There we go. Yeah, the uplifting title today is called, I Hated Life. That ought to get us, I'm sure every one of us might have at one time or another said something along those type of lines. If you have children or grandchildren, I'm sure at one time did they ever say, I hate my life, right? Have they said that before? Have you heard somebody? Maybe you've said it when you were younger, right? But this last section, in chapter two, depending on your translations, it's broken down into three parts. He talks about pleasures are meaningless, and that was verses 1 through 11. And then 12 through 16 last week, it talks about wisdom and folly being kind of meaningless. And today he's going to talk about toil or work. I know everyone here, I look around the room, I know you're all hardworking people and have worked hard, right? But he's going to put it, I think, Solomon will, in perspective about work. I'd ask anyone here, has anyone really loved their job more than they've loved anything else? Yeah, I have. I've told you before, I've shared with you, I love the Army. Man, I love the Army. The Army was like, for me, I like, you know, as the old movie says, I like the smell of napalm in the morning. I really liked it. I mean, I loved it, you know. But when God saved me, I realized how, I think that's why I've always liked Ecclesiastes. I realized how foolish I had been because I had loved something more than I loved the Lord, more than I loved my family. I had put something, I had put toil above everything else. And so my last few years in the Army was a lot of fun because I wasn't toiling anymore. I didn't love it. I liked it. I was glad. I thought I worked. Thought it was pretty cool that I got to wear a uniform every day, but I didn't love it anymore. But it took a long time. I learned a hard, hard lesson about that. Perhaps you've known people. Have you known people, ladies and gentlemen, that people that have retired and they don't know what to do with themselves? I wonder why that is. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, do you think it gets work gets wrapped up in their identity so much that they don't know what to do? When we meet each other we say, what do you do? We're asking, what is your profession? Sure, sure, sure it is. And you would think, oh that only has to do with secular work. Well, As a quote-unquote retiree, it is. I joke with Pastor Bill when I first met him. He said, one Sunday I was in a church in Hawaii preaching. The next Sunday I was sitting in a church in Hickory, North Carolina. I go, what am I doing here? Where am I? And so you do that. You do get caught up with what you do. And I think Solomon realizes that today. And he's going to address it really well. I really believe that. He's the king, right? King Solomon. We've talked about his boatload of riches, everything that he had, the women, this and that, and as he looks at these things in his life, I think today these last verses tell us, okay, I've identified one of my problems here, a big problem. So, since I don't have Brother Michael here to read today for me, could I have someone read verses 17 through 26 in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, please, anyone? I'd appreciate that. Therefore I hated my life, because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For all is vanity in grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I have toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. Therefore I turn my heart in despair of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what has man for all his labor and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful and his work burdensome. Even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment for the night? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight. But to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and collecting that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping. Thank you, Pastor. Appreciate that. Well, that's a that's a mouthful there, friends. That is quite a lot there. So, you know, we we ended last week, you know, and we read verses 12 through 16. And we he talked about how the even the wise man will be forgotten someday, even, you know, the greatest. I threw out some names of people that, you know, I happen to know, but they've unless you're a history student or something like that, you don't know who they are. They've vanished. So as he looks at his life here, verse 17 is pretty amazing, isn't it? And you know, therefore I hated life because of the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me for all his vanity and the grasping for the wind. Again, how many times we heard, he talks about grasping at the wind, doesn't he? And in lice of vapor and trying to grab hold of it. Unless you're in an ice storm, it's awful hard to grab any wind, isn't it? It all seems to go away like that. So, would you say, what do you say, friends? Is he disappointed with his life? Do you think he finds being the king, Pastor John, do you think he finds being the king unfulfilling? In some ways, you know, in this he's talking about whatever he does, you know, whoever follows him is going to continue and break him. We know the story. The son was a fool. Right. And it got destroyed. Sure. All his work, and all his wealth, and all his wisdom, and all of his accomplishments, as far as he can see, were going to be for nothing. Sure. He's been pursuing pleasures. He's been pursuing wisdom and knowledge. He's been pursuing do hard work, things, right? And really, as he pursues all this stuff, what is it? He's saying it's like grasping for the wind. I do all this stuff, and it's like grasping at something that's, I just, you know, one author said this, I wrote this little quote down, his efforts, him being Solomon, were destined for oblivion. Oblivion, you know? All these things he thought was important, in his life he's found distressing all the work that done under the sun obviously everything he's done that again our translation that we use the church that vanity and grasping at the wind is just it's vain it's not vanity like looking in the mirror and saying look at I mean but but the sense of it just being it doesn't it doesn't last at all and pastor brought up there just a minute let's take a look at these other the next two verses I think says then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me." You know, I never knew where this quote came from, but I looked it up finally. I stopped being lazy. There's a country singer named George Hamilton IV. Okay, I don't know who the man is. You may well know. And I'm going to paraphrase a little bit. I always thought Denzel Washington said this. It's from this country singer. He says, you know, I've never seen an armored car behind a hearse. You know, and so what does that lead us to think? You know, I've never seen an armored car behind a hearse. What do you think that would mean? Yeah. Isn't that funny? Now, that was urban legend. That was Denzel Washington. But when I looked, I said, no, a country singer named George Hamilton IV said it in his lyrics. Denzel and Washington must have heard it and said it. But I think, I mean, that is so true. The man works hard and Pastor John already brought up the point. The man, you know, Solomon worked hard. His kingdom was, was the largest, you know, he was the last king of, of a unified Israel. It was, you know, it was large. We know all the story. Wealthy, prosperous, you know, you reap kings. He had everything. And then, as Pastor mentioned, there's a man named Rehoboam that came after him. And because of his stupidity and ignorance, everything vanished. The kingdom got divided into two. And his inheritance, Rehoboam's inheritance, turned out to be the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and Jerusalem and an area around there. and the rest of it went to Garibald, who got the other ten tribes. So, would you say, what do you think, is that, you know, I must leave it to the man who will come after me. If he can't take it with you, present company accepted, but what if you worked hard and you had a business and you left it to your near-do-well son or daughter, right? And, you know, do we, is there a story perhaps that we might, a parable of Jesus that might kind of make us think about this? That's one. But what about the waste, what about, what about, um, what about the prodigal son? What did he do? Sure. I mean, how insulting, and I know everyone knows this, how insulting. The father wasn't dead yet, and the wayward son says, give me my inheritance now before you're dead, you know, and what did he do with it? And, you know, depending on the translation, he squandered it on wild living, he squandered it on prostitutes, he blew it all, didn't he? And so the father had worked hard, and we know that's just the point being, the father had worked hard, the son wanted the inheritance now and he blew it. Now how many stories have you, we could probably all go around the room and tell a story we've heard about someone who had an inheritance, you know, built up, and what does the next generation do with it? Up their nose, blow it on, you know, How many times have you heard about stories about these people that won these lotteries that, you know, $500 million, $100 million, and then you'll see them like three years later, they're out digging in a trash can, right? Because they spent it all. So his point in verse 18 there is, don't you think, is that, and Deborah, you brought that up too. You know, Luke 12, 20, right? The God said to him, you fool. this night your soul will be required of you, then whose will those things be which you have provided?" You know, a man built up for himself and not left anything, right? And then it's all vanished. So, he's looking at it that way. I work hard and then this may go away, huh? Yeah? I think it's helpful to understand that the work and the toil that's being done here is not eternal. I think Jesus has a different opinion when it comes to laboring and toiling in eternal work. Because I read it this morning in my Bible plan. John 6 verse 27 says, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life. So, it's almost like Jesus is like, Solomon wasted his life building a kingdom, it's gone. Why don't you labor for things that are of eternal value? Sure. Temporal things all go away. And that's great. I'm glad you had that. Yeah, that's wonderful. I'm glad you had a chance to read that today. John 6, 27. And also Luke 9, 25. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and he suffers disorder lost? What can a man give for his soul? Well, not much, can he? I bet you. Pastor Bill, you said the other night, forgive me, how many funerals have you done here in the six plus years you've been here? Over 50. Yeah. Think about a person that you have to do a sermon, a funeral for, and pastors, you can probably relate to this, when you know the person's not born again. I mean, you can recount their, can't you? We can recount everything they did, can't we? Yeah, they did this, they were a good father, a good husband, a good grandfather, a great uncle. But when it comes to salvation, I did one for a man who, it's kind of a long story, but I'll make it very short. He had a deathbed conversion. They had to take him out of a coma so I could speak with this man. And I presented the gospel to him as best as I could for a man. And, you know, I did my best. It's in the Lord's hands, right? I'm going to believe he was saved. But, you know, please, we don't want anyone to be that way. Well, I went and they asked me to conduct his funeral. And I've never been into a room where I felt like this. I mean, I literally felt like you know, the devil was present in the room. I can't explain it, but there was just this room full of unsaved people that worshiped Buddha and nature, and I've never felt anything like that. It's not like a funeral in Hickory, North Carolina. But, you know, that man, I just happened, luckily I happened to be at the hospital there with this fellow, you know? But again, all the material things he had, wasn't going to do him a lick of good. And they've all vanished too, by the way. And then, you know, when you look at verse 19 here, then when he talks about who's going to get my stuff and who knows whether he'll be wise or a fool. And Pastor John brought up Jeroboam. He wasn't very smart, was he? He was arrogant and foolish, and he lost his father's kingdom, really. Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I told, in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also was vanity. So Solomon was wise. He lived somewhat wisely. We know, we've talked about that a few times. There's some things, like I say, with a thousand wives, I'm not sure how much wisdom that was, but probably not a lot. Do you think he was cursed, maybe, with wisdom? Because I think he kind of overthinks stuff a lot. No, he was really blessed. His problem was that he turned away from the Lord. I mean, that was his problem. He, um, maybe he depended on his earthly wisdom too much. I don't know. Pastor Bill, what do you think? I mean, he, he definitely turned away from the Lord toward the end. He did not walk like he did at first. And he definitely wasn't wise, um, you know, toward the end of his life. He, he fell away from the Lord, didn't he? Cause he, he worshiped with his wives. He let his wife dictate his relationship with God. So probably not the smartest man in the world, you know, and again, You know, we don't know, if you have an inheritance, you pass it on to somebody, is there any guarantee that they're going to do anything wise with it? That's their problem. Yeah. Well, like Pastor Jordan just said, I mean, Jesus seemed to, you know, there, there's more things of value than, than temporal things, isn't it? You know, and we don't, we as, as parents and grandparents, don't we want to, we want to pass on for our children and grandchildren to know Christ as Savior, don't we? And they might resent that stuff because you love it more than them. You put it above them. They don't want it. It's just a thorn in their side, a reminder. You know, that's a good point, Deborah, because sometimes maybe you've, maybe all of us may have felt this before. Maybe perhaps you've been a workaholic or you've, you've met around workaholics. and you work hard and you say, I want to give this to, you know, I want my children to live better than me. And you give it to them. That's a good point. And they may say, well, yeah, but I never, you know, there's an old song that you wouldn't all know this. You're way too young. It's called the cats in the cradle. Never heard that. Um, it, it, it's funny that this man basically in this song, uh, was a workaholic and then his son, you know, became just like his father. His father was a workaholic and didn't want anything to do with his son. When the father got older in his life, you know, his son didn't want to have anything to do with him. You know, I'll make some time for you later, dad, where his son, when he was working, his son, he never made time for his son. And then, you know, he was shocked at the end. You may remember that song. Yeah, my son was just like me, you know, all that. And it reminds me a lot about that. the same thing here so he I think he understands that look I worked hard like this and right I may not you know who's going to get it at the end who's going to get it I think I think in a pastoral role you can work hard at church and you labor and you work I have a pastor friend that founded a church and was the past the senior pastor there for 20 plus years and worked who had worked really hard and then he He transitioned, you know, I wouldn't say retired. He, long story short, he ended up in Hawaii and that's a huge other story that's not for today. But his church, he'd worked hard and it had grown. Well, he goes back to it, you know, he goes by it these days and it's just, well, yeah, it's not, what he had poured his heart and soul into it. Pastors had come that weren't willing to preach the word of God, to compromise. We're friendly to everybody. Well, of course we are, but it's not like you close your Bible and we're friendly to everybody. We don't talk much about the Bible around here. Well, then you're not a church. That's what had happened to his church that he had poured his life and soul into, and now it's really apostate, and that breaks his heart. Yeah, it really breaks his heart. You know, I can, I can really under, we can all relate with what Solomon's talking about here, can't we here? So what does he do with that? You know, he goes on in verses 20 and 21. He says, therefore, I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had told him of the son. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Well, I'd stop right there for a minute and verse that first part of it. Wasn't that Solomon? Wasn't he, he labored and, and, and mean now, We know, and I think Pastor Bill had brought this up before, Solomon probably never swung an axe in his life, did he? You think? He probably never plowed a field in his life, did he? He enjoyed all that. But he did with wisdom, right? With knowledge and skill. He was a skillful king, wasn't he? He was skillful. He says, yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This is also vanity and a great evil. Boy, that's, you know, it's something. I think in America, don't we have this thing that if we work hard and we get a, Dave, you just brought it up. We work hard and we do this. Hey Dave, what do you do? You know, hey, I'm Charles. Nice to meet you. Yeah, what do you do? What do you do, Dave? We do. We do. Don't we? I mean, isn't that how you normally greet a person? Tonda, in your line of work. Hi, I'm Tonda. I'm a nurse, but what do you do? I mean, it's just natural. I don't use that one. Yeah? I use, oh, where are you from? Nice to meet you. Yeah. I've never asked someone off the bat what they do. I guess. I guess I've been pretty rude. I ask your name and where are you from and then I ask them what do you do right after that. Obviously you've got some solemnistic wisdom there. I mean I just always I'm very blunt. And that's why when I meet a lady, I ask what her husband does. Because a woman really puts a lot of stock in what her husband does. I mean, a good indication of that is Lot's wife. Back in Sodom, her husband was a big deal. And he sat in the gates with all the elders of the city. And I'm finding that ladies have a nurturing predisposition that they identify with their families, their husbands, their children, and that they identify with working outside of that context secondarily because we were created differently. The woman wasn't put in the garden to dress it and keep it. She was put in the garden to help her husband. And so no wonder the man identifies with his work. That's God glorifying. You know, if anything, we've fallen in love with finding a way to not work. You know, it's like there's almost more work put into not working than there is into work. It's what you're saying. You think that we, we, we, we've almost done the flip where he's, he's dissatisfied Solomon is with the toil he's doing, because he says, I'm going to have to pass this on to somebody. Well, one of the reasons we don't rest well is because we don't work much. The whole six-on, one-off rhythm that God gave the Hebrews was because they worked very hard six days a week. Sure. Agricultural society, of course. And so we've been loafing most of our week, and then wonder why we can't rest well on a day of rest, because our bodies are not ready for that yet. So, you know, back to Lot's wife, she looks back towards Sodom. What did she have back there? Status. Her husband was a big deal. So I get all of these different propensities. I do. I think, obviously, I have a daughter in college and I also have one that went to one year and then got married like she wanted to and has, you know, three kids and three So with both of them it was sure, you know, go to school if you need to until God brings the right man into your life. And we make no apologies over capitalizing on what God created people to do. So I don't think the problem is that man likes his work. We have proven that sinful nature says that man tries to get out of his The good thing is usually abused in a fallen world. And just like, man, that lady loves her children. Great! That's how she was designed. It's when she begins idolizing the children that it is a corrupted desire. And so what do we do? We usually find fault with the propensity to love the kids. Well, that's not the problem. That was the design. The problem is that you idolize the good gift God gave you. Okay? Same thing with Adam and all men. It's not that we like our work that's the problem. Lord knows we need more men who get up in the morning and love going to work. The problem is that they idolize their work. And it becomes an object of their affections. I hear what you're saying. Solomon's biggest issue was progression through Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes. And we have noticed in all of these, I mean, you can see in Proverbs, Solomon says, take pleasure in the wife of your youth. He says in 515, drink waters from your own cisterns and living waters Well, in Song of Solomon, he has 60 wives. But that, we know from First Kings, that's not how many he ended up with. And here he is talking like an old man. You know, remember, now you're a creator in the days of your youth. You know, we're going to get to that at the end of the book. So, Ecclesiastes, he sounds like the most sullen, but he's also the most godless out of the three books that he's had. So, we want to make sure that we are all Both, God's good gifts are to be enjoyed and God's good gifts should never take the place of God. It's both. Yeah, my point was idolatry. When you idolize what you do, there's going to be some time in your life where it's going to stop. I don't care who you are, right? Sure. You can hang on, you know, like You can be like 45 years old and still playing football, right? And you can hang on to the bitter end, but there's gonna be a time where like, I wanna do this, but my time is done. But can we go back to one more thing? And when I say can we, I really mean we're going to. I find two competing things in our world that is making it hell on earth, to be honest with you. One is people's race towards retirement. I mean, they want to stop working as early as possible. When we were designed to work, that's what we were put in the garden to do. Not being efficient is a result of the curse. The second thing is we are morbidly afraid of death, which is sad. It's ridiculous. When you want to die as late as possible, keep me alive no matter what. Even spend what I'm going to leave my kids. No matter what. Just keep me alive no matter what. And I want to stop working as early as possible. What we've done is we've taken the window. I stopped working as early as possible. I live as long as possible no matter the cost. We've just increased the window of worklessness. Like crazy. Like my grandfather is 100 years old. He has been not working for 36 years. He's been on a pension plan for 36 years. You think the railroad designed the pension plan to keep a man on it for 36 years? I promise you they didn't. But our fascination with free time and our fear of death has given us a greater window to hate our lives. And that is what we're dealing with here. No purpose, retire as early as possible so you can collect seashells. and spend everything you're going to leave your kids and grandkids to make sure you stay alive and have all kinds of procedures and surgeries and life extensions you never would have had 20, 30, 40 years ago before we had this fear of death like none other. Well, I mean, it's, it's a problem. We've, we've, we've lost the, you know, I think we'd all agree from, you know, We're all young at heart here, right? But we've lost a lot of that work ethic that permeated, you know, America before. I mean, that's the thing we had. Which is fine if you died in your 50s. Right. Well, I mean, think about 50, 60, 70 years ago. I mean, people would, you know. The army was predicated, for example, on retirement that you retire and a few years later, that was it. It wasn't predicated on state, you're going to be around. Paul and I were just- It's a social security problem too, right? Sure. So the social security system in America is broke, right? For one reason is abortion. When we are now in our third generation of those babies we killed in 1973. Well, I'm born in 77 and I have grandkids. Those aborted babies, nor their children, nor their grandchildren, millions upon millions, hundreds of millions of Social Security funders. And then on top of that, people, because of their morbid fear of death or discomfort, Social Security is, same principle, supporting people for 25 years of not working. So that is, it's breaking that, and so now we're $34 trillion in debt. 23 plus 11 that we owe our own social security system. We owe them, I owe you. Yep. Well, and- Here you are, glad I could help. Well, you know, and here's the, I mean, you take a look at, he's, You know, when you go back to Solomon and he's thinking about this, he just realized that what he's done hasn't amount to much. And we'll see here in the next couple of verses we get to this point, he's going to understand, there's going to be a point he's going to make in a couple of verses from now where you can see he kind of gets it, I believe. You know, when you go on to verses 22 and 23 when he says, for what has man for all his labor and for the striving of his heart? with which he had toiled under the sun for all his days are sorrowful and his work burdensome. Even in the night his heart takes no rest. This is also his vanity. And Sheila, I think you had brought this verse up. I had written this as a side note there in Mark chapter eight. You know, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? I think he's looking at that. It says there in verse 23, even at night, he can't get any rest. You know, have you been at night sometimes when something has been work-related and it's been on your mind and you're still thinking about it in the night time? And he's saying, I can't rest from this. You know, sometimes like your body aches. You know, Pastor, that's a good point. I remember my grandfather, when they retired, they had done physically demanding hard work. And they lived a little bit longer, but they were physically wore out. I mean, a couple generations before us, I still find that here in our wonderful state. There's a lot of hardworking people that do hard physical work around here, isn't it? And it takes a lot out of your body. I don't know which is worse. doing physical work or doing mentally stressful work. The physical work, you can take two motrons and call somebody in the morning, right? The mental work, well, it's hard. It's hard, isn't it? Sometimes when you're mentally burdened. I can imagine King Solomon, the burdens of the kingdom. Like you said, Bill, he's at the latter part of his life. His relationship with the Lord has frayed, obviously. Imagine the stressors he must feel. Ah, this rainbow, man, I hope he can do a good job. What about this, you know? The Queen of Sheba's coming. The thing's on his mind and his heart all the time. He, you know, he can't get that sense of rest. He, you know, what happens to the man? What happens to a man that so, that idolizes his work? I mean, to the point of idolatry, where they identify that this is who I am, not my relationship with the Lord. What do you think, ladies? It's not my relationship with the Lord, but it's what I do. It's what I do. I mean, even in menial jobs like furniture, a lot of people, a little boss man, a little floor lady, that is what they mean. They live that life at work and at home. I am somebody. They're nobody. But they identify with that. Well, you have to have a work. Truly, don't you think there has to be a work balance with a life balance? Isn't that true? Pastorial friends over here, pastors, you know you can get so consumed in ministry You can be so busy, and I'm not talking only pastors But I'm not talking people you can you can be so busy with your church life and stuff Sometimes I mean your family like what's what's you know can we have a day together? No, I'm sorry, I've got to go see so-and-so. I mean, it's hard, isn't it? In ministry, it's hard not to be consumed with what you do, isn't it? Because why? Because we feel that the Lord has wanted us to do something, right? And we feel convicted to do that sort of thing, and we do it, but you still have a family. My wife will tell you this. Well, she'll tell you much, but when I felt You know, I know Pastor Bill doesn't like the word called. Well, okay. When I got drawn that I had a sense I needed to serve the kingdom in full time ministry, it's like she told me, you know, honey, I, I'll support you, but I didn't get called to ministry. You know, I'm going to follow what you do and, and, but I'm not, you know, The Lord didn't call me on the phone and say, hey, hey, Mrs. Bocan. That's my favorite word. Yeah. He didn't tell you anything? Yeah, he didn't tell me. Yeah, she said, you know, I've read, I've studied scripture, honey. I don't, I don't, you know, but, but yet she supported me in that. And men, you all know your wives are the same way. You know, maybe they're, um, but, but anyway, so that, that consumption, you know, he, you know, he's so, consumed with what he does. He's almost idolatrous in what he's doing and he realizes that he can't even get any rest at night. Isn't there nothing more worse than not sleeping in the evening time when you've burdened, you know, when it's work-related burden? I remember many nights in my Army days as a recruiter, oh good Lord, that knucklehead, he's got to go down and join the Army today, but he's as dumb as a box of rocks. Please Lord, let him pass the ASAP test. I would worry about stuff like that, and I look at that and I laugh now. I was so worried about those silly things like that. It was funny, when I was a recruiter, the first year I was a recruiter, I just had got there. I didn't know. I mean, the two people before me had gotten fired. So they said, welcome to this area. Your two predecessors didn't make it but a few months. Well, thank you very much, you know. So we had an annual meeting. I hate to talk Army stuff, but I mean, anyway. And people would get awards for all this stuff they had done. And you know what I got that first year? I got a dinosaur pin. So I got a dinosaur pin, and you know what really angered me? I said, wait a minute. I'm so-and-so. I'm not, this is the way I was. I'm not ever coming to one of these things again and not get to something, you know? I'll never come to an annual meeting where I'm not up on that stage getting a medal or a handshake or something, right? And so I just got, you know, ask her about recruiting days sometimes. So you got the ring. Yeah, yeah. Well, I ended up with this recruiting. That's a whole other story. But I've been there, you know, where that work became idolatrous. And the worst thing for me, I didn't even have a poor relationship with God. I had none. I mean, I was, even as Pastor was saying, Solomon's relationship with the Lord had wandered, right? It had gotten cold. But did he have a relationship still with God, do you think? I mean, it may not have been great, right? What do you think, Pastor John? At the end of his life, right, he still had a relationship with the Lord, didn't he? I'm not sure. Did he have a relationship with the Lord and with demons? Other scriptures seem to say no. Yeah. But at a minimum, he definitely wandered. He was not the Solomon that we knew at the beginning. You know, by the time he ended his life, he worshipped with his wives, false gods. I wasn't worshipping any god other than work. Work was my god. That was it. I can see that. But listen to verses 24 and 25. We're going to see this theme in Ecclesiastes several other times. I'll tell you the verses here in a minute. Verse 24 and 25, nothing is better for a man than he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. For who can eat or who can have enjoyment more than I? That's pretty interesting, verse 24, isn't it? Did you say more than I? Yes, yes, the end of verse 25 says more than I. He would have enjoyment without him. Yeah. Well, our translation that we're using today says, more than I. So he, what is he saying there? Well, he's, in that verse, it's, it's, is it good to enjoy eating and drink? Is it, is it good to enjoy life? What do you think, Pastor Jordan? Is it good to enjoy life? Yeah, I think, um, the word, uh, the words enjoy good, it says that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. I don't know if all of us, myself included, always slow down enough to find the good in the labor. You know what I mean? Labor's hard, so what? We're called to do labor. There's good to be had. I'll just use an example of laying ditches with Andy Hubert on the side of a mountain. I did that recently. It was really difficult work. I had to take a lot of ibuprofen after that. But the good was being able to talk to Yosef and Abby. They've got shovels in their hands and they're learning how to do stuff with their dad. That was really good. good in the labor. Because if we find the good in the labor, I mean, it's beautiful. Well, yeah, I mean, he says we should enjoy eating and drinking. I mean, we're obviously not drunk in this at all, right? We're not commanded to do that. And I view that as like, after the work is done, you sit down and you're like, oh man, I'm really glad that I can eat now. You know, like, God's like, yeah, enjoy that meal. Okay, you did a great job. Don't you just love the latter part of the first 24? This, I also saw, was from who? From the hand of God. I mean, us to take, you know, pleasure in life with putting God first, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, is there? I mean, we shouldn't walk around, I mean, I think a Christian especially shouldn't walk around looking like they've bitten on a sour lemon, do you? I mean, we have that relationship with Christ. God has provided us with things to do. We have good things, you know, it varies from person to person, right? Good things. But it's from God, isn't it? I mean, we give glory to God. We say that a lot in this church. Let's give glory to God. Praise the Lord, right? We say that. Well, praise the Lord. I mean, for a man to eat and drink and enjoy labor, and good out of it. That's a good point, Jordan. There is some pleasure in what we do. Because if, as Pastor Bill was saying, if we're created for work, man, right, man is created for work, we should take pleasure in that work. You know, and I would tell you, these two verses, we're gonna see this later on in verses three, 12 and 13, verse 22 in chapter three, Chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. Chapter 9, verses 7, 8, and 9. And it's going to end the book in chapter 12, verse 13. You know, what gives meaning, what, brothers and sisters, what gives meaning to life? Who gives meaning to life? Yep. Who gives meaning to life? And only God satisfies. Isn't that true? Isn't it? I, I, I have to say a double amen to that. Only, only at least in my small mind, you know, that's the only thing with, with God in your life, you know, only he'll give you that satisfaction, right? You know, without him, what's, what satisfies us really? Who's satisfied without the Lord? Um, Again, one author wrote this, true pleasure comes only when we acknowledge and revere God. Isn't that true? I mean, for me, I can say that. I can safely say that. From the day of salvation forward, I learned what true happiness and pleasure was. Before that, I had You know, I didn't, I'll just leave it at that. So let's look at verse 26 here and we'll close our time together. It says, for God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight. So that's all from God, right? He said that in verse 24. This I saw was from the hand of God. For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight. So who's good in his sight? Well, they can quote Romans, right? No one is good, not even one, but when we're born again, we are good in his sight. But what does he do for the sinner? It says, but to the sinner, he gives the work of gathering and collecting that he may give to him who is good before God. It's a great verse. Great verse. Does that remind you out of something of the gospel of Matthew, maybe chapter 25 about the talents? Does that remind you of that? the king, okay. Ten talents is good. Somebody want to turn to that? Look at Paul. Paul, you want to turn to Matthew 25? I'm sorry. Go to verse, go to chapter 25. Go to maybe verse 28 in chapter 25. Yeah. So take the talents from him and give it to him who has ten talents. Yeah, please Does that I wonder if Jesus was familiar with Solomon you think he was I mean he it sounds almost like you know a for the man who loves the Lord, right, he's going to be blessed. And the man who doesn't love the Lord, well, he's going to be cursed. You know, God, it's funny. God is sovereign, right? God is sovereign. Sometimes he uses wicked people to achieve his aims, doesn't he? Doesn't he and Doesn't he use Assyria to destroy Israel, to bring judgment on it, but he gets rid of Assyria. He takes Babylon, they destroy Judah, but he gets rid of them. You think the Lord has used in, you all are too young, but in some lifetimes here, right? To raise up, and we've talked about this before, to raise up a Germany, a Nazi Germany. and to show how, do you think maybe God had a purpose in that to show how evil man can truly be? Do you think so? I mean... Do you think that maybe part of that purpose was that we would give Israel There's a good possibility of that. I just think it shows you how you think of the most cultured nation, how they could be, and the evil, how little it takes for people to follow bad things. And even a nation where the Reformation started. Remember, that's where Martin Luther came from, right? He came from Germany, modern-day Germany, right? So, you know, God uses sovereignty, his sovereignty, to give and take away. You know, God's grace, he does bless the Christian man and woman. Maybe not materialistically, but he will. Again, the pastor said he's done all those funerals he's done, right? How many of those people are unsaved, we don't know. But I bet you any one of them would give any of their dollars or anything they had if the Lord had decided to change their hearts to follow him. know it's funny that that lord and it may not happen in your lifetime here but you know god is sovereign he's going to uh and he's going to give those that trust him his grace i believe so well i think i've yakked enough today friends thank you and uh david you mind closing us in prayer please lord we thank you for to our life. We know when we please God, He grants us the matchless gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and joy. So we look forward to tomorrow, Lord, that we can exercise these gifts and please God at the same time when we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.