00:00 Day 2 without Pastor PJ

00:29 What It's Like to Solo Podcast

02:08 Ecclesiastes Quick Review & Overview

02:30 Ecclesiastes Chapter 7: Wisdom and Mourning

09:08 Ecclesiastes Chapter 8: Obeying the King and Fearing God

11:14 Ecclesiastes Chapter 9: Embracing Life and Death

14:02 Ecclesiastes Chapter 10: The Impact of Folly

15:58 Ecclesiastes Chapter 11: Investing and Rejoicing

17:38 Ecclesiastes Chapter 12: Aging and Final Reflections

19:21 Conclusion and Sign-Off

It is Thursday, June 20th, 2024.

2

And it's also day two.

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That I've been left.

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Abandoned by myself to do this

podcast all by my lonesome.

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Yes, pastor PJ is still

gone on his vacation and I'm

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here to hold down the Fort.

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Thank you for joining me today.

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And also yesterday, if you were

there for the first inaugural edition

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of the daily Bible rod cast, uh,

thank you for enduring with me.

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He's got to know, you've got to know that

this is, this is more challenging than

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what we often give the impression for.

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Uh, imagine this.

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Tonight, in fact, here's what I

want you to do today at some point.

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When the next time you brush

your teeth, I want you to brush

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with your non-dominant hand.

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Okay.

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Do that for me.

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And then you'll have a sense of what it

feels like to do a podcast by yourself.

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It's it's.

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It's that jolting.

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It's like riding a bike, but backward,

or maybe the pedals go the other way.

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I can't quite describe it, but, or maybe

like a, wearing a suit or addressing

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Idian, don't typically wear that attire.

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You just kind of feel out of

place and a bit self-conscious.

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That's what it feels like right now.

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It just feels unusual.

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Yeah, pastor PJ night, we

have this relationship.

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You know, we're like, uh, We're

like Batman and Robin or, uh, or

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like peanut butter and bananas.

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Or, uh, I don't know, uh, Like the, like

the president and the vice-president.

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And not having my Robin, my bananas

and my vice president is really hard.

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I know that he'll take issue

with that because he calls me

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his co-host so I can get that.

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I didn't get that.

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Uh, but it's just, it's different

when we're not together.

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And that means we don't have

each other to play off of.

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And there's just not going

to be the same kind of fun.

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Nevertheless, we will carry on,

but, but I do very much find myself

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gravitating toward a lot of Celine

Dion right now, especially that song.

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All by myself.

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I feel that.

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It feels a bit lonesome over here.

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The office is empty.

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There's no one looking back at me.

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Uh, but I feel his presence.

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And I trust that you all do too.

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Yeah.

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And he's here in spirit and

let's just say that much.

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Okay.

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Without further ado, I'm going to do

my best to keep these more short form.

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And I don't want to try to repeat

what pastor PJ and I are doing.

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So.

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Uh, let's go through this.

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We're going to do Ecclesiastes

chapter seven through 12.

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I'll keep my remarks rather short I'll

point out things that I think are going

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to be helpful for your understanding

as you make your way through it.

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But otherwise.

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Let's try to keep this concise.

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And to the point, I'm sure you

won't fight me on this at all.

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So let's jump on in starting

with Ecclesiastes chapter seven.

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Now remember just as, before

we jump into this, sorry, I am

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going to interrupt myself here.

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I remember, we're talking about king

Solomon here who wrote this very likely.

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So his writing reflects his ideas, his

understandings of life under the sun.

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What it's like to live life

apart from God in many respects,

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but he does find himself.

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He interrupts his own self.

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Speaking of interrupting.

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To introduce ideas about the

way you should live life.

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And so he commends wisdom.

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He commends in awareness

of life and death.

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And he also commends this idea

that there is a form of vanity.

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That infects all that we think

and do all that we think, say,

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and do then remember vanity here.

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The word hevel has two, maybe

three meanings, but there's

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two that I'm focusing on.

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Hevel vanity.

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Has this concept or this idea of

something temporary or fleeting.

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Uh, like mist or the vapor

that comes off the top of your

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coffee cup at tip pastor PJ.

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Secondly, hevel vanity can

also refer to something.

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Enigma, Matic.

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Stick a paradoxical.

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Uh, two.

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Two pieces that don't quite fit together.

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When you expect things to work out where

a plus B equals C, sometimes you find

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that banana plus pancake equals dinosaur.

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And just things just don't quite

make sense, at least on this side of

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the veil and life, as we understand

it, doesn't always make sense.

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And so this is Solomon trying to wrestle

through some of those complexities.

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And he's trying to help us understand it.

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After having done all that he

could do to extract all the

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wisdom that life had to offer.

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Again, we start with chapter

seven of Ecclesiastes.

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And then he begins with the.

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The poem of sorts.

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So chapter a chapter seven verses one

through 13, he has got a poem where

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really the theme could be called better.

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These are better.

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And essentially what he's getting

at is wisdom is still better.

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Yes.

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Wisdom has its challenges and

there are issues that are going

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to affect every one of us.

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But in the end, wisdom is better.

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And one of the things that I really

appreciate and something that you'll

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hear at a funeral, typically, pastor

Peter and I have both have preached

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sermons from Ecclesiastes two seven.

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I suspect.

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Where he says this in verse two.

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It's better.

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To go to the house of mourning than

to go to the house to feasting.

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Four.

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This is the end of all mankind.

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And the living.

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We'll lay it to heart.

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It carries on in verse three.

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Sorrow is better than laughter

for by sadness of face.

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The heart is made glad verse four,

the heart of the wise is in the house

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of mourning, but the heart of fools.

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Is in the house of mirth, joy,

rejoicing, the house of partying.

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So w is, is he saying here that wise

people are sorrowful or sad or morose?

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No, I don't think that's the case at all.

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And in fact, he's going to

commend you to do the opposite.

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And he's going to tell you that you should

enjoy the things that God has given you.

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What he's trying to help you do here.

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It's understand that wise people are

sober-minded they understand that

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life is fleeting, short and heavy.

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Death is not a positive thing.

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Death is a bad thing.

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And we should expect that all of us are

going to find our appointment with death.

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At a point we probably don't expect.

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And therefore we're sober-minded we

consider our death on a regular basis.

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And I, and I trust that for you, as

you read this, you'll be reminded.

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It's a good thing for you to

be in the house of mourning.

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It's a good thing for you to be reminded

that death comes for all of us and that's

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no exception unless Jesus comes back.

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You ought to reckon with the

fact that you will die too.

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Good reminder.

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And Ecclesiastes U seven

says, Hey, it's better.

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And simply going to a party and

having a good time, even though

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that's appropriate and good.

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And there's a time for that.

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Uh, to go back a couple of chapters

ago, there's a time for everything.

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Chapter three.

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So in this first section here,

this poem wisdom is better.

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The second half of chapter

seven, he kind of lays out a few.

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Uh, they seem to be random

Proverbs of sorts, but there's one

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I want to focus on because it's

likely going to cause you some.

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At least some questions.

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You're going to wonder

what he means by it.

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And I still don't know if

I fully understand it, but

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let's go through it again.

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Let's go together.

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Anyway.

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Verse 16.

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Be not overly righteous and

do not make yourself too wise.

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Why should you destroy yourself?

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Being overly wicked verse

17 says neither be a fool.

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Why should you die before your time?

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So it seems like at least on the,

on the face of this here, he's

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saying, Hey, kind of hedge your bets.

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Don't be too wise.

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Don't be too foolish.

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Find yourself in the happy middle here.

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Happy medium.

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Uh, but everything I could read

here suggest the opposite and I've

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read several commentaries and I've

looked at their original language.

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And it's a bit.

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An agnostic.

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It's hard to know exactly what

he's getting at, but I think

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the best approach to this here.

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Is that.

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Okay.

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One of two things.

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I'll give you the two that the two that

kind of rose to the surface for me.

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It's possible that he's warning

us against again, a simple and

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formulaic approach to wisdom.

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Uh, or, uh, Yeah, to living righteously,

don't expect that being overly

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righteous is going to produce the

kind of results that you anticipate.

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It's not always the case.

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Again, we go back to the life of job.

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We go to the life of Jesus and

righteousness did not profit them.

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At least not the way that we expect it to.

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And so in that case, then, Hey, don't,

don't do this thinking that in some way,

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shape or form, it's going to benefit you.

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Uh, here and now they're in then.

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Definitely.

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But here now.

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May not be the case.

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That's one way to approach this.

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Another way to approach this and

this, this, uh, this posture or

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this position rather is something

that John MacArthur believes.

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It's the idea here that it's being

self-righteous or Pharisaical.

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And so the idea here is that

perhaps the word lends itself.

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More to the sense of, Hey,

don't have to be always right.

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Don't be the guy that has to say I'm

always in the right you're wrong.

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And maybe that's the case.

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So those are two approaches to that verse.

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And I'll let you kind

of work through that.

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You should do some studying in

this book and hopefully find it

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a couple of nuggets in there.

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Well, that's chapter seven.

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There's a couple other things in there

that I know you'll find challenging.

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In fact, let me just quickly

address the last part of this here.

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He talks about, I found one man,

among a thousand, but a woman

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among all these, I have not found.

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See this alone.

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I have found that God made man upright.

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But they have sought out many schemes.

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Um, this is a challenging section as well.

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And let me just give

you the short end of it.

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I think he's getting to the sense

of man and woman are both fallen.

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And even though there may be

a righteous man out there.

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There's not many, there's not a lot.

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And even though he uses woman as a foil

to say, Hey, there's no righteous woman.

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He doesn't mean that

there's no righteous women.

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We're just saying.

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Uh, and in a poetic way, look among

men and women, man, there are few

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righteous upstanding people, which is

why he says in verse 29, see this alone.

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I have found that God made man upright,

but they have sought out many schemes.

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God designed us to follow him.

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But the problem is we seek our own.

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We seek sinful unrighteous, evil plans.

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So I think that's what he's getting at.

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Chapter eight.

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He commands you to follow the king,

to obey the king to work hard.

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Um, and then he says here in this

middle section of chapter eight,

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looking at verses 10 through 13.

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Uh, one thing that he

says that's helpful here.

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He says, Always sinner does

not does evil a hundred times

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and prolonged his life yet.

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I know that it will be well

with those who fear God.

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Oh, this is going to

be the end of his con.

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The end of his conclusion at

the, at the end of the book.

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This is going to be as conclusion

that it's better to fear God.

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Uh, he speaks briefly to the idea that

sinful people do prosper and make a lot

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of money, seem to be in good health.

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They have a kids that graduate all

the best colleges and they have all

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the benefits that go along with them.

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And he says, even still, if that's the

case, It's still better to fear God.

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Because.

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Uh, God will ensure that

the wicked will perish.

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The wicked will be judged, but

those who do fear, God will

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continue and they will live.

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The last part of chapter eight here.

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He speaks to a reversal of expectations.

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Um, and here's, here's one of

his punchlines again, we're

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going to revisit this idea.

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Verse 15, chapter eight.

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And I come enjoy.

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For men has nothing better under the

sun, but to eat and drink and be joyful.

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For this, we'll go with him.

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This will go with him in his toil

through the days of his life.

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That God has given him under the sun.

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That is, as you live

life, enjoy what you have.

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Take pleasure in what God has given you.

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Drinking all the goodness

that God has given.

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How many times have you done that today?

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Have you done that this morning?

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Well this afternoon, whenever

you're hearing this podcast.

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Have you thanked God.

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For the good things that

he's blessed you with.

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Have you ever.

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A lot.

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John Piper drank orange juice.

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And give God glory for orange juice.

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Have you ever eaten some

really good briskets?

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And thanks God for that Shui.

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Smoky goodness.

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Solomon would commend that to

you and say, look, life is hard.

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Things are difficult.

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You ought to enjoy the things that

God gives you because you don't

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know what God's going to do next.

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You have no idea.

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One day you're walking up

and having a great time.

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The next day, things

could be very different.

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You just don't know.

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And that's part of his point.

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And chapter nine, he reminds us

that death comes for all of us.

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It's behind us.

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It's beside us.

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It's in front of us.

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I love this because it really,

it resonates deeply with me.

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I was a young man when I was impacted

by Jonathan Edwards resolutions

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and among the resolutions, he

talks about always remembering

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that death is around the corner.

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I'm paraphrasing him.

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He doesn't say that exactly.

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But he was a young man when he

came to this idea that death ought

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to be in the front of his mind

constantly because it's going to

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motivate him to do the right things.

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Solomon would have you do the same.

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He says, look, death is coming for

everybody, regardless of whether you're

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righteous or sinful, whether you're

known as someone who is an upstanding

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citizen or someone that's, you know,

a, a low standing citizen, I suppose.

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Death comes for all.

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And it really doesn't matter

what kind of life you live in

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that everyone's going to die.

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It doesn't matter who you

are, you're going to die.

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And so he says, remember this, don't

let, don't let that escape your mind.

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And because of that, Hey, enjoy

life with the one you love.

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That's the top of a verse seven here.

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In my ESV.

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Let me just read this.

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This is so good.

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I want you to hear this again.

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Go.

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Eat your bread with joy and drink

your wine with a Merry heart for God

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has already approved what you do.

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I'll let your garments be always white.

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Let not oil be lacking on your head.

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Enjoy life with a wife whom you love.

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All the days of your vein life that he

has given you under the sun, because

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that is your portion in life and in

your toil at which you toil under the

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sun, Hey, whatever your hand finds

to do, go do that with all your mind.

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For there is no work or thought

or knowledge or wisdom in

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Sheol to which you are going.

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So again, the punchline for him.

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Hey, take advantage of what you have.

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Hug your husband, kiss your wife, love

your kids, smell their hair, you know,

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wrap them in your arms and don't let

them go because life is fleeting and

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it's short and you don't know when that's

going to stop or when that's going to end.

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He says something interesting in

verse 10, which we ought to address.

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He says that there's no work knowledge.

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There's no, uh, there's no toil.

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And she old.

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We know as Christians, that scripture

reveals that there is stuff for us to do.

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At least we know this in the new

Jerusalem is going to be jobs is

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going to be judging that's happening.

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We get to be part of that.

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Jesus.

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Allows us to be co heirs

with him and co rulers.

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And so we know there is work,

there is stuff for us to do.

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I think what we have here

is progressive revelation.

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Uh, we have a progressive revelation

of how the afterlife is understood

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in the ancient mindset here.

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So Solomon's understanding

of the afterlife is.

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And she, oh, she old doesn't necessarily

mean hell doesn't mean heaven.

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It just means the, the

underworld or the afterlife.

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And here he's saying, look what we

understand of the life, that to come,

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you can't do what you're doing here.

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And certainly that much is true.

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You, you can't live life the same way.

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Things are different in the afterlife.

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It's almost like the test has been taken.

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Okay.

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Now here's the results of the test.

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That's what the afterlife.

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Commends.

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That's what the afterlife concludes with.

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And so you might as well enjoy

the life that God has given you.

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Okay.

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Well, let's move on to chapter 10 here.

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Chapter 10.

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He gives a, a long form poem.

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And one of the themes of this poem

here is a little folly outweighs

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wisdom, and honor, the more wise

you are, the more that a little

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folly can really undermine it.

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And discounted in people's eyes.

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And certainly the wiser you are,

the bigger they are, the harder

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they fall, as the saying goes.

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Uh, it was a story in the news

recently of a local pastor.

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Who's outed.

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For having done some really evil things.

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Oh a long time ago.

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And of course it's all over the news.

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People are reporting on it.

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The secular news media, even

though they may favor our,

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our, our conservative culture.

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They're talking about it.

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And I lament this.

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I feel like this is another

black eye on the church.

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Now, granted, I strongly disagree

with this church's theology.

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Uh, we strongly disagree with

even the way that they approach.

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Th they seem to be a

prosperity driven church.

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And so that alone puts them in a

different category, but in the world's

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eyes, they don't make that distinction.

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They just see, here we go.

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Another pastor with a mega church.

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Preying on as people doing shady business.

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And now here it is.

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When someone is considered a wise.

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You're grown in wisdom.

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You've grown in stature.

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A little bit of foolishness can

really wreck someone's life.

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I tell my son all the time, my oldest son.

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You're only one.

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Stupid decision away

from ruining her life.

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Isn't that always the case.

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That's the case for all of

us, but it's especially.

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So when you possess wisdom

and people esteem, you.

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But that let that soak in your mind.

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There.

394

Chapter 10 continues on with

a few, a few good things here.

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Um, Talks about wisdom helps one succeed.

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Uh, so if the iron is blunt

and one does not sharpen the

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edge, he must use more strength.

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It's that old proverb, you know, if you

have six hours to chop down a tree, spend

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the first hour or five at whatever it is.

400

I know.

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Abraham.

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Lincoln's the one who's

credited with saying that.

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Sharpening the edge before

you chopped down the tree.

404

Lots of wisdom in that scriptures wise.

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Chapter 11.

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Um, less, you become.

407

Dissatisfied with life and, and

start to grow dour and sour.

408

Chapter 11 encourages you hate invest.

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Be generous.

410

Go put your stuff out there.

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Go, go, go.

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Do, do hard work.

413

Um, don't don't, uh, fail to, to, so,

because you're going to reap, so Solomon's

414

not saying, Hey, don't take the bull

by the horns, but he is saying, look.

415

Um, even though life has

challenged, there's still

416

opportunity for you to do well.

417

If a person lives many

years in verse eight.

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Let him rejoice in the mall,

but let him remember that the

419

days of darkness will be many.

420

All that comes is vanity.

421

So he's tempering this optimism.

422

I want to call it a pessimism,

but whether realism.

423

You saying, look.

424

Go do the things go, go build

the building, go invest in the

425

enterprise, go, go do the exciting

thing, but recognize that life.

426

Has a lot of ups and downs

and you can not predict them.

427

That's the point?

428

You can't, you can't predict in therefore.

429

Therefore, make sure you're doing

it under the care and purview of

430

I'm not living for this life, but

the next, ultimately that's my hope.

431

That's my, that's my attention.

432

In verse nine, he says rejoice O young

man in your youth and let your heart

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cheer you in the days of your youth.

434

Walk in the ways of your heart

in the side of your eyes.

435

But know that for all these things,

God will bring you into judgment.

436

So young men, remember God is watching.

437

There's never a part of your

life where he is like, oh, I

438

was looking away what happened?

439

God's always aware.

440

There are no secrets.

441

In fact, I was going to mention that

the last part of chapter 10 here, even

442

in your thoughts, do not curse the king

nor in your bedroom curse the rich.

443

For a bird of the air will carry

your voice or some winged creature

444

will tell the matter there

are no such thing as secrets.

445

Okay.

446

Chapter 12.

447

Chapter 12.

448

He reminds us like, if you make

it to old age, that's great.

449

On the one hand, it's fantastic.

450

You've made it, but recognize old age

presents a whole new host of challenges,

451

which are not going to be fun.

452

I talked about losing your

teeth and losing your hearing.

453

And he's got a losing the luster of life.

454

It doesn't present a really happy

image of someone aging gracefully.

455

But he does want you to recognize you're

gonna, you're born from the dust and

456

you're going to return to the dust.

457

Be aware.

458

You're going to get older.

459

And for those of you who

are older, you recognize.

460

Life has gone by in a flash.

461

And in fact, I'm sure that you can

look back in your memory and think

462

about when you were young and say,

man, it just feels like yesterday.

463

How quickly time has gone.

464

All of us young and old.

465

Young and older.

466

Not to remember, life is fleeting.

467

It's short.

468

It's a mist James chapter four says that

appears for a little time in advantages.

469

Therefore verse 13, it's chapter 12 here,

the end of the matter, all has been heard.

470

Fear God and keep his commandments for

this is the whole duty of man for God

471

will bring every deed into judgment.

472

With every secret.

473

Secret thing, whether good or evil.

474

Our job as Christians

is to live Corum Dayo.

475

That is before the face of God.

476

And to remember that whatever happens in

this life, the good, the bad, the ugly.

477

Is all under his sovereign purview.

478

And you can not guarantee that

those things won't happen to you.

479

What does that mean for us then?

480

We live gratefully, we're filled with

gratitude for the things that we have.

481

We don't take them for granted.

482

And instead we enjoy and

savor and thank God greatly.

483

For the good things that we have.

484

Because we don't deserve him.

485

We haven't earned them.

486

God is the one who gives us

grace for every good thing.

487

And those good things.

488

Are not guaranteed.

489

Until tomorrow.

490

Well with that said, Hey,

thanks for joining me today.

491

I hope you enjoyed our walkthrough

Ecclesiastes chapter seven through 12.

492

God willing.

493

I'll see you tomorrow for another

edition of the daily Bible.

494

Rod cast.