Well, good morning. We'll go ahead and get started. Hey, Bob, would you mind closing the door? There you go. I saw the chairs were moved up front. I thought that's probably somebody trying to tell me I'm not talking loud enough. So if you can't hear me at any point, go ahead and raise your hand and tell me. Time to be late. Yeah, yeah. Time to be late. Well, I gave everybody a few extra minutes. I'm surprised everybody remembered to turn their clocks back. That's amazing. I'm glad to have you here. We'll open in prayer, and does anybody have a request, anything we might include in our prayer today? I'll ask Lynn to open us here in a second. Yeah, Laurie? Anna's traveling today from Blackfriars, she's in Georgia right now, coming here, and then to Minnesota for a conference in Minnesota. Okay. Anything else? Yeah. Our daughter, Christiana, is due to have her first baby. But she has gestational diabetes and has now been forced to go on to insulin. And she's going to be induced early because her blood pressure is high. So yeah. We're praying for Anna and Christy Lynn. Go ahead and open, if you will. Father, thank you for the beautiful day that you've made, that we can rejoice and be glad. And I just thank you for the opportunity we have to study your work here in Louisiana for Tom and his preparation. I pray that you'll just help us to be good listeners and to the flyers of your word, that you would keep your word out and not deceive ourselves. I pray for Anna. You give her turn mercies up from Florida and Georgia and all the way up to Minnesota. The conference she's going to will be profitable for her. We pray for Christiana. Just thank you for the new little one that's about to appear, and I pray that you give her physical grace, especially with this diabetes that she's got and the insulin that she'll have to take. I pray that that will go completely, and that the family will be able to rejoice soon in the birth of a new baby. Thank you again for this time. I pray that you'll allow us to be pleasing to you in what we do and say. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're moving in today into chapter three, where timing is everything and then you die. Another encouraging. That's the amazing thing about Ecclesiastes. The evil we see under the sun is next week and Dan will be taking you out of town. Now that it's warming up here, it'll be 70 degrees this week, we're going to Florida. So, for a few days anyway. And then, I'll be back for chapter 5 and then 6, and then Dan will be bringing in, when he begins teaching, the Philip Ryken book, and that'll just add another perspective. I haven't been using that, but he'll be using that, and that should be a real, just be a nice extra viewpoint, and I know it's a really good book. So our assignment last week, for those of you that were here, was simply to rejoice in the Lord. Did everybody do that this last week? Philippians 4.4, and we gotta remember the last verses of chapter two, we're getting into some positive things, and it was a real encouragement. We get a few more today, and then Dan doesn't have any next week, so we'll see how he handles that. I asked the question, what do the lives of people you know reveal about what they think will make them happy? Anybody get any thoughts on that? Or even the last one, if you wanted to share that, it's kind of a personal question. What do you think of that first question? Yeah, Jan? I thought the way they spend their time, their money, what they do with it revealed a lot. Yeah. We used the example of Larry Ellison, A few weeks ago, the fourth richest man in the world, you saw what he valued. And buy an island in Hawaii and a nice yacht with your money. But they think that will make them happy. But we're learning that those things don't actually fulfill us, only the Lord. Anybody else? Okay. I wanted to review where we're headed. Um, this overall view from, uh, Warren Weardsby, we covered the, I just love this little light, so I'm going to try not to lose using that. If I keep turning it on and off, let me know I'm doing that. It's just crazy. So, um. So the first two chapters was kind of an overview. This is Wiersbe's outline and I really like that and it helps give you a whole perspective of the book of Ecclesiastes, the way he's broken it down. There's all kinds of different ways that you can organize it, but talks about the monotony of life, vanity of wisdom, futility of wealth, certainty of death. And then these chapters in the middle where we're headed now cover each of those topics. And then the last chapters are really what most of us are familiar with chapter 12. It is a really, you know, it has kind of those go-to verses for us, but especially at the end. We'll talk about that the last week or two, but these next weeks will be right in the middle. And each one of them thankfully has an enjoy life passage like we saw last week. Today we get a bunch of them and we don't get any more until chapter five. So, but those are the summaries that kind of the find your contentment in the Lord, find your joy in the Lord. So that's the overview for those of you who haven't been in here. We have our quiz. We do a quiz each week. So the first week we had some wonderful prizes. I've never come back through and, you know, one of these quizzes we're going to be able to, you know, we're going to have a winner that gets some M&M's or something like that. So who made the insightful comment that all men seek happiness? This is without exception. You had to be here for this. It was Blaise Pascal in Paris, France. The other one's actually our son's dog in Hickory, North Carolina. His name is Blaise Pascal. And as I said, Blaise Pascal, he didn't pronounce his name right or spell it right. So true or false, Solomon was reasonably sure what would happen to all that he had worked so hard to achieve. Was that true? Actually, no. He wasn't sure what was going to come after him, was he? He was sure of that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, there you go. Okay, that part, yeah. There you go. So, if that was your thought, you're right. So, very good. All right, um, what two polls did we discuss? Um, joint content in this and it's not, we're not looking for the opposite word in there. I mean, what, what word goes in there? Joint content is, what word goes in there? It is opposite actually. Isn't it vexation? Yeah, vexation and Hevel, the Hevel, uh, however we pronounce the Vanity in Hebrew, so those two polls were the theme of the first two chapters. Which of the following were declared to be from the hand of God last week? All of them, right. Very good. at which Jewish festival is Ecclesiastes read. Remember that one? The Feast of the Tabernacles at the time of Thanksgiving. The Jewish people read the book of Ecclesiastes and we thought, well, that might be a good book to read at our Thanksgiving. Stephen. We can't get you. Don't think I didn't notice you there on the floor. It's nice you want to be with your wife. We admire that. Bonus, who got shot no less and no more than four times with a .44? No less, no more. Yes there more. But the point of that wasn't the name it was this here we were talking about the dash. So I just wanted to find a happier gravestone to use. And Daryl mentioned the poem, the dash poem, which is really, really a good, you know, it's a feel-good poem, obviously, but, and I can't really read it from over here, but if we look, especially, and you probably can't either, it's kind of blurry, but if you want to look that up, so when you're, let me get in front. So when your eulogy is being read with your life's actions in rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your days? So it's the fact that each of us will have a birth certificate and a death certificate as well, but what counts is, and what we're talking about in Ecclesiastes is the days that's in between. So, as we move into chapter three, we're moving into some familiar territory, and at least for some of us who remember one of the few pop songs to ever feature Bible verses. You had your TV on last night on channel 20. We were talking about this, and on comes the bird singing, turn, turn, turn. We were going to have that playing this morning, but I didn't go with that. But just imagine if the verses to that song, it was one of the few, some of the only Bible verses the general public has ever become familiar with. But just imagine if that song had the words John 3, 16, or maybe the old Romans wrote the salvation and it had been that popular. Wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing? But that song was actually written, if you remember it, and any of us who were alive in the 60s probably do, but in 1959, it was written in 1959 but popularized in 1965 by the Byrds, and it was in tune with the anti-war protests of the time. And they kind of switched out a few words, but basically they're all the same. And Pete Seeger, the guy who Keith, what was the story on that? He sold the rights to that song to the Nation of Israel, or the copyright, not the copyright, but the royalties he gave to the Nation of Israel, right? Yeah, he felt guilty because he made so much money on it, and it was Bible verses except for five or six words. So that's the story on that. But as a result of that song, chapter 3, verses 1 through 8 are the world's most famous, one of the world's most famous poems. It's used by even the secular world since it describes life as it really is. Time is mentioned, you know, for every, you know, time for every season of life. It's mentioned 28 times. Repetition is the one thing that makes Ecclesiastes interesting, I think. Do you remember in the chapter two, how many times was the word I or myself mentioned? It was almost 40 times that repetition was involved. In chapter one, the word vanity was used. I forgot how many times, 29 or 30. So Solomon uses poems, a repetition, prose, proverbs. He's got a wonderful mixture of different types of writing. So that's what helps make Ecclesiastes an interesting book. So last week we discovered the polar opposites, the contrast of havel, meaninglessness, and the enjoy life passages which we looked at. And we took some of our time, we really kind of took our time these last few weeks just getting a feel for Ecclesiastes because it takes a little while to kind of wrap your, to develop a taste for it maybe you could say because it's not normally one of our go-to books when we think of our favorite books and easy to understand books. But today we're going to jump in on chapter three And I wanted to ask you this, this was last week as well. Not really ask you about this, but just mention we talked about the glass half full or half empty. And I thought of this picture we showed last week because I thought of just the water in that cup being the word of God and everything that God wants us to think about and dwell upon and then The rest of the cup being vanity and emptiness, and that just kind of came to my mind this last week. It's really showing the opposites, the joy and contentedness in God and in his word, and then the vanity of life without God. So we read, Dave Ingersoll read the first eight verses last week. We won't read through those now, but come on in. There's one over here. No problem, I'm glad you came. We're just gonna walk through these eight verses and talk a little bit about them, and I'll mention a few things as we go. So, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. Now, if that song's in your mind, you were saying, for everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn. And I listened to that song this week and I can't get it out of my head. But I managed not to say that when I was reading it. For everything there is a season. And notice here that it says under heaven. Finally, we're going from under the sun to under heaven. We're getting God's perspective on some of these things. One thing in particular we can take from this poem is that God is in control of all the events of the dash of our life. Whether our life is a 40-yard dash or a mile run or a marathon or at one time I knew a fellow who ran ultra marathons. Have you heard of that? 24-hour runs? I don't know who that corresponds to, besides maybe the people in Genesis that lived 900 years. They're the ultra marathoners. But we all have different dashes, different lengths, and different events that God has for each one of us in our life. We have a time to be born and a time to die. We all have a birth certificate. Like it or not, we'll have a death certificate. And we don't choose either one. God knows exactly. Um, he has, uh, he knows both and he formed us in our mother's womb. He knows the exact number of days that he has a lot of each 1 of us. So, spring is rolling around and a time to plant a time to pluck up what is planted. Years ago some of us were familiar with a book called the seasons of life your anybody remember that wasn't a best-seller Yeah, but it was interesting because It related to the various seasons that that we lived like maybe a season of singleness as your then maybe marriage and raising a family, caring for your parents, grandkids. And we all go through various seasons and how we need to adjust our perspective on life and recognize our limitations and the opportunities that each season of life gives us. So that's one challenge for us that are older in the class is because really Ecclesiastes really is more focused on Younger people Solomon telling young people, please take note of what I've learned But even as older people we can say God has given us this season in life We need to redeem the time and make each day count for however long he's given to us So a time to be born at a time to die so a time to kill and the time to heal and a time to break down and a time to build up. Well, the kill and heal, we know it's not, it's never right to murder, right? It's not referring to that, but it's possibly referring to capital punishment or possibly in wartime, a time to heal, but a time to break down and a time to build up. I like to use this example for our son. It's a time to tear down your house and build a new one. This is our son, Zach. We use the word havel as vanity. Well, he lived in not a havel, but a hovel. This is his home in the last three years, and it's in Pittsburgh. And he lived in this side over here, but he saved his money and bought him a nice little house. So that's his new home in Pittsburgh, a little condo. So we're really proud of him about that. Time to break down and a time to build up. They need to tear that building down, OK? It was old 30 years ago, and they haven't done much to improve it. Let's see, the last one, a time to weep and a time to laugh. Life is bittersweet. We don't know what we'll be on tomorrow. We'll hopefully have plenty of laughter. And we know that there'll be time to weep as well. But I thought of this when I was looking at this. It's kind of like there's a time of victory and a time of defeat. And what did I think of being a child of the 60s and 70s, but whoops, wrong way. Wrong way, yeah, sorry. Wide world of sports. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Skate jumper. Yeah, spanning the globe to bring you a constant variety of sports. Heard that for 30 years. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Remember this guy coming down the slope and crashing? And do you remember this guy ducking right here just in time? And I watched that as a kid, live, as it happened. And all they could talk about was this lucky guy right there. Because the ski went right over the top of his head. But the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. So I just kind of wanted to share that. It's so stuck in your mind. They always showed, they used that for 20 years. And then they'd always show a different victory. You know, like they had the USA hockey team in the early 80s. They showed that for years when they won, beat Russia. And then they had every, you know, different victories and, but they never gave up on this one doing that. All right. We're on number five. Okay. Number five, or verse five, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. What in the world? Is that, that's not something we're familiar with? It's possibly related to an ancient wartime practice of covering enemy's fields with stones, you know, so that those fields would be unproductive. So then they'd have to come through, pick all those stones out. And this made me think of an adventure, Rick Commerville, that our kids went on when they were little. We needed some garden pond stones. Rick took us on a rock hunt, and we went to some farmers he knew, who, farmers don't like to have rocks in their field, as I understand it. And so they pile them up, and he took the kids out with me, I went with him, and we, we went and found stones, brought them back to our garden pond, and they're there to this day. So, the time to cast away stones, the time to gather stones together, just everyday life, right? This is a, What happened in that time frame and and that's an example of what this poems about just the life we live. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. Warren Wiersbe said, this is probably related to the Near Eastern practice of embracing, such as to say hello and goodbye. We plan to head to the airport this week. And so we'll see people. As we go to the airport, it's always amazing to see people that are so happy to see somebody returning. And at the other gate, you see somebody sad because they're saying goodbye. There's a time to embrace, time to refrain from embracing hellos and goodbyes. A time to seek, a time to lose. Does anybody else have a different translation of that? What's it say in another translation? A time to gain? Or does it all always say the same? Or does it say tear? And I mean seek and a time to lose. time to search. Time to give up. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Verse 5 or verse 6. Anybody else have a different? What are your thoughts then as to what that might be talking about? Anybody? Yeah, Dan. I know we've moved recently and you accumulate Then you move, and it's just like, man, we've got to get rid of some of this stuff. And so you just start taking stuff to Goodwill and giving stuff away and selling things. Yeah, exactly, yeah. A time to keep and a time to cast away. We're not too good on the casting away part. Is anybody else like that? Because, you know, as soon as you throw something away, you'll need it the next week. You wouldn't want that to happen. you never know when you might need something. The time to seek and time to lose may refer to, I thought diet plan, but I think it's more related to finances, gaining and losing money probably was, although who knows what it was like back then. Maybe Solomon, you know, he ate so much and had so many feasts that may have been on his mind, but probably related to finances. And we have periods of time where we're saving, gaining, and there's times where we actually lose as well. You also can think of horticulture at the time of farmers. There's some crops you can keep for a long time, but others or seven, a time to tear and a time to sew. And I'm kind of, I enjoy going through these because as, you know, hearing that song, the bird song, I knew the verses in my mind, but I never really thought about what they might mean. And so it's nice to go through here and say, what is this talking about? What part of life is it? Well, in the ancient world, If you remember, they tore their clothes. They would tear their shirt down towards their heart when they were in a time of grief. Probably it's referring to that. There's a time for grief, and there's a time to sew that up and get back to life and move on. This is the one that's tough here. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. That's a lifelong project, learning when you should talk and when you should not talk, and it's usually not talk that you should go with, but there's times when you really need to say something as well. At least Teresa and I know, I think we spend more time Just worrying about something we said, you know, did I say the right thing, you know, and maybe that's common, but we do need to be careful what we say. So, we need to, if you're still working on that, I understand your plight. So. She put that on her marriage file. Yeah. I just need to sit back and let people talk. Okay, we'll move on now. A time to love and a time to hate might come in here. Psalm 97, 10 says, we are to hate evil. We're to love, but you who love the Lord hate evil. Proverbs 8 talks about seven things the Lord hates. There's a proper hatred and we need to understand what degree and what manner we need to hate. We all hate evil, but that's what that's related to. It'd be wrong to not hate some of the things we see going on in the world and be sad that it is the way it is. We know it won't be that way forever. A time for war and a time for peace. This is probably the one, the birds in their song. It was the 60s and the protest time, and they put a few words in there related to the war. I didn't really like the song, but there is a time for war and there's a time for peace. We see that playing out before us today. with Ukraine and Gaza and different conflicts around the world. So, anybody have any comments or questions as we move from here? Yeah, Lori? Sorry, back to verse one. My line says, in the time for every event under heaven, and it says in the margin, it says, delight. I was just curious why there's such a difference. A time for every matter under heaven. Ah, that's a good question. I hadn't considered that. But knowing that under heaven is bringing God into the picture is all the difference, all the delights, and that's what we're going to get to in the next few verses, talking about the delights God brings our way. So bringing that up may be tied into the verses to come. Very good. Yeah. Another one. Mine says purpose. Purpose. OK. Some says event. Event. Anybody else? How many different translations of that that we have? Sorry, I'm not familiar with Hebrew, but Justin, if you know, go ahead. I have to look at it. OK. All right. Action items on the first eight verses one would be a reminder for us to redeem the time that we have seasons 516 and remember life is unpredictable. We live by faith Live by God's promises and our times are in his hands Psalms 31 our Psalm 31 15 so redeem the time By faith, some basic things, our times are in his hands, but sometimes we need as this book does reminds us of some of the very basics. Right, we'll move into a few of the. The rest of the chapter, there's quite a bit here, but I really won't have time to go into a lot of detail here. If one thing I noticed it sticks out as I read this and we're familiar with is verse 11 that says He has made everything beautiful in his time in its time He's also put eternity into man's heart It's so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to the end God is working all things together for good and The question comes up, he makes everything beautiful in his time, if he's totally in control, and everything's gonna work out, then why do we pray? Does anybody have a quick answer to that? Why do we pray? Decide we're commanded to. Prayer is the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, avails much. We have that dialogue and interaction with the God of heaven, we can bring our requests to him. You have not because you ask not, and somehow our prayers can work, and God works it together for good in our lives. So I think He makes everything beautiful in His time. He put eternity in a man's heart. Somehow our hearts know that we don't just die, we will live for eternity. I looked up a few statistics on what people think about eternity and give you a second to look at that. I'll look first at the comments that I found. Stephen Hawking said, Christianity is a fairy tale. It's an illusion embraced by people who are afraid of the dark. But a Christian apologist at Oxford said, atheism is an illusion embraced by people who are afraid of the light. A pretty good comeback there. Only one in six did not believe in any afterlife. And these numbers are kind of interesting. I was surprised that there's so many because you really have to, it's not normal. We, all religions have a, Have an afterlife view and you have to work hard to not think there is some kind of afterlife but Only one in six did not believe there's any afterlife. But then another interesting stat was How many Christians say non-christian religion can lead to eternal life in heaven and Many religions could lead to eternal life in heaven. All Christians, a total, you can believe about anything, 58%. And my religion is the one true faith leading to eternal life. Among Christians, only 31%. I just thought that was an interesting statistic when we're talking about eternity and what's in man's heart and how he thinks about it naturally. Let's see, we're at verses 12 and 13. I perceive that there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to men. It's another one of those blessed encouragement verses that are scattered throughout Ecclesiastes. Let's read that again because it is, it's so encouraging after reading a lot of the other things about vanity. There's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. We looked at that last week as well. It's very similar. This is God's gift to man. Stephen Davey, I actually, This material this week, chapter three, he had a series on that, and I used that as an outline for what I'm talking about today and some of the details. I appreciate what he had to say on this chapter. He made a comment, and actually, if you don't know, he's the pastor of the Shepherd's Church where the Shepherd's Seminary is. He has a radio program that's on 96.3 FM, and that's where I heard him speaking about. These it's on in the morning. So he was going through Ecclesiastes in December, but he said Made a comment that he was convinced that if these verses were not in the Bible the average Christian wouldn't think they should be He said enjoy if you you know We need to enjoy cooking a meal and cleaning the house driving to work cutting the grass shoveling the snow Is we are we really supposed to enjoy those things? but apparently we are in God's eyes. He's given us all these things to do. These are God's gifts and we're reminded about it a second time here. He told us about it last week in chapter two. We're to enjoy the work he's given us to do, even though that's not always an easy task. Sometimes work can be boring and we know it's difficult, has its weeds, but keep a proper perspective on work and what he's given us to do. And remember this, it's God who's commanded us to enjoy these things. When he gives us a command and we do that, he actually takes pleasure in us enjoying them. So, are you not delighted when you do something for somebody, you give them a gift, or do something for somebody, give them something, and they are appreciative of that? I would imagine it's the same way with God in that he wants us to appreciate his good gifts every day. So 1 Corinthians 10 31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you're doing, do all to the glory of God. So verse 14, I perceive that whatever God does is yours forever. Nothing can be added to it or anything taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before him. And that which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away. God reminds us that there are no additions to or subtractions from his plans for our life. God never says, I didn't see that coming. Let me rewrite things for you. He knows exactly what's going on in our life. He says, even when things seem to be falling apart, God is orchestrating the falling apart of those things to fall into the plan of his eternal purposes. But that was well said. Even when things seem to be falling apart, God is orchestrating the falling apart of those things to fall into the plan of his eternal purposes. So the song that some of you are familiar with, Sorry, I don't mean to jump around too much here, but this song is God Moves in a Mysterious Way. It was written by William, it looks like it's Cowper B. Cooper in England in the late 1700s. How many are familiar with this song? Does that look like something you've seen? The words of this to me are just wonderful. But William Cooper was not a, successful man with no problems in his life. He had multiple, multiple problems. And I think he, this song was written soon after he had been in what was then a mental, for depression and different problems he was having. But the Lord worked in his heart and brought him to an understanding of the truth and Just wait, we'll read through this. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in the dark and hidden minds with never failing skill, he fashions all his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Oh, fearful saint, fresh courage take. The clouds you now dread. are big with mercy and will break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind the frowning providence he hides a smiling face. That's a wonderful set. God's purpose will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to air and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. Just an awesome set of words. And I remember I read that at my brother's funeral, actually. It just was so touching to remember, especially these right in here. Behind, you've probably heard, Shrouding Providence, He Hideth a Smiling Face. What was the title of that one? God Moves in a Mysterious Way. The author? William Cowper. Just a few more verses here. We'll have to zip a little bit. But moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness. In the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. Does that sound familiar to anybody? We're living that. Lady Justice, I pulled this off. It's pretty good, but it shows what I wanted to show. Lady justice is supposed to be blindfolded, to show impartiality, balance scales, weigh evidence fairly, and the sword to deliver verdict and justice swift and final. That's what our justice system is supposed to be like, and we pray that it would get closer to that again. 17, God will bring every deed into judgment and every secret thing, whether good or evil. We'll talk about this more when we get to the very end of the book. We talk about judgment and that his judgment will be complete and his verdict eternal. No one's going to get away with anything. I'm thinking more not of believers in this sense here, but the Say the beam of seat judgment, but the eternal judgment of god He will not have missed any sin or secret because he is omniscient. He will not need witnesses because he's omnipresent He saw every crime and discerned every motive He will not need any assistance in carrying out his eternal verdict of justice because he's omnipotent so Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is right? God is in control of this world and we can rest in that. Hebrews 9, 17, it's appointed unto a man once to die and after that, the judgment. The last few verses here. We'll wrap it up. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. But what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. All go to one place. I'll just skip down just to some thoughts on this, that death is impartial. The CEO, from the CEO of the biggest company to the trainee out on the factory floor, all end up in the same place. In fact, the CEO and the rabbit in your yard end up in the same place eventually. Everything returns to dust. So, verse 21, who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth. Ecclesiastes 12 again, as we see that pulls a lot of things together, answers this question where it says dust returns to the earth and the spirit returns to the God who gave it. The last one, not to comment on, just wanted to end on this, so that I see that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? It's an awesome one to end on and to lead into our assignment for this week. Nothing better than a man should rejoice in his work. So whatever your work is this week, endeavor to rejoice in that. Enjoy your meals too. That's biblical here. Be joyful and do good. I said last time I sound like Joel Osteen, but But that's what the verse says God wants us to be grateful Enjoy what he's given to us give thanks to him for the good things He's given to us. So and also read chapter 4. I think Dan would appreciate that so Pretty good. Let's go ahead and close in prayer Heavenly Father we thank you for the encouragement of these verses that tell us that our What we know that life apart from you is vanity and seeking after the wind. But the privilege of living for you is a wonderful thing. We can not only receive your blessings and acknowledge that they come from you, enjoy them, but use them for your glory and use our lives for your glory and your wonderful purposes. We thank you for your word and ask you to bless now in the service to follow the singing, the preaching of the word, that it would be an encouraging day together. Your name might be honored. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.