically like this? It's because no one ever told you this is a learned behavior. You have to teach yourself. You have to learn to be content. And you say, how do I learn that? Well, what's the first thing that we do when you get that urge to compare yourself to somebody else? We dare not. You can't keep it real if you're looking at everyone else's highlight reel. I'm not against Facebook 100%. You know, we're on there. But, hey, be careful. Be careful. I hear this all the time. People are like, I went and checked on these people. They went to high school with. Man, they're millionaires and this and that. Click that thing off. Be careful with that stuff. That's all I'm saying. Again, it's better for you to have one handful of quietness than two hands full of travail and vexation. I wish I had a dollar for every rich person I've ever done an appliance for who's told me that. Who said, hey, you know, a lot of times I'll go to these big houses. You know, I went to this house at the end of coal last year, okay. This house was so big that when I had to go get a tool, the lady said, just call me. I'll come get you in a few minutes. Yeah, come get you in a few minutes because that's how long it takes to get to where I was at in her bedroom with, like, her fourth fireplace, gas fireplace in her bedroom. And she says, and I'll walk you out to your van and then I'll walk you back because you're not going to learn this house. It's massive. You know what she said to me before I left? She said, you know what, you seem really happy. You know, do you like what you do? I'm like, yeah, I like fixing this stuff. I don't necessarily like where I'm working, but, you know. But, yeah, I like fixing stuff. She's like, at least you're happy. She's like, you know, this is our second house. We have one in Oregon, too, and it's always, everything's always breaking. It's always a nightmare. It's always, you know, this much money, always this, always that. It's like, all I ever do is work. She's like, now that I'm getting older, I wish I could just go back and just not push so hard because my kids are grown. Half of them don't want to talk to me, she said. You know what I mean? She's like, it's just, I've got more problems than I really think I should have. You know, same thing happened when I was in California. You know, I'd go to El Dorado Hills, right? Mansions, million dollar, you know, both families are high-end, you know, neuroplastic surgeon type people, right? They will always say this, I wish, looking back, I wish I would have just had that handful of quietness. They don't put it like that, but that's basically what they're telling you, you know, because when you go to these people's house, they're lonely. And especially if you tell them, you know, you're a Christian or you're in the ministry or, you know, you're training to be in the ministry or anything like that, you know, they just want to pour their heart out, you know, free therapy, right? Everybody loves a free therapeutic session here. And so this is what we need to do here. Paul said, I learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. And actually back up to verse number eight, and he gives us another little clue here. He says this, finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. And I talk about this a lot because it's important. Hey, whatsoever is true. You know your abilities, right? Some people have the ability to go soul winning a lot. Some people don't, right? Some people have a lot of other things going on. They just have issues, whatever it is, right? What is true? Think on that, you know, and try to find a way to balance. Balance your life. Make sure that you're not depriving your soul of good, is what I'm saying. It is very important. That's what Paul is saying here. Go to Hebrews chapter 13, and I'll show you another little bit here. Hebrews chapter 13. Right before the book of James, Hebrews chapter number 13. And actually you can see this in Paul's life in 2 Corinthians 12. Remember he talks about the thorn in his flesh, you know, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, right? What did he do? He said, I besought the Lord thrice, you know, to be relieved of this. And what did Christ tell him? That's right. You know, my grace is sufficient for thee. So that taught him, right, because you have to be taught how to be content. He said, okay, I need to be content. I need to realize that God's got my back. You're saved. You have the Holy Spirit. No matter what state you're in, what truth that is, you need to accept that and think about that and realize, you know what? This is the situation that God has given me right now, and I'm okay with that because he knows better than I do. His thoughts are above my thoughts. His plans are above my plans. He sees the future. We don't. We see what we want the future to become. He sees it for what it is. He knows the snares. He knows the pitfalls. He knows the troubles. We don't. And that's why this is so important to learn contentment and balance. This is the secret to being content in your life. Look at what Hebrews 13, 5 says. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. That is an Old Testament verse. And you know what makes me cringe is some people will read this verse here and they'll say, well, hermeneutically speaking, this was only for the Jew. This was only for the Old Testament nation of Israel, only for the Hebrew. God could still forsake you. No. That applies to you. That applies to me. That applies to me. That applies to us. And when you realize that, guess what? It's going to be a lot easier for you to let go of that covetousness because when you covet the work, the abilities, the stuff that Solomon talked about in verse number 4 of chapter 4, you start to covet that stuff, guess what? Envy. That's what's going to be next. And what does Solomon tell us about envy? It is what? Rottenness of the bones. People die prematurely because of envy. And these doctors are scrambling and running all these tests and all these x-rays, I've got to get this chemistry right, we've got to figure this thing out. And God's like, hey, why don't you just pace the rat race? Why don't you just stop the envy? And that would eliminate a lot of health problems. It causes you physical vexation. It causes you spiritual vexation too. Right? Let your conversation be without covetousness. When you desire what does not belong to you, instead of saying, you know what, praise God for you, praise God that God gave that to you, you will become filled with envy and you will not be content. You will go from the thankful heart to the shopping cart. Right? That's how this world's going to be. You know, I was telling you guys, what, two, three years ago, when we'd be soloing in December, well, two years ago, you know, this is almost worse than October because that covetous conversation literally comes in and people don't even realize it. You knock on their door and just go, wow, what do you want? I already go to church. Bam. I'd rather knock on your door in October, man. You know what I mean? That's how it feels. So let's see here. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number four and we're going to start to wrap this thing up. So again, go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number four. So verse number six. Better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. So accept the fact you're going to have some trials, you're going to have some vexation. Right? Try to keep it to one hand. Right? Don't try to grab a hold of that with everything that you have, whether it's church stuff or life stuff, because you will suffer. Let's move on here. What does he say in verse number seven? It says, then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. Verse eight. There is one alone and there is not a second. What does that mean? Well, basically it's like, you know, you guys got no spouse. So there's one alone. He's all by himself. Yea, he hath neither child nor brother, yet is there no end of all his labor. Neither is his eye satisfied with riches. Why is that? Because covetousness has set in. And once you covet and you don't deal with it, it's never satisfied. Neither saith he. And this is the biggest part of this whole sermon. Right? Solomon's just like marveling. This guy never even asks himself this question, which we started the sermon off with, for whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good? If you've never asked yourself this question, for why it is that you're doing what you're doing, this is vanity and a sore travail. A sore labor. Go to chapter number six. Chapter number six. Ecclesiastes six. So again, why do I bereave my soul of good? Look at verse three. If a man beget a hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he. You see that? Look, I'm not against working. You know that. We're not against working. We're not against trying to accomplish things and stuff like that. But when you take both of your hands and you're like, I'm just going to latch onto this, you're going to get destroyed. When you deprive your soul of some good, you're going to get destroyed. Verse four. For he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. You say, oh, well, that's just talking about a lost person. Oh, really? There are many people who come into churches like ours all throughout the country, and they come in guns blazing. We call them Roman candles. And look, we love them. They're saved. God bless them. But they come in. I'm grabbing hold of everything. I'm reading 80 chapters of the Bible a day. I'm going to be more zealous. And they deprive their soul of good. Sometimes you just need to sit back and take a day off and call up the brothers that went that day and say, hey, you know what? God bless you. Praise God for that, for what you did. I'm not saying give up. I'm not saying do less. I'm just saying be careful about being off balance. That's the whole point of this question here. Who are you doing this for? Why are you doing it? Look, we all have to deprive ourselves of some good. I'm going to be doing this starting next week. You say, I don't have to have that other business. But here's the thing. I asked myself this question. Why have that business? Because now it gives me an opportunity to spend time with my kids. Because I bring them along with me. And they learn how to work. They learn additionally how people are. Because people are one way when you're out soul winning. But when you go into their house and there's money, when you go into their houses and there's money involved, you see a different side of people. I was telling Kate in this the other day, we went and cleaned a house for somebody. And five minutes in, they're like, you guys are the best people in the world. You're better than everything. And you're just high crazed. What did I tell you? I said people that are that quick to praise you will be that quick to turn on you. This person contacts me the other day and wants me to just like on a dime to come over there. And I can't. What do you think the conversation was like after that? Oh, I can't. You don't care about me. Just being ridiculous. Didn't even phase me. Because I already told you. That's how people are. But you know what? Those are lessons that they can take with them as they get older and when they start families and when they go on through life. And they'll see. You know what? These people out here, the whole reason why I'm able to make money off of them is because they got both hands trying to grab the world's riches and accomplishments. Right? So they're never gonna quit doing it. So you might as well get some corn off of them, I guess. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number two. Look at verse number 24. Chapter two, verse 24. Solomon says this. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Right? So you gotta have the labor. The Bible says if we don't work, we shouldn't eat. So we gotta have the labor. But he says that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This is also, or he says this also, I saw that it was from the hand of God. So you know what? It's okay to work and take some of that and do something fun. You know what I'm saying? You know, it's okay to give yourself some good, some benefits. You know, it's okay to go back there and eat those donuts. Well, unless you're on some kind of a diet, then it's not okay. But you get what I'm saying here. The point is, did you ask yourself the question, why am I breathing my soul of good? So he's saying, hey, this is from the hand of God. But what does the world say? Right? The world says no, no, no. That's not good enough. That's not good enough. You need to have like a Navy Seal mindset and it's just never enough, right? You know, if all you can do, if all you're trying to do is get a million dollars, you'll never make 10 million. You'll never make 30 million. You'll never become a billionaire. Well, that's cool with me because the Bible says labor not to be rich. Right? What I want for myself and my family and honestly for all of us is to get them eternal rewards. You know where moth and rust doth not corrupt? How about that? I want to see more videos about that. Let's make a video how to get rich for eternity. We'll get like a bunch of clicks and a bunch of thumbs down. But this is from the hand of God. You know, even doing slightly like we have, look, if you want to work, we got work in this church. We got soul winning. We got all kinds of things that we can do. Just be careful. That's all I'm saying. Don't sacrifice your family. Don't sacrifice, you know, your friends, you know, and the church and things like that because what happens is you will become discontent and eventually you'll become destroyed. Look at verse 25. He says, for who can eat or who else can hasten here unto more than I? Verse 26, for God giveth to a man that is good in his own sight, wisdom. He says this, in knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. And that's exactly what you see with a lot of these super mega rich people that want to put out these videos, you know, get rich or die trying. You know what it's like? They said in their heart, I don't need God. I'm going to reject him. And God's like, fine, I'll just give you up to these vain desires. And they spend a lifetime seeking that material wealth and all of the things that aren't going to be there when they die. And they never even ask themselves, why am I doing this? Why am I taking ice baths? You know, why, you know, because a lot of, you know, check millionaire's morning routine out, right? And it's always like an ice bath. And maybe it's good for you. I don't know. I don't know. You know, it's true. You know, when I was up in Alaska, I didn't get sick a lot in the winter times. There might be something to that. But you get the point, right? You know, you got to have your ice bath. And then you got to meditate. And then you got to have all this other stuff, right? You wind up copying their lifestyle, you're going to get destroyed. Just know that. Because they deprive their soul of all good so that they can get more. And you know what? They are verse eight. They are one. They are alone. They don't have a second. Yeah, they might talk about a girlfriend. They might talk about a wife. But you know what? They're not really there in the relationship. Almost never. Every major CEO of these corporations that are out there, you know, they all have marriage troubles. Go back to chapter four and we'll finish up. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, knowledge, and joy. So Solomon's saying, you know, if you don't ask yourself this question, you're depriving your soul of good, but you're also deceiving your own self. And we've spent time talking about that. We don't want to be like that. So we're almost done here, okay? Look at verse nine. He says this. Two are better than one. Because they have a good reward for their labor. You know what God said about man in the beginning? It's good for man not to be alone. Right? But what are we seeing today? We're seeing a push to be alone. You don't need anyone. It's all you. Right? It's all you. You don't need anyone. It's all you. That is literally what's being taught out there. Who's ever heard of that MGTOW stuff? Who's heard of that? Yeah. Is that biblical? Look, I'm against feminists. We all are. But does that mean that all women are bad? No. That movement, that entire movement, is going against God. Because he said it's good for man not to be alone. So if Adam was good enough alone, why did he make Eve? Think about that. We need people in our lives. That's why it's so important to come to church. That's why it's so important to be around like-minded believers. So we can edify one another. Help each other out. Help you with your problems. But the world says you don't need any of that. You need to stand alone. You know what? You need to do this morning routine. You need to push other people that aren't like you, that aren't as motivated as you, aside. That's not what God wants from you. You think that's what God wants? No. That's what the devil wants for his people. Look at verse 10. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he follow. For he hath not another to help him up. Verse 11, again. If two lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. So there you have it. Right? Because a lot of people in the world will say, you know, the more friends that you have, the more, you know, if you go to church and you do all these things, you know, you're not going to reach your full potential. Well, funny. The wisest man who ever lived, inspired by the Holy Ghost, is saying two are better than one. Two are better than one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. We need to be around other people. That's just the way it is. When you neglect that, you're setting yourself up for failure. And this is how you can tell someone's about to crash when they get this, I'm a lone ranger, I'm a Rambo. Why do you think Hollywood glorifies people like that? Rambo. Because they go against this. Look, almost anything that the mainstream, the media or movies or music, anything, any narrative that they push, just study the Bible and you'll see it's the opposite every time. And now we know who's behind it. The devil knows if he can get you dissatisfied, discontent with the way that God made you, you're done. You're done. He owns you. Those people that you look to and want to be like and decide not to like, they will mop you and they're not even trying. How pathetic, how weak is that? That is not the way that we want to be. So I'm going to leave you with some questions here, which is this. How would your life be different, how will your life be different when you ask yourself this question in verse 8? For whom do I labor and breathe my soul of good? What changes would you make? And last of all, do you have the courage to actually make those changes? This is what everybody in here needs to think about. And at the end of the day, you cannot keep it real if you're worried about everyone else's highlight reel. It is so true. Rejoice with people when they have success. If they have a talent, if they've reached a status that you know that you'll never get, praise God for that and move on because we dare not. We dare not to make ourselves of the number. It's not profitable, it's not right. We need to know that because look, as this thing keeps going forward, the world's just getting worse and worse and worse and these things have to be brought up constantly. We have to make sure we aren't slowly getting backed in to their way of thinking because it will destroy us. And so with that, I'm going to leave you with those thoughts and we'll bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this truth. Just pray, Lord, that we would continue to be a church that is content with the abilities and the seasons and the things that you've given us, Lord, I just pray that you'd help us to use what we have to continue to go out and preach your word and to be a light to this community. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. All right. Let's grab those hymn books one final time this morning and turn to song number 179, Such Love. Song number 179, Such Love. Such Love. On the first. That God should love a sinner Such as I should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss Nor rest till he had planned to bring me nigh How wonderful is love like this Such love, such wondrous love Such love, such wondrous love That God should love a sinner Such as I, how wonderful is love like this That Christ should join so freely in this evil Although it ended his death on Calvary Did ever human, took my number Then loved divine that ransomed me Such love, such wondrous love Such love, such wondrous love That God should love a sinner Such as I, how wonderful is love like this That Bora will full out cast such as I The Father when the Savior bled and died Redemption for a worthless slave to buy Who longed and lied, graced, defied Such love, such wondrous love Such love, such wondrous love That God should love a sinner Such as I, how wonderful is love like this And now he takes me to his harness He asks me not to fill a servant's place The far off country, one drinks of our kind Wide open are his arms, a breeze Such love, such wondrous love Such love, such wondrous love That God should love a sinner Such as I, how wonderful is love like this Pastor Santa can preach your word So if you'd better come here and hear this And apply it to your life We just pray that you have a self-reflect On this blessing that lasts today, Lord We just thank you for all the time that you've spent together We pray that we can pray to you And sing this song to you, Lord, we love you In Jesus' name we pray, amen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .