Ecclesiastes 7 verse number 10. Give you a moment just to turn there before we look into it. Our text says, say thou not, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Once again, say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. May we pray. Lord, we thank you again for your love for us. We thank you that tonight as we specifically carve some time out of our service to remember the sacrifice that you made for us on Calvary all those years ago. That even before the foundation of the world that you had a plan to save us and to redeem us from our sin. We're thankful tonight and grateful that you loved us so much to do that. Help us now as we look into the scripture, your word for a few moments. May He give us some wisdom, some understanding. May we leave with something tangible that we can take and apply that's gonna help us live better for you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I want you to remember back to when you were younger. And I remember as a young child, and as young people often do, looking to the future. Looking to the future. that there's all sorts of excitement that lay ahead. Right now, my children are in the age where they are constantly looking into the future at what life has for them. There's always something new and something exciting. When you're in elementary school, what can you not wait for? You can't wait for when you get to go to middle school. And then when you're in middle school, You can't wait till you're in high school and you get to ninth grade and you were at the top of the totem pole, now you're at the bottom in high school as a freshman. And then you get into high school and what are you waiting for? You're looking for your driver's license. Oh yeah. You're looking for your driver's license and you just can't wait for that and you're looking to the future, you're anticipating it, you're hopeful. From there, you possibly look at graduating high school, and from graduating high school, maybe a career path that is in front of you. You're looking forward to freedom from mom and dad. There's coming a time where I am not gonna have to be under their rules anymore, and you're just looking forward to that. Maybe you get to be out on your own, go to college. What college you may choose to go to, or God may lead you to, Then it comes to, man, who am I gonna marry? And you start looking, looking, looking, hoping somebody's gonna be as fond of you as you are of them. You move on from that to marriage and graduation, and you get that career, and somewhere along the lines of looking forward, looking forward, looking forward, there comes a time, I don't know when it is, but there comes a point in life where you quit looking forward and you start looking behind. Not sure when that is. And instead of looking what the future has, maybe it's because you see the end of the railroad tracks in front of you. That could be it. Maybe it's because it seems like all the new and exciting things are in the past. The only new exciting thing now may be a doctor's appointment here or there. But somehow, see, I know this because I go to men's breakfast. If you go to men's breakfast, you learn about all these things. What's going on this week? And you hear this appointment, this doctor's appointment, that doctor's appointment, all sorts of things. But Solomon says here, as we know he writes this towards the end of his life, he says, say thou not, what is the cause of the former days? That the former days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Why is it not wise to ponder on the past too much? To reminisce over days of old too much? To get to where we ask, the good old days, they were just so much better than these, weren't they? Why does he say this is not wise to inquire of that? Well, a few reasons. One is you can't really give an answer as to why that is. You can't accurately come up with a straight answer whether or not they were or whether or not they weren't. I'll explain that in a few moments. It also insinuates that God may not be working today as He once was working. And I don't know if you've looked around lately, but God is at work. He is at work and He is doing and accomplishing His will, His purpose. It also is not wise because it implies discontentment. that we are no longer happy with our current state, and the only way we would be happy is if we had it the way it used to be. But Solomon, in his wisdom, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says it is not wise to inquire, like that, about the days of old, the days that are past. Why do we long for the past? I'm only 30, I'm about to be 33 years old, And I'll tell you, there's times where I look back at the past and I have an attraction for the way things used to be. Why is that? Why do we have that attraction? I think often it's the past is filled with fond memories, fond memories. I remember when thinking back in the past, maybe you remember the first house that you and your spouse bought together and how nice it was go and get some hand-me-down couches and chairs and beds and you got to just shove whatever into that house you could possibly get for free or dirt cheap and put it in there and maybe starting a family and thinking about all those fond memories. I look back at my photos early this morning and I just went all the way to the top of the camera roll and began to scroll through and saw my oldest son when he was maybe a year or so old. two years old and I had some pictures of in the living room at the place we used to live and we would run around the sofa chair that was kind of in the middle of the room and we would chase each other around and just fond memories. Maybe you think back to times in past when you had, your house wasn't just quiet. You had the noise of feet running around, little feet. And children, they, kept you up, kept you occupied. Now the only thing you have to hear is your husband snoring during his afternoon nap. It's the only thing you may look forward to. We have an attraction to the past because the past is often filled with the memories of people who we were once very fond of or people who we once loved. During track count tonight as I was thinking over this sermon, I have fond memories of as a 22-year-old young man sitting in the crowd as Bill Sikora would shuffle out of that penalty box back there and would say, Lil and I, 1,000. It's a fond memory. I remember and I'm very fond of walking into McKinney Hall on a Sunday morning and looking over in the corner and seeing Bob Rose sitting over there in the corner where our sound booth currently is now, and he'd be sitting there wanting to greet everybody, made sure to get here early so he could say hi to folks. Man, those were some good old days, weren't they? Absolutely. I remember Ben Atto going door to door with Ben Atto. Man, they were just some fond memories. I remember Mike McDaniel, Mike McDaniel, what a good friend he was. The good old days. I remember Bob Carney, how we'd work together for hours and hours and hours. Often, he would impart some wisdom to me. And it's like, oh, if I could just get Bob Carney back for a day, not even necessarily to do anything, but just so we could talk and we could fellowship And there is such an attraction for the days that were former. I think the past often feels safe as well. There's comfort looking into the past. Why? Because we know how the story worked out. You agree with that? Back then, I mean, when we look back, we know how God worked everything out. And it's kind of scary looking into the future sometimes, maybe you have more faith than I do, but it's sometimes scary looking into the future and thinking, how is God going to work all this out? I know he's going to, but it's nerve wracking thinking about how he's going to do it. But when I look back, I already know the whole story. Oh, I know God took care of all the details and we made it through. And there's some comfort in that. But I'll tell you, when you were back there, you were on the edge of your seat. just like you are now. When you were back there, when you were scraping, I remember scraping for money, going to college and wondering, am I even gonna be able to go back this semester? I look back at that and I think, man, those were just some good times at college. Were they? But we know how the story goes, that's why it feels safe, that's why it feels comfortable. The past, it seems simpler, Don't people often seem better in the past? Time seem better? Maybe you remember not locking your doors. I remember as a young man in a pretty small suburb in Connecticut, where we didn't lock our doors. We didn't lock them. Now, every kid we drop off on the bus route, we gotta wait and wait for mom and dad to unlock the door before the kids funnel in the house. That's not the way it used to be. People seem better back then. You may turn on the news and think, man, I don't remember any of this happening in my day. Probably the truth was, the media wasn't out as much back in your day. Because we know bad stuff did happen back then. But it seems simpler. Too often we long for those good old days. But let me ask you this, were they really as good as we remember them? I don't think so. I don't think they were quite as good as we may remember them. It's fun thinking back, but we often have a distortion of reality, and we distort the way things actually were, and we make them out better than what they appear to be at the time. I think of the Israelites. They're wandering around in the wilderness. They've already been... They're wandering around the wilderness, and God is supplying their needs, discontent with God's provision for them. I'm gonna read you a couple verses, a couple surprising verses, and we look back and we often judge the Israelites for their lack of faith, their lack of recognition of God providing for their needs, for their murmuring, for their complaining, but yet we often do the exact same thing. We're often as foolish as they are. It says in Numbers 11.5, we remember the fish, this is the people, we remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides manna that is before our eyes. They literally looked back at Egypt with a smile on their face as they remembered back to how Egypt was. They need to actually take a trip back to the past and remember how bad they actually had it. How bad did they have it? Well, I guess they forgot about the whips cracking on their backs every day as they had to work out in the hot sun. They forgot about that. They forgot about Pharaoh giving the order to grab all the infant boys and bring them down to the river and throw them in to be drowned. They forgot about that. They only remembered the things that were good. We're often the same way when we think about times and past. We often only remember the good. This is another reason why Solomon, I believe, says it's not always wise and it's not wise to inquire about the past too much and compare it to today because our memory fails. We don't have a mind that can remember every detail. How easily do we forget? Just like the Egyptians, I mean, the Israelites forgot how bad they had it with the Egyptians. We often, we exaggerate the good. We've got, in this area, there are a lot of fishermen. What you know about fishermen is the older that fishermen get, and the older they grow, the more the size of their fish grow that they used to catch. I mean, you hear it. I mean, I've been on some fishing trips with many, many folks in here and we've had some great days. But as I look back, I feel as if the fish have gotten bigger than maybe they were. The first time I went out and Mr. Troy took me out and we didn't just catch mahi. We about caught every mahi in the ocean. And I look back at that and still to this day, when I go out catching mahi, they weren't as big as that first day. I don't know why. 10 years later, they've definitely gotten bigger. The things back then that were once ordinary, we often make to be extraordinary, don't we? Oh, how often have I heard somebody say, do you remember when you could buy a three bedroom house for $30,000? Do you remember that? Yeah, what'd you say? 10,000, there you go. $10,000. I mean, sometimes folks act like they were just giving them away back then. Like you just walked in there, they just said, here you go, you know, it's yours. Like they were free, like buying a hamburger down at McDonald's. I don't think it was quite that easy. Oh, if you actually try to remember back to the past, the way things were, you probably will remember the struggle you had month after month to make that huge payment. for that mortgage that you had. And it was a stretch for you. Probably you had many sleepless nights as your head lay on your pillow and you tossed and turned wondering, are we gonna have enough for our mortgage payment this month? Oh yes, but looking back, we just see how cheap or inexpensive things seem to be. But yet today, we are discontent with what we've been given, even though the situation may be somewhat similar. We often hear things like, well, before cell phones and technology ruined us. I think cell phones and technology to some extent have ruined us, yes. But ladies, you remember when you used to send your husbands to the grocery store? And you'd send him with a list, I'm talking about a piece of paper now, not a text message you sent to him so he has it with him at all times, can't lose it, but I'm talking about a piece of paper with items written down and he's going to the store. And he leaves and about 10 minutes after he has left to go to the store, you remember that you forgot something that's supposed to be on that list. And there was no opportunity to pick up the phone. and call him or send him a text because he was gone. There were no cell phones. And you just hoped that your husband was smart enough and intelligent enough that he knew all the ingredients you needed and that he was gonna get that one thing, but yet he didn't. You grandparents probably are happy tonight for technology. You say, well, it was better before, but you know what? You didn't get to FaceTime your grandchildren like you do tonight. Oh, yeah, life was probably simpler, but there's a lot of good things that are happening today, would we agree? Oh, some of you live 1,000 miles plus away from those that you love, and in just a matter of seconds, you can see their face on the phone. Wow. Wow. Maybe it's not quite as bad as we thought. Again, that's the danger, the danger in comparing the past to the present. I'm sure nobody misses the days of dial-up internet. I am still old enough to remember dial-up and the noise that it would make. I can still hear it in my mind as we would wait. And we'd wait some more. You'd go make a cup of coffee or you'd go eat a snack. And hopefully, by the time it was all ready to go and you were done, it'd be ready for you to use. I mean, I don't miss the days of maybe people who had no AC or no GPS. What I'm trying to say is we remember the good, but our minds tend to forget the bad. That's why this warning is here for us. We tend to only focus on the things that were good and tend to forget the struggle or how hard it was. Sometimes when I talk to individuals, they act like they lived in heaven. so many years ago and somehow they ended up, they fell asleep and they woke up in 2025 and it's been a nightmare ever since. That's what it seems like. So there's some danger as we look into the good old days. He says, thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. It's danger, danger, danger. Why? There's danger in that because it can lead to dissatisfaction. Comparison is the thief of? Joy, we got one guy who knows that. How about, let's try it. Comparison is the thief of? Joy, there we go. If you want to be miserable in 2025 and in the beginning of 2026, live in the past. If you want to be miserable, I'm talking about you want to just have a bad day every day, be so consumed with the past that you can't see the future that is right in front of you. You can't see the present in what is right here. Yes, those memories are fond. I'm not discounting that at all. Those were some good times, I'm sure they were. But the danger is that when we compare the old times to today, we become discontent with today when we have a skewed view of the past. As you know, I love eating steak. I've shared that with you from the pulpit a few times. Ribeye is about my favorite. Sometimes you get a ribeye that's better than others. Those of you that are steak eaters know that. Sometimes a meal that you eat is better than that same meal you had in the past somewhere else. Can you imagine how discontent you will be? And I've sat across from people and ate meals with them, that all they can do is talk about how good this one meal was that they had 30 years ago. And it was just the best. And you know, nothing, nothing since then has compared to that one meal. that I've had. I mean, scrape that steak off in the trash and let's just go do something else. They're missing out. There's a hot, juicy steak right in front of them. That's good. That honestly, if their mind was as good, maybe was as good as what it was in the past, but their view of the past is skewed. And it robs them of the joy of enjoying something right here in the moment that is in front of them. So it's not always wise inquiring the past. Just a few months ago, you folks, you sent my wife and I to Hawaii. I got to play the most incredible golf courses I will probably ever play in my entire life. Breathtaking, every hole, just an ocean view. Absolutely amazing. But I'll tell you what, I'm not gonna let that experience rob me of the joy of playing some public course that I play down here on a regular basis. You understand how that could be detrimental to me. If we allow ourselves to live in the past and simply reminisce of all the good times and the good things that have happened in the past, we rob ourselves to be content in whatever state we are. Some of you haven't enjoyed coffee in 20 years. Can't get over paying $3.50 for it, when it used to be 35 cents. Pastor Bill, we joked, and I was even dumbfounded at this. We went and had lunch the other day at Five Guys. Pastor Bill bought a burger, fries, and a drink, $20. Oh man, we just had to laugh. I mean, it was just, you just had to laugh. I asked him the question, if your dad was here, what would he do? And you know, he said he just, he could not handle it. would not be able to handle it. Wouldn't eat, would starve. Thinking about the past can often lead us to dissatisfaction. You know, all I think of is Bill Sikora saying, a thousand, Lil and I a thousand. But we've got a guy right here that just said a thousand, said two thousand tonight. This is the good old days. When we remember back to Mike tomorrow saying, I had a thousand. I had two thousand. They're being made right in front of us. But if all we do is reminisce over the past, which is okay to do, we forget what's right in front of us. I love Bob Carney. I love him. I wish I could spend another day with him. I wish he could come and work. But I can't live in the past about Bob Carney this and go around sucking my thumb how it's so bad when God has raised up a young man, two young men that have come regularly to help us the way Bob Carney does. What am I saying? I'm saying I'm living in the moment of the good old days right now. But if all I do is think of the past, I miss what God is doing right in front of me. So it's not wise to always consider the past. Often, focusing on the past too much can discourage others. We know the story in Ezra is the temple was built after the Israelites came back from captivity. And the temple was built, and I'm sorry, as the foundation was laid, The old men wept and cried while the young men rejoiced. And it was a confusing sound, the scripture says, because they couldn't understand there was crying and then there was laughter and there was joy and there was celebration. What I'm trying to say is that maybe your reminiscing of the past could often bleed onto a younger generation and maybe discourage a younger generation from what God is doing right now. Oh, you don't think that that affected those Israelites who as they're rejoicing, they look over and see somebody mourning and crying because it wasn't quite as big, wasn't quite as had the splendor that the old temple had. Oh, there was some discouragement that happened because there were people that were not focused on what God was doing in the moment, but were only focused on what God was doing in the past. How often do we hear, the way the bus ministry was, Nothing wrong with remembering the way the bus ministry was, nothing wrong about it at all. But do you know there's been some people that have been raised up before the bus ministry was running 200, 250, that have never seen that, but they hear it talked about all the time. And they have come to me and said, man, you know, it's not like what it used to be. Forget that. You're, we're complaining and crying that it's not the way it used to be when you had five, 10, 15 young, sweet young people that walked on the bus this morning, that came to church this morning, that heard the gospel this morning, that may have made a decision for Christ this morning that's gonna change their life for eternity and how many more lives for eternity? And that happened today. Oh, yes. And I'm not trying to discount that the days in the past were not great. Were they better? It's very well possible that they could be better. It's absolutely possible. I'm not discounting that at all. But don't let it rob you of the joy that is right out in front of your face. You probably remember when gospel messages were preached in the altars. full and heart seemed to be more tender and there were more souls being saved on a regular basis than maybe there are today. That may be absolutely true. But I'll tell you what, I'm happy for last week, a young man that walked with me and someone else over into this room and prayed and trusted Christ as his Savior last week. I'm happy about that. Maybe God will bring back some of those days like they were. But even if it doesn't happen, I'm gonna be content. Because whatever state I am, I ought to be content in it. So how do we properly view the good old days? Well, we remember it with gratitude. Count the blessings. Remember God's faithfulness. Remember how he brought you through those trials, those tribulations. Remember that. Remember the people and the joyful memories. But don't spend your life longing for something that is no more, and this is hard to hear, but it's not gonna happen again. And it's not gonna be that way again. There's nothing wrong from time to time as you're driving in life to look up and glance in the rear view mirror. Nothing wrong with that at all. Glance in the rear view mirror, but keep your eyes on the road that's in front of you. Expect God to do great things today. What does the scripture say? This is the day which the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it today, even if today is not quite like yesterday. We got to remember, as I've said already, today is the making of the good old days. And there's a good chance that someday, you, maybe tonight as you came here in misery and thinking about the way things used to be, there will probably be a day in the future where you look back five, 10, 15 years from now and say, you remember when I used, I remember when I used to go to church on Sunday night over at Gospel Baptist Church. And I remember I'd sit next to so-and-so where every time we walked in the door, you know, there was a little greeter there greeting, saying hi. And we just had such great fellowship. Don't wait 5, 10, 15 years to enjoy it. Enjoy it right now in the moment. And reach forward to the future, of course, with faith. And I can say this with confidence, for the believer, for the believer, your best days are the days which lie ahead. Oh, you may come into some physical trouble, physical ailment, that'll all be gone in a moment. When we step into eternity, the glory that's gonna be revealed to us, it's not even gonna be comparable to the way things are today. You're not missing much. Keep your eyes on the road that's in front of you. Expect God to do miracles today. Thank him for the past. Trust God today and rejoice and anticipate a future. Anticipate the future as the best is truly yet to come. May we bow our heads and pray. We thank you, God, for your love for us in this reminder. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church, Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you and God bless.