Fear God and Keep His Commandments
First B Jackson
2023-02-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alrighty. Good morning. How are y'all this morning? How is everybody? Is this thing on?

Yeah. It's on. So it's a little bit of an unusual morning. By this time, I have usually practiced the sermon once. Right?

I'm always practicing at the nine so I can be really ready for y'all at eleven. But this morning, we had a bunch of testimonies from some guys who went on a mission men's trip, not a mission trip, but a men's, a men's trip. There was more plaid in here than I've ever seen in here this morning. It was a lot of flannel and plaid, and I'm kinda dressed that way too. But we just rolled in from Ryrie from the Moss Avery Lodge.

It was a the word retreat that I've been announcing for several weeks. And so here we go. I still I do have a clicker. Here we go. Would you stand with me?

We're gonna sing some good old traditional hymns. The In my heart, there rings a melody. Hymn number five zero two. Wait a second now. Did I do that Blake?

Did I mess you up?

I'm just checking my email to see if that was the wrong song.

We're going to sing whatever comes up on

the wall.

How about that? What? What? Oh, that was five zero three, since Jesus came into my heart. Can you look across the page to that?

It might be easier for us to change than for him to change. I don't know. 502.

502. In

my heart, there rings a melody. Most of us know it. How about Blake catches up with us? Would you just start playing? I have a song that Jesus gave me.

That's the way it starts.

I have a song that Jesus gave me. It was sent from heaven above. There never

What a friend we have in Jesus. There it is. Thank you, Blake. What a a guy. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. Now, we got a couple of announcements this morning. Not quite as many because we're knocking these things down. Men's group that was going is now gone. So that's off there.

Monday nights at first b. Monday is still happening. So Monday night at first b down the hall, meal, music, and a message on Monday night. Carl says we're up to the point of the transfiguration of Jesus from Mark. So that's happening tomorrow night after a meal and after some music, we'll have that message.

And then a chance to have a gospel conversation afterwards at Monday nights. At the same time, AWANA is happening in this room. AWANA is approved workmen are not ashamed is what it stands for. Not many people know that, but it's really good. Approved workmen are not ashamed.

It's a program that pours scripture into the minds of kids that will hopefully work its way into the heart of the children. And on this trip, actually, we had one young man who has been through Awana all the way through, And a lot of people prayed for him all over the years, and he he committed his life to Christ this week on that trip. So it's pretty nice. Yep. Awana's great.

So that's happening. Connect hour happens between services. Next week next week is share a dish Sunday. So something for the little brunchy breakfast time in between. Next week is share a dish Sunday.

Sort of sort of like a potluck, but it's gonna be for the connect hour. Ladies fellowship, happening down the hall on Thursday evenings at 06:00. 6PM, Thursdays in the fellowship hall. All ages of ladies are welcome. It is a homegrown Bible study, they're calling it.

But it's really a group of ladies who love one another, are willing to pray for one another, and walk through life together as they study the Bible and try to grow in God's word. It's good. There was a women's retreat that has not made the threshold for how for going to this place, but I'm still gonna announce it. The weekend, the Saturday of this weekend is gonna be like a miniature women's retreat here at the church. It's gonna happen here.

So if you'd like to be a part of that one day event, it it's not a $150. You don't don't all of that information is not exact. But the closer we get to it, the more we'll let you know about it. Our high school ministry, we have banded together with tribe and with a couple other churches, and we are having the youth, the high school youth, meet on Thursday evenings at 06:30 at the tribe ministry center, which is sort of across from Hullgrocer at the tribe ministry center. And they call it student ascent, so it's really good.

I know a lot of high schoolers who have started going and really love it. And there's one more, a small group that we're that is building. They have some people that meet every Sunday night at 06:30, but the location changes. They're young folks. They don't have a casa fija, let's say, in Mexico, a fixed home for this Bible study.

So they do have, people who are willing to put them up for the evening and let them just hang out and talk for the evening. 06:30 location changes. Usually, they have supper and hang out. It's really good. The If gathering is coming up.

Sign up this week if you wanna do this. March third and fourth are coming really fast. So you could sign up at jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com. And I don't know a whole lot more about that event except for it is it has been very well received and the people who have been are are behind it. So that's good.

I think that's really good. One other event. This is the last one I think. So this is coming up in September. That's a long ways off.

Will Graham, Billy Graham's grandson, is gonna be doing a big rally in Idaho Falls. Sorta like Billy Graham used to do rallies all around. And so Will Graham is doing it. And in preparation for those, First Be is one of the churches that is gonna have church prep briefings about how to go about that. Christian life and witness courses are coming up too.

And it's by this Billy Graham Evangelical Association that's gonna be helping out with that. Nick knows more about it than anybody else in this church if you wanna talk to him.

Yep. Our representatives at the UTA.

Hey. That's good. Howdy. Welcome. So he knows more than Nick.

That's great. That's really good. I'm glad to know that. Nice to meet you from afar. So if you would stand with the musical guest, by the way, is going be Crowder, formerly Dave Crowder Band.

Crowder is going to be the musician. If you'd stand with us, we're gonna get back into singing. I'm thankful you're here this morning, brother. There's something about that name. We'll probably sing through this one twice.

Just a closer walk would be. Y'all can have a seat. If you would pray with me for the offering this morning. God, I pray that you would fill us with a sense of your joy. The joy of your salvation, the peace that passes understanding.

The comfort that only you can give. God, I pray that as we go from this place and get into our lives, our work a day, normal lives that we remember what you have said and we will, lord, listen and obey your word. I pray lord that you would impress upon us how you would have us walk this out. In Jesus name, lord, I ask for your blessing and multiplication of whatever is placed in these plates, whether it's physical or financial resources or metaphorical, it's time, it's the conversation, it is meditation prayer. Whatever it is lord that we offer.

I pray that you would multiply it and bless it to do your kingdom's work here and from here to everywhere else. God, I pray that you do your will and your way among us. Amen. Like I said, I I went on this men's retreat. Normally, I'm seeing people and counseling doing what we do, you know, much of the time during the week.

And then Friday, kind of getting to a pretty settled place, Saturday coming in, checking on the slides. I haven't done any of that. None of that. So I feel like I'm a little bit just a half a beat off this morning. I remembered this story though.

And as I was considering what to preach because I didn't get to preach in the first, I didn't want y'all to get ahead of them. And so I thought about this. There's a fellow who was starting out his Christian walk. He had been a believer for just a short time, and he asked me he was a sincere and pure hearted guy. He wanted to serve the Lord.

That was one of the first things he thought. I want to do that. I want to do that, and I want to grow spiritually. And so he said, what should I do to grow spiritually? And I'm a word based guy.

I really like, God's word, and I think that, it's great practical application services are wonderful, and we should be doing that. But if you're going to grow, what book should I read to grow spiritually? And he wanna know any book. It could have been mere Christianity. It could have been anything else.

But I'm always gonna go with Bible. Right? And so I said, Ephesians. Ephesians. Ephesians.

It's good. He'd already read John. That's how he came to Christ. You could read Romans and learn theology, and that'd be great. But I said, if you wanna put practical, it's it's because it is short.

It is easy to understand, and it's very encouraging. So I leave the guy and I didn't see him for a week or so and maybe two weeks. And then when we got back together, he wasn't all that happy looking, honestly. He looked a little bedraggled. And so I said, how'd you like the book?

He said, I didn't like it. How can you not like Ephesians? Oh my goodness. There's so much good stuff. We're saved by grace through faith.

That's not of ourselves. It's the gift of God so that no one should boast. Oh, we're God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Your service, God. This is wonderful.

And he said, I didn't like it. It wasn't short. And it wasn't easy to understand. And it wasn't encouraging. I just was depleted.

He read all of Ecclesiastes, meaningless vanity. All is vanity. Oh, it's terrible. Oh, woe is me. I saw in everything I saw under the sun.

So, yeah, if you read Ecclesiastes looking for Ephesians, it's a tough one. It's not easy to understand, really. It's easy to understand if you get a little more context than that though. So since I was going on a men's retreat, and I figured they'd be young and old, there were. There are people of varying levels of Bible understanding, there were.

And I thought, wisdom, men. We're looking for wisdom. You know? God says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. That's James.

We could go to James, maybe James this morning. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives liberally to all. And that's a good one. Maybe I'll go there. But I started thinking about Ecclesiastes, that long, confusing, and discouraging book.

And I had another story. So from seminary, I went to seminary at Columbia International. You all know that. Most of you know that. And on my very first day, I'm going, and I went early, and I got there before classes would start.

They have a cafeteria because they have residential students that live there. And I drove from my house, and I got there really early, and I went through the breakfast line, and I was eating my grits. And I was having my assorted pork products. You know? And I was like, God, help me to understand whatever it is that you want for me to understand.

I I remember sitting down to pray for breakfast and then saying, Lord, just show me in this place. Show me whatever it is you want me to know so that I can do whatever you want me to do. And I looked down. There there it is. I figured I wouldn't get a whole lot of sleep this weekend, so I kinda it might be death by PowerPoint.

Sorry about that. But, Lord, help me to understand what you'd have me understand so that I might be able to do what you want me to do. So that was the prayer, which I open up my little Bible. This is my little Bible that I had with me. And I open it up, and this is where my eyes fell, right there.

And I highlighted it, painted it green afterwards, but this is right there. It is this. The words of the wise are like goads. Goads. And the words of scholars are like well driven nails given by one shepherd, capital s.

That's God almighty. He's the one who's driving those well driven nails. The words of the wise are like goads, and their words of scholars are like well driven nails. And I'm sitting in a seminary, and I thought, thank you, God. Driven by one shepherd.

And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of the making of many books, there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Oh, thank you, Lord. I needed a good kick right there. So what is Solomon's story?

If you have read the Old Testament lately, you probably will remember. His name comes up a lot. Probably not as much as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in the unified kingdom, Solomon's story comes up a lot. We hear about him in several places like second Samuel 12.

You can go home and read that. I'm not gonna go through that right here today. In first Kings 11, there are several long quotes from him. He's he asked for wisdom, and God granted that he would have wisdom. Said to be the wisest man ever on earth at the time, and I don't think anybody exhausts that now.

First Chronicles twenty eight and twenty nine are Solomon's story. Second Chronicles one through 10, still Solomon's story. Nehemiah thirteen twenty six refers to him. Jesus refers to him and says, in all of Solomon's splendor. You know?

So Jesus says, he gives a nod and a tip of the hat, really, when advising us to consider the lilies of the field. He says, think about Solomon. He had all kinds of stuff. Splendor. But he still wasn't clothed as well as even one of these lilies of the field.

We also hear from him, not just about him. The other places are about him. The from him, we hear from him, he penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He penned Song of Solomon. Beautiful.

Love poem. Most of Proverbs. You can occasionally, you'll see one that says, this is a proverb of somebody else. But most of them, he collected them, and he came up with a lot of He's a wise man, and he knew how to turn a phrase. And there are a lot of things that are sticking in here In Proverbs, trust lean on the Lord.

Trust not in your own understanding. Right? Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he'll make your path straight. Proverbs. Lots of good ones in there.

And Ecclesiastes, and he wrote it. Now, I think he probably wrote them in that order. Song of Solomon is a young man in love. There's no doubt about that. And Proverbs, he collected over the years.

And then Ecclesiastes is when he was looking back over his life. And so the ark of Solomon's life. I usually do word for word, even syllable for syllable sometimes, or paragraph by paragraph explication. But I want to look at the arc of this man's life. So we hear about him, we hear from him, he penned all those.

For his reign, second Samuel and first Kings Bathsheba gives birth to Solomon. When you hear Bathsheba, it's like, oh no, wow, wait a second. That's Bathsheba. That's the one David committed adultery with. That's Solomon's mom.

Wow. He becomes king. David's a man of war. He doesn't get to build the temple, but Solomon does get build to the temple. Solomon's Temple, they refer to it all the time in Jesus' time as Solomon's Temple.

It's God's temple, but Solomon was the one that laid the foundation for it. Said that amazingly beautiful prayer at the founding of the building of the temple, the inauguration type prayer. Just beautiful. Solomon becomes king and has some family dysfunction. Who is without family dysfunction?

The Bible doesn't shy away from it. It does not pretend that he's perfect. David gives him a warning. David's a man after God's own heart. He has this son, and he says, Solomon, pay attention to this.

First Kings two. You can read that. Solomon asks for wisdom, and he receives it. And I like that. I really, really like that God granted his wish.

I like that he didn't ask for money. I like that he didn't ask for fame, that he didn't ask for glory. I like that he didn't. With wisdom, he ended up having all of those things. So wisdom, here it is.

Much of his wisdom is recorded in Proverbs. I know a lot of people that find Proverbs to be a very good way because there are 31 Proverbs. And usually, there are thirty or thirty one days in the month. And it's pretty easy to wake up in the morning and go, oh, what's the day? The twenty sixth?

I'm going Proverbs 26. That's a good way. There's a lot of wisdom to be found, and it was found there. And it can be found there, and it can be shared from there. So wisdom, that's a big part of his life.

He was a wise ruler, actually an economic genius. The the kingdom flourished under Solomon. Economics were amazing. He builds the temple. He builds the royal palace, was splendor, like Jesus said.

And he gained through his wisdom and alliances and lots of different stuff. He gained a lot of wealth. That sincere prayer at the temple dedication, if you haven't read it lately, occasionally we'll get somebody who will say, hey, Pastor Ray, we want you to come to bless our house. And I'm not a not a Catholic priest. I'm not an Episcopal priest.

I don't usually do I'm not a Jewish rabbi. I don't usually go blessing houses, just as a matter of course. Not usually, but when somebody asks. I mean, when somebody's sick, let them call the elders. And he will go to them and they'll anoint their head with oil.

When you call me and you're sick, I'm coming to you. But if you call and say, would you come say a prayer over our house? We just feel like there's been a lot of stuff that we want we wanna concentrate our time and our our place. And would you come? And I always start from there.

It's just beautiful. It's beautiful. Lord, you're the king. Right? He understood God's goodness.

He also understood man's sinfulness. A lot of his proverbs are based on an understanding of man's inherent sinfulness, and they'll help it'll help you. If you'll read through his wisdom, it'll help you. Now his wisdom doesn't stop in Proverbs. Ecclesiastes is when he gets towards the end of his life, and he sees that.

So worship. Oh, can you imagine the pomp and the circumstance of that opening scene of the temple? Worship. Solomon's reign. God appears to him a second time.

And this time, I don't know if he was just getting too big for his britches. I'm not really sure. But he gets a warning this time. And it echoes the warning that David had given him earlier. So first Kings chapter nine, God has given the warning.

Chapter two, David had given the warning. And this wise man I always say a real wise person can learn from the mistakes of others. But this is the wisest of men, and he didn't. So the warnings. Here we go.

Second Samuel in first king, Solomon's reign. He ignores the warnings. Totally. Isn't that terrible? But if we're honest, how many of us have received a warning that we totally walked away from?

There's there are a couple ways of gaining wisdom. Right? One of them is taking advice and realizing, man, they were right about that. What a pitfall I avoided by listening to my mama or my dad. He ignores the warnings totally.

There's another way of learning. It's the school of hard knocks. And actually, this weekend, we saw a lot of the school of hard knocks. You know? But those men telling those stories helped the other men to see and learn.

It was really good. Solomon's sin actually split the kingdom. So I said he's he's a king of a united kingdom, but his sin is what caused the division. Here's Solomon turns from God. It says right here in chapter eleven one.

Now king Solomon loved many foreign women. Along with the daughter of pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sodomian, and Hittite women from the nation concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them. Trust me. Nor shall they associate with you for they will surely turn your heart after their gods. And Solomon held fast to these in love and he had 700 wives, princesses, 300 concubines and his wives turned his heart away.

Song of Solomon, he had he had a beloved. Remember that? He had a beloved that he held onto, and he loved her dearly. Was it not because of marriages like these? This is Nehemiah thirteen twenty six and when it refers to Solomon.

Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon, king of Israel, sinned? Among the many nation, there was no king like him. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel. But even he was led into sin by foreign wives. Primarily because of their foreign gods.

There are earthly attractions that draw us away from heavenly wisdom. Wives. Women. It says that in both places there. Woah.

His prayer for wisdom was great. His build of the temple was great. His great wealth. God's warning's mentioned. No mention in Chronicles.

Chronicles is official history. No mention of his failures there. But first Kings and Samuel tell they tell the story. And Solomon tells the story in Ecclesiastes. When he starts off in Ecclesiastes and he starts saying, listen.

I have sought after a whole lot of wisdom. I sought to gain wisdom. I sought to understand things. And in seeking to understand them, I got involved in a bunch of stuff that I had no business getting involved in. Worship.

He began worshiping God first. But it didn't take too terribly long in all of his pursuits to go after idols. And it's one of the saddest stories in scripture when somebody takes a replacement or counterfeit God, small g, and puts it in the place of the capital g God. And I'm I'm saying, if we're honest about it, we we still do that too. We take earthly things and allow them to draw our interest away from God.

We rely on stuff or we rely on substances to draw us away from worshiping God. We begin to worship those things. Wisdom and wealth are not the answer to mankind's problem. There's a saying on when I was little, my brother loved GI Joe. He liked to watch it on television and in the commercials, especially like the what do they call them?

Public service announcement. Public service announcement, stop, drop, and roll or something of that sort of thing. They'd be one of the soldiers come out, and he'd say, oh, you don't need to do this. He said, oh, the kids would say, oh, we didn't know. And he says, well, now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

You know? Knowing is half the battle. Knowing helps. It helps tremendously. Knowing is half the battle.

But Solomon was the wisest man ever, and he knew right for wrong. There wasn't any doubt about that. Early on, you see. In the Proverbs, you see. In Song of Solomon, you even see.

He was wealthy enough to carry out anything pretty much that he wanted to do. So wisdom and wealth are not the answer to mankind's problem. Knowing helps. Having the ability to pay for whatever it is that you think you need is helpful, but he still sinned. He still turned away from God.

And I think that if knowing is half the battle and I spend a lot of time on belief. I spend a lot of time on belief because the New Testament spends a lot of time on belief. Old Testament spends a lot of time on belief. What you believe turns you into what you are. If you believe in Jesus, you are a believer in Jesus.

You're a Christian. Carrying through your belief into how you act. Actions don't save you. But again to James, faith without works is dead. Right?

He still sinned. He turned away from God and he got distracted. And I can't imagine not being distracted in his circumstances. If no one is half the battle, doing's the other half. There is a doing that needs to take place and it needs to be in line with what you know.

And he knew right from wrong. James four says to know to do right and to not do it. That's sin. That's just sin. So Ecclesiastes is a reflective book over his life.

I don't ever do alliterative anything. And y'all have seen Wisdom, Wive, Woah, all of that this this time. I've got a few of them that as I was contemplating this book and trying to make some sense of it, especially after my little interaction with my friend who thought it was long and hard to understand. Ecclesiastes is a reflective book. It's at the end of Solomon's earthly life.

And he saw in his own life misdirected wisdom. God granted him wisdom and then instead of taking the warning and learning with type a wisdom where you hear the warning and you go around a different way, he went straight on through the problem, and he gathered for himself all of these things. Misdirected wisdom is a way that he gained some of his wealth. He misused the wealth. I mean, yes, he did build the temple, and that was great.

It was directed by God. It was ordained of God. It was there. It was wonderful. But then he started all these other side projects where he misused his wealth.

He got major warnings, mainly about the multiplied forbidden wives. And then he mixed the worship of God with the worship of idols. So those things. Do as I say, not as I do. Why is he even writing the book?

This thoroughly sinful man. Well, to say do as I say, not as I do, is a hypocrite. We all can agree on that. Right? But to say, do as I say, not as I did, that's a teacher.

And that's what he claims to be in Ecclesiastes. He says, listen to the teacher. Pay attention to the teacher. Do as I say, not as I used to do. I've seen the error of my ways.

So his story's one of regret, but he writes with great purpose. And I'm working my way back towards the end of that. And usually I do verse by verse, chapter for chapter. It's really hard to do Ecclesiastes verse by verse, chapter by chapter because it's long, and it's hard to understand, and it's confusing. And if you stop anywhere before the end I did a I have done a three sermon series on Ecclesiastes way back when.

If you stop anywhere before the end, it it it really leaves you with a sense of this this is not over. This is not good. This is hard. Because what he says over and over and over and over again is under the sun, under the sun, under the sun. He's taken heavenly input out of it and saying, under the sun, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Actually, this is the Hebrew for what I just said right there. Those words look exactly alike. They are exactly alike. They mean nothing, nothing and nothing. Those go with them.

That one's kind of in between. I'm going to get to something here in a minute. That end section right there, look at the difference in those two right there. Do you see much difference? There's hardly any difference.

So this squiggly in the middle and that little squiggly with a line under it. That is the difference in everything and nothing. Isn't that interesting? So to say vanity vanity is all is vanity, what he's saying is, it's nothing. Everything comes to nothing.

Everything, nothing. Everything. Under the sun comes to nothing. That's hard. That's hard.

That's hard to understand. But it's hard to understand if you're thinking, I'm gonna get the answers here on earth. I'm gonna get the answers from my observation. With my great wisdom, I can figure this thing out. Philosophers are sad people in most cases because they're studying something, and they run up against a problem.

And the problem is under the sun thinking. So from everything, nothing, we want to turn that around. Blake, is that thing going to keep on going, or is that the last of the slides? Okay. Here we go.

So a story, I want to say again, is a story of regret. And if you take that and you read Ecclesiastes, and you go, okay, I've sought after money, and that's not where it's at. I've sought after it with carnal pleasures, and that's not where it is. Really, stick with the love of your youth. Keep keep that one.

Go back and read Song of Solomon with that one. I've looked for it in fame, and I'm pretty famous, you know. It's not there. He keeps on going through everything under the sun, and it's a story of regret. Because the way he gained his wisdom was by bumping his head over and over and over again.

I wish we had the little basketball goal thing pulled up, Blake. Don't do it. Please don't do it. You can know something's there, right? You can know that something's there.

I came out here to help build a house. And I had been working in this house with a pole basketball goal in the driveway the whole time. I painted the doors out there. I did everything out there. I played basketball out there.

And I went over to help one day just take care of the dog. And I got it out of the church van, opened up, and I went, bam, into that pole like you wouldn't believe. I knew it was there, but you have to pay attention. Right? You have to pay attention, or you're gonna keep on bumping your head against the same thing.

Solomon's story is a story of regret, but he writes with great purpose. And if we will listen to his words, we can be in that type A of gaining wisdom. It's a wise man or woman who can learn from another person's mistakes. And he made a ton of them, and he shared those with us. Now, if we go back to the end of the book, this is my first day of seminary, but this is also where Solomon ends up.

Okay? Where he ends up is this. Now, the words of the wise Solomon's the wisest man ever. The words of the wise are like goads. Do you know what goads are?

We don't use the word very much, but I think I have a definition. So a goad is a spiked stick that's used for driving cattle or sheep. Some people use cattle prods, but just a sharp stick. And it doesn't have to be that you poke them through their skin. You just touch them with the point of a sharp stick and it's like, oh, that's the direction I'm going over here.

And so the words of the wise are like sharp sticks. If they stick into you over here, then start moving that way. Spiked stick for your driving cattle. As a verb, to goad someone is to provoke or annoy someone so as to stimulate some sort of action or reaction. I have to say that the retreat for a lot of us was a goad.

It elicited an action or a reaction to something to hear, this is this is the way that I have lived my life and it led me to a place of emptiness. And the only thing that filled the void was God. There's a god shaped void. The only thing that fills that void is God. That's a that's a goad to hear that.

It's like, no, I'm still trying things. Well, you can try all of them, just like Solomon did. And if you get to the conclusion of the matter, you get down to this. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars, people who study this stuff, are like well driven nails. And if they're real scholars, it'll be just like they're given by one shepherd.

Four different guys gave their testimony this weekend, and those four could not have been more perfect for goading the rest of us into positive movement towards the cross. I will arise and I will go to Jesus. I know that I need to run to the cross. When I feel fear, I know that I need to run to the cross and go for the joy. Jesus, for the joy set before him, went to the cross.

He laid it all down. Here we go. Let's go forward. Further, son, be admonished by these. There's gonna be plenty of talk.

Of many books, there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. If you go back through all of Ecclesiastes, I tried to just pick out anything that was an imperative verb in I'm a nerd. Grammar nerd. Anything that was an imperative verb in Ecclesiastes. I thought, I'm pull a out all the imperatives.

Anything that Solomon, from all of his vast experience and God given wisdom, anything he tells me to do, I'm a try to put these into practice. Enjoy what God has given. Song of Solomon's actually about that. If God has given you a wife and your youth, enjoy that. Enjoy her.

Y'all enjoy one another. Enjoy what God has given. If he's given you whatever he's given you, enjoy what God has given. Be thankful for it. Rejoice and enjoy life with your wife.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. That's a good one. We get that again in Colossians. We get it in a lot of places. Whatever it is that your hand finds, do do it with all your might.

Cast your bread upon the waters. Be generous. Be putting it out there. Cast your bread upon the waters. It'll return to you in many days.

It's good. Rejoice in your youth and enjoy it, I say to the second service. Isn't that fun? Rejoice in your youth. You're gonna look back on these.

Make some memories when you're young. Walk in the ways of your heart. Oh, Solomon. He knew it the right way. He knew the right way.

And he he tells us now, there were times when my heart was drawn away. And it's when I ignored what God was showing me. It was when I ignored what my dad had warned me about, and it lined up with what God warned me about. Walk in the ways of your heart. Honor the Lord.

Honor the Lord. As Lord, he says, honor the Lord. Remember your creator. You can't figure all this stuff out on your own. You're a finite being, and we serve an infinite God.

What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege that we've got that. Why we don't run to the cross and go there is baffling. Remember your creator.

There wasn't anything that was made without Jesus. Everything that was made was made through him. Remember your creator. And of course, this is the last little saying in Ecclesiastes. It's the last little saying right right below what I saw my first day of seminary.

I got one more slide, think, Blake. Right? Yeah. There it is. If you I'm gonna cut to the chase.

Spoiler alert. Here it is. The very end, absolute end of all of Ecclesiastes, vanity, vanity, all is vanity under the sun. I considered everything under the sun, and this is what I came up with. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

Everything, nothing, everything, nothing. So let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. What's the point, Solomon? He says, fear God and keep his commandments. It's as simple as that.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all. God will bring into judgment every work, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. He's taken it all in. You know what? This is Old Testament.

Remember that. This is Old Testament. This is Solomon. At the end, the conclusion of the matter is this, fear God and keep his commandments. He is paying attention to you.

He loves you. He's paying attention now, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. If that makes you bristle and uncomfortable and going, I don't anybody knowing every secret thing about me. Not even God. Well, does.

Sorry. It's right there. He does. And we all fall short. All of us fall short.

Now, we've got the whole New Testament to look at Ecclesiastes. The under the sun thinking is a lot of futility and a lot of vanity, and a lot of everything is nothing. But when he gets to the conclusion, he says, fear God and keep his commandments. A new commandment I give to you, Jesus says, love one another. Be loving one another.

I'm gonna give you the peace. I'm gonna take the punishment for every secret thing. I'm gonna take that punishment. I got that. This is the new covenant in my blood.

You put your trust in my blood, and I'm gonna wash all that stuff away. First John one nine says that if you are confessing, it's progressive action, grammar nerd. If you are confessing, and confessing is homo logeo. Homo is the same. Logeo is speaking or saying.

If you are saying the same thing as God about your sins, your every secret thing, whatever evil thing, if you're saying the same thing as God about them, that was wrong and I should not have done that. I sought for everything and I looked for it here and I didn't find it. I looked for it here and I didn't find it. I looked for it here against God's warning and I didn't find it. But now, when I look back on my life and I regret all those things, I go to the cross and say, lord, forgive me for seeking after it here, here, and here.

You have given me the way, the truth, and the life. Would you, lord? Would you forgive me? And he says that he does. Amen.

I didn't know this was a gospel sermon but it is because God is able. He's able to forgive. If you are confessing, I'm faithful, God says, and I am just to be forgiving your sin and cleansing you from all unrighteousness. That's what he says. Would you all stand with me?

Two short sermons in a row. Can you all believe it? Actually, I might get you brother to come up. If you want to give a little plug, a little blurb after the song here, would you do that? Okay.

Since you're the man who knows all about this thing. We're gonna sing cleanse me. We're gonna sing all four verses. Think about the progression of this song as we sing it. And I pray I'm praying that it'll be my prayer.

I'm praying that it'll also be your prayer. Cleanse me, oh God. All four verses.

Search me, oh God, and know my heart today. Try me, oh, savior. Know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me. Me from every sin and set me free.

Cleanse me first. I praise you, Lord, for cleansing me

On the last.

Amen.

Y'all can have a seat, brother. If you come forward, I don't even know your name. This is pretty rare but you're welcome. I'm glad you're here. Amen.

Yeah. Jermaine. Jermaine. Nice.

It's a blessing to be with you. It's a blessing to hear a great word from brother, and I really appreciate Ray, Ray, thanks for having me. I've been connecting with Nick. We've it was my first time well, first time being in the community was last month, and it was was a great time, and I've been learning a lot. And and actually, Nick took me cross country skiing.

And so I've never done anything like that before, but I appreciate this hospitality and everything. And so just real quick, since you gave me the opportunity, just wanted to let you know about the opportunity that that we do have. So the Billy Graham Evangelist Association, we're about making investment in a community, and that's what we're here to do. And so we're presently in Iowa or excuse me, in Idaho Falls. And so we've been invited into that community to help them with an outreach.

But there was some desire is to see how far can we, make investment. And so we're working with churches in Star Valley, and we're looking to make as much of an investment here in Jackson as possible. And so coming up this Friday at 10AM, we're looking to have a meeting to bring as many of you guys together that are willing to hear about the opportunity, let you know how you can volunteer, let you know how the investment can be made within this community. We're not here to take, we're here to give. And so if you wanna hear more about it, please, you're welcome.

I know it's an early event. I know some of you may be at work, but if you're able to come out, please come out. The same thing is actually going to happen for some of you that may live in Star Valley on March 7 at Emmanuel Bible Church. That is actually we're gonna actually provide dinner at that particular location. It's gonna start at six, but the event will actually start at seven.

But we're doing this one because we're also doing a a briefing also back in Idaho Falls that evening. So we wanted to try and at least get an opportunity here. So if you'd be willing to come out, learn more about that, again, it's about investment. We're here to encourage you guys in prayer, evangelism, and discipleship. So Amen.

Thank you. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. You stand for a benediction, and we'll close with this. Isaiah 55.

It says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he's near. Turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy. Define mercy. Mercy is when you don't get something bad that you do deserve.

What God has for you is grace. That's when you do get something good that you don't deserve. God, would you bless and would you reflect your glorious light off of these? Would you rise and your countenance upon these, lord, that they may reflect your glory on others. In Jesus' name, would you carry us along?

Amen.