So I don't think that's what I. Oh, I did, actually. Really? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good to see you all. And happy Mother's Day, ladies, to you. We've had a wonderful Mother's Day breakfast. You know, I forgot. I was gonna. I took pictures to. I took a picture of Lisa's plate. It was nicely well balanced, had all four food groups, and looks looked good. And then I forgot to load it up here. We had a wonderful breakfast this morning and had a fellowship hall full, and. And now we have a stomach full. And I will be watching to make sure that you all are not sleeping. Okay. You know, get those pancakes and scrambled eggs and all that in you. Yeah. Or maybe it's like I used to have this guy. I was his pastor for many years. Maybe I've told you about Tommy before. Brother Tommy. Everybody called him Brother Tommy. And Brother Tommy would fall asleep every single single service. And he used to tell me on the way out, he said, now, Pastor, if I didn't trust you with it, I wouldn't go to sleep. So I'll just assume you trust me with it if you go to sleep. Well, let's sing. How about. We'll say. We'll sing family here a little bit. The family of God and then some love songs on this Mother's Day where. Where our. Our choir is limited today. We got the Taos Tabernacle Trio instead of the Taos Tabernacle Choir. Brenda and Luca, come on up and help me out and let's sing the Family of God stand, hymn number 393. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God I've been washed in the fountain Cleansed by his blood Joy dance with Jesus as we travel this odd. For I'm part of the family the family of God and indeed we are part of this family. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the family of God that we come into. Not by any way other than you have offered a gift to anyone who would like to be a part of this family. And it's a gift that is received by grace through faith and not of ourselves. And we're grateful that whatever our. Our bloodline is, our DNA, our pedigree, we're welcomed into the family of God and that we have God the Father. And we are children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ in this we rejoice on this Mother's Day, In Jesus name am. God bless you. You may be seated. Thanks for being here this morning. And here to worship. Let me share a couple of announcements with you before we dive right in. One is, as we do every year, the New Life Pregnancy center has a. What do you call it? A fundraiser. Is that. I don't know if that's a focus. A fundraiser. And we. We are going to fill the changealope. It's kind of like a jackalope. It's not the baby bottles this year. It's the. They're back on the table back there, little envelope. You take it. You put your change or your cash or your checks in there between now and Father's Day, set it on your kitchen table or wherever it is that you might see it from time to time. Your bed stand where you drain out your. Your pockets every night or whatever. It. Fill that up, bring it back on Father's Day. And all of that will go to the New Life Pregnancy center right here in Taos. An organization that we appreciate the work that they do helping families with unexpected pregnancies and helping babies and giving good counsel and all that kind of stuff. So get your change, elope back there. Right? Change, elope back there and be ready to go. Let's see. Shelley and I are going to. To Texas today. We're leaving this afternoon, and we're going to go down to Katy and we're going to see my mom. Since it's Mother's Day, mom and dad were going down there, and I'll be back next Sunday, so I'll be gone during the week. But Luca is covering for me on Wednesday night. Yeah. Now, you know, I'm training Luca, okay? He's still on training wheels, so give him a really hard time, okay? Make it as hard for him as you can. He gets nervous in front of people, so I want you. All right? Front like this, okay? Look mean, look angry, and every time he says something, go. Okay? Just to help him out. This. Will. This. You know, I tell you, I learned to preach in the nursing home, which is why nothing bothers me. Nothing bothers me. There was a lady in the nursing home where I was learning to preach, and she. Every week. Mr. Reagan, stop that. So, see, I get politics during the sermon and all this kind of stuff. I'm used to whatever, okay? So I want you to train him. You know, whether you shout out things or you scowl or whatever it is, you give it to him on Wednesday night, okay? You ready, Luca? He may run by Wednesday. We'll see. I'll take the car keys so that he has no way out. Okay? And Brenda is making what do we got? Cheese enchiladas. Right. Green chili, red chili. Do we know. Okay. Cheese. Cheese enchiladas. This Wednesday night. Brenda, cook them. They'll be good. 5 o' clock and 6 o' clock will be the Bible study. It will not be faithful. Footnote. That's what we've normally got on Wednesday night with our current series faithful footnotes. I'll pick that up the next week. So I will be here again next Sunday. We'll be back in Ecclesiastes and. But anyway, you'll. You'll have a good time Wednesday night giving Luka a hard time. I can't wait. Luka, It'll. It'll be good there. Let's see. You know, it says youth group, but there's no youth group today. It's all for Mother's Day. And we got some. We do have some birthdays. And all three of them are here. And all three of them have their birthday this week. Ben, today's his birthday. How about that? I made him get up early and come cook bacon and sausage for the ladies. And so, Ben, happy birthday to you. You're. You're. Well, I got. I got. We got. Oh, come on up, Ben. Yeah, exactly. And I want Luca to come up too, because, you know, it's rare. It's rare that we have. I just want. I come up here. I just want it to be, you know, for the public record. We never have two young men who are having a birthday. You know, it's usually old ladies. And we have one young lady, too. Oh, go ahead and come on up, Gene. That was good, wasn't it? Yes. This is the youngest birthday crowd we have had in a long time. And y' all scoot over here a little bit. Let Jean up. And then Ben's birthday is today. Lucas is Saturday, if he lives through Wednesday. Ben, you're gonna be 32. 32. Luke is gonna be 23. And you're 29. Right? Okay. Exactly 39. Oh, I'm sorry, Gene. Happy birthday to you on Friday. Yes. Friday, Saturday, today. That's what we've got. Let's. Alex has you gonna play Happy Birthday on the ukulele. Oh, come do it. Have you ever. Have y' all ever had ukulele birthdays? Yeah, let's. Let's play it on piano. But I've been practicing ukulele. Oh, good. Yeah. He left the guitar in the rain and it shrunk and now we've got a ukulele. And. But let's. Let's go with Alex. I'll let you. I'll let you lead us. Okay. Okay, you guys help me with the wor. I. Okay, you get, you get us started and I'll go from there. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. And wish you a happy birthday. And here on this Mother's Day, we are. We're nearly all home folk, but not completely. We have a guest here from. I don't know, do we call it New Jersey? Where do we call it? New Jersey? There we go. And we have a gift for you. It's this little, little coaster right here. They travel on in an RV all over the country and happen to be in Taos. And this will be the highlight of your. You said you've been doing it six years now. Yes, this will be the highlight of your six years. And Pastor, I collect. I just started. Well, I don't really. You can't collect much in an rv. Right. And I decided like two years ago this is a great memory for when I stopped. And I just like, I have a nice little collection. So this is excellent. We will add to your collection. It has a picture of our church and it says America's greatest tiny church. And, and, and it has Taos First Baptist Church, Taos, New Mexico. So wherever you go, you can remember us. We do like a brief introduction. Tell us who you are and where you're from. Go ahead. So my name is Faith Leone and I'm from New Jersey And I have three children. One birth son, one adopted son and one foster child. And there are 30, 26 and 25 and an 85 year old mom back in New Jersey. I travel full time with my boyfriend and we. And I manage my mother's properties. She has properties. So I manage them from the road and I fly back and forth, everybody. And we're on our way to Glacier this year. Oh, excellent. Been up to Washington but never in Montana and that so. And I don't know how I end up. I picked churches and I picked a different church and I said, nah, that's too far. And I ended up driving around and finding this church, but couldn't get down your little road. So I was like, no, this is not discouraging me. I'm going to find it. And I just kept driving in circles until it took me out. Amen. We're so glad that you, you stumbled on us today. And we also have a map back there of people who have visited our church and what town in New Jersey? Cranford. Cranford, New Jersey. I don't. I don't think we have a pen in Cranford, New Jersey, so we'll be sure and get one of those. Yes. Welcome to blue skies and wide open spaces. And enjoy your travels in the west this summer. Thank you. And the rest of you all as well. Thanks. Hey, good to have Melanie and Josh here celebrating Mom's birthday, right? That's right. Yeah. Birthday month. Yeah, exactly. Did you make her a cake, Frank? Not yet. Not yet. Oh, okay. Yeah, they sell them at the grocery store. Why don't y' all stand, greet someone and tell them hi, and we'll be right back. I have a humble friend in Chicago. Texas is one of them. There it sa How I love Jesus because he first loved reason. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna do number 560. Oh, how I love Jesus. And let's do number one, two, and four today. Oh, how I love Jesus There is a name I love to hear I love to sing his word it sounds like music in mine ear the sweetest name on earth O how I love Jesus oh, how I love Jesus oh, how I love Jesus Jesus because he first loved me it tells of a savior's love who died to set me free it tells me of his precious blood the sinners perfectly. O how I love Jesus O how I love Jesus O how I love Jesus because he first loved me on the last it tells the one whose loving heart can feed my deepest woe through any sorrow bears apart that none can bear below O how I love Jesus O how I love Jesus O, how I love Jesus because he first loved me and now we go to hymn number 170. Oh, how he loves you and me 170. Oh, how he loves you and me oh, how he loves you and me he gave his life what more could he give oh, how he loves you oh, how he loves me oh, how he loves you, you and me Jesus to Calvary did go his love for mankind to show what he did there brought hope from despair oh, how he loves you oh, how he loves me oh, how he loves you and me and if you need it all the way back in the hymnal, hymn number 652, a song that I bet you've been singing since your earliest days at Mama's Knee. Here go we. Here we go. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so Little ones turn him belong they are weak but he me is strong yes, Jesus loves me yes, Jesus loves me yes, Jesus loves me the love tells me so on the last Jesus loves me he will stay close beside me all the way if I love him When I die he will take me home on high yes, Jesus loves me yes, Jesus loves me yes, Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so. Amen. You may be seated. And as we go to. To our offertory time here today, we remember our missionaries of the month. Their picture is back there. Mary, Brian and Gloria and Amelia. There we go. Brian and Gloria, Nina and Amelia. I'll get it all out from Bolivia. And we appreciate the work that they do there at the Grace Bible center, teaching, teaching people how to. How to. How to be a pastor in a Bolivian church. So good work that they do. We lift them up before the Lord. If you mark your gift missions today, it goes directly to them. And if you leave it unmarked, then of course it goes to the work of our church that we've had here for about 90 years, a little over 90 years now, right here in our community. And we rejoice that God has seen us through every step of the way. Amen. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for our, our families, our moms and dads and brothers and sisters, and those who have been an encouragement to us and the blessing that is ours in having a family and an extended family. And we just pray that you'd bless them. We do pray for those like Brian and Gloria, dear Heavenly Father, and their daughters and their work in Bolivia and ask you to encourage them and bless them and help them to be true to the Word and effective in communicating as they teach how to rightly divide the Word in Bolivia and especially those who will go out to be pastors of local churches that we ask you would bless as well. And a place that doesn't have near the evangelistic Bible centered work that a place like ours does. We encourage them. Dear Heavenly Father, through our prayers, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, this morning on this Mother's Day, we've got. I'll surprise you. Did y' all know Luca could play the piano? Yep. Nope. We'll put the money out and see. He's actually pretty good. And he, he picks a song and then he learns that he doesn't really read music. So he picks it out and then he memorizes it and then he puts it all together and then several months later you're like, wow, that's good. And a few months ago I heard this song that I said, you should learn how to play that one. And he learned how to play it. And so I said, it's Mother's Day. You got to play it for the offertory. It's, who is Handel? I'm gonna get it. Passa calia. Passicalia. It doesn't look like that because it's in Italian. And so I always just say, play that Pascagoula song because it's got a silent G in there. Looks like Pascagoula to me. But I don't know if, if Handel was ever in Pascagoula. But I, you know, I decided to look it up. Pass. Pasicalia. Pasicalia. I decided to look that up and I, I learned something. Would you like to know what I learned before he plays it? Like a little music history class. Here it it in Spanish, it would be pasa calle. Pasa calle. The calle is the what? The road. And pass, as in kind of going, going to and fro on the road. Sort of a, I guess a rough translation here. I, I, I thought about saying Street Walker, but this is, but it's sort of that, you know, it's a little parade here and there we go on the road. The passecaye. And so then I, then, then I, I, I was like, well, why would you call a song a pass? What I found out is there's not just one passicalia to use the Italian. Lots of people write passicalias. It's a type of song. Did you know this? Okay, good. It's a type of song. It's a type of song that has, with the left hand, an ostenate. You know what that means, don't you? Of course. Yes. Well, I found out it's close to our word. Obstinate, stubborn. It has a stubborn left hand. That's the calle. But it has a loose right hand. That's the passe. The right hand plays the same thing stubbornly. And the right hand. Did I get those hands mixed up? This is the left hand. Yeah, there we go. This hand plays the stubborn notes. Same thing. This hand goes dancing around the streets and changes it up. That's a passicalia. It's baroque music. In case you were wondering. Is yours going to be baroque? Now that I have said it, I've said I set you up for Wednesday, and I've set you up for now. Actually, I did this research without him. So I came and said, tell me what you do on the left hand. And he said something like, you play the same thing. And I said, and the right hand is more like free flowing. He said, yeah. I said, oh, cool. Of Course. So pasicallia. So whether you play it Pascagoula style or Pasicallia style, whatever. Luke is going to play our, our offertory today. If you'd like to put in the offertory, in the offering plate during the offertory, there's a box back there. Or you can do that anytime. Luca, thank you. Very good, Luca. Thank you. I, you know, I was. I was just sitting there thinking. I. I feel like I taught him how to play that, so. Because I sent him the video, said you should learn how to play that song. So in a way, I taught you. He's not even smiling back. And now that I know what a passicalia is, it just changes the whole. Like I see this stubborn person and this street walker and they're sort of arguing against each other. I kind of see like a Baptist and an assembly of God out here going, going at it, and together it makes beautiful music. Thanks for the, for the passicalia. And now we go to Ecclesiastes, the third chapter. And we started what, two weeks ago? I believe it was two, three weeks ago. This series on. On Solomon and Ecclesiastes. And though it's Mother's Day, I'm not necessarily going to give a Mother's Day sermon. In some ways, it. Depending on who your mother is, it will be mother approved or mother disdained. I am not sure if your mother is the Austinite one or if she is the free floating one. There is some interesting stuff in this passage. As Solomon comes. And I want to, as we do around here, I want to question the assumptions just a little bit. We're going to look at Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. And the, the. The typical understanding of the book of Ecclesiastes as I've been studying it here now these couple of weeks, I'm going to say maybe we've got this wrong. Something to me has always seemed amiss about Solomon and his writings. How many books of the Bible did Solomon write, by the way? A little quiz. We got three. We got three. We got 3. We got 3. Anyone want to go for 4? You'd be wrong. There are 3. Yes. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. We call them wisdom literature. It's not the extent of the wisdom literature, but nonetheless, wisdom literature. And I have been doing, as you know, many of you know, a Thursday night online study on the book of Proverbs, saying something. We got this wrong somewhere because we almost always have to apologize for the book of Proverbs. You Know, it's a proverb, not a promise. Well, so is a fortune cookie, you know, so surely we got to have something better than that in the word of God. I think I found out the secret there. But then I began to say, okay, Ecclesiastes 2. That seems a little suspicious. Ecclesiastes is always presented to us as this book in which a guy was despondent and sort of trying to find some meaning in life. And he tried wine, women, labor, song, you know, everything that he could come up with to try to find some hope, some purpose, some meaning of life. And yet through most of it, he just says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. That's a happy Mother's Day sermon there for you, isn't it? Well, then I began to think, you know, Solomon. The way we look at Solomon in our. In our preaching is a little bit negative like that with. Well, what's the. What's the biggest thing you know about Solomon? Well, you all. You all are answering like people who read the Bible, wives, thank you. You've got 700 wives. Well, that sounds a little suspicious right from the beginning. What's up with this guy? He clearly couldn't find any balance in life. He was going all over the place. And we sort of get this view of Solomon. And then we. We read that view on top of Ecclesiastes, which again, is always presented of this guy in despondency who's looking, hoping, grasping for anything out there to find some meaning in life. But it's vanity. It's vanity. Everything is vanity. But when you study Solomon, someday we'll do a full study of Solomon. We haven't yet, but we did his dad, didn't we? But someday we'll do a full study of Solomon. I think what we see of Solomon is he's presented as a godly man in the scripture, a godly man who wrote three books of the Bible, after all. And he's presented as a guy. But one of the first glimpses we see of him is as he's king. Anyway, one of the first glimpses we see is here is a guy who God comes and offers anything and he says, help me to make wise decisions as the king, give me wisdom. And God blesses him with wisdom beyond compare. And that, I think, as we follow along, that's the biblical picture of Solomon is someone who wants to honor God, wants to fulfill his Torah obligations as someone living under the law and the dispensation of the law. He wants to fulfill his covenant Torah obligations, and he wants to communicate that to others. Now how do you take a positive view of Saul, Solomon, my, all, my S in the Bible, if it starts with S, it's all the same guy, right? How do you take a positive view of Solomon and read Ecclesiastes 2 verse verses 1 through 11 and put this together where it doesn't sound like Solomon, hey, he's just kind of messed up as we go here. Now I want. But even before we look at these verses, I want to start in verse three where it says kind of after the first little phrase in verse three, notice it says, yet acquainting my heart with what? Wisdom. Okay, acquainting my heart with wisdom. Now we'll get into the details here in just a moment, but the yet there but is a, a disclaimer. Perhaps you could say it is. Hey, here's some information you need to know. I'm doing this while my heart is acquainted with wisdom, it knows wisdom. Now jump down to verse nine in this passage. Last phrase of verse nine also says, also my wisdom, what remained with me. Okay. Acquainting my heart with wisdom at the beginning, my wisdom remained with me kind of bookends on this passage. I'm going to use those, those two wisdom phrases as the interpretive key to understanding what's going on here. Because he is going to try out some things in here. Wine, women and songs, so to speak. He's going to check it out and see. But I'm going to go from the point of view that he is looking at this and trying to determine where can I enjoy the things of life and not go beyond the bounds of wisdom. And I think this brings a fresh perspective on Ecclesiastes chapter 2:1 through 11 and probably other passages as we get, get as we get to them as well, that he is not actually going to say all of these things are just vanity, worthless, worthless, nothing there. He's actually going to say, hey, there is some value here. It's not long term value, but how many of you are okay with some short term value every now and then? Yeah, there's some short term value here. You can get that short term value. If you think this is the, the all in all, the end, all the everything right here, you're going to be disappointed with it. It's not there. So he wants to try to tell us how we can wisely enjoy the blessings of life. Now I don't know that I'm supposed to give advertising here, but since we have a new harbor freight in town, you know, I do Go down to Harbor Freight every now and then. I think it's like more fun than the grocery store. And so as I go to Harbor Freight, sometimes I see that little tool over there and I'm like, whoa, that's cheap. And then something will say, yeah, it'll probably last four times. And then I'm like, I'm only going to use it twice anyway, so it doesn't matter. Okay. You're a tool guy, right? Yeah. You don't buy at Harbor Freight. Probably depends if you're going to leave it at the job site and throw it away. Okay. Yeah. It's like, if you want. If you want the sheer joy of cutting a board three times, go do it. Right. Yeah. You don't need the. What? Makita dewalt. Thank you. I. Thank you. I see. I never got up to that level there, but Rich comes through every now and then. He. He brings the dewalt. Okay. So I don't know that this is the right way to put this, but I'll put it in this. This style. He's about to tell us that there are some things in this world that are Harbor Freight kind of stuff. They will be a blessing for you for a short time. It's not going to change your life. It's not going to be the thing that you're going to bank on now and forevermore. But there's some blessing to it, and I think that's the way we need to read it. Knowing that he never leaves his wisdom in this chapter. He. He has his wisdom. He holds on to his wisdom. He. And he takes it. Now, I did mention last week, and I want to mention again and perhaps all the way through here, that I think that in all of Solomon's writings, wisdom is the same thing as Torah, if you will. Torah is the expressed or the. The verbalized wisdom. Wisdom perhaps goes broader than that. But Torah, for Solomon, living, of course, in the Old Testament days under the covenant, as one of the covenant people and indeed as the covenant king, when he talks about wisdom, he's saying Torah. So when he says in verse nine, wisdom remained with me. I think what he's saying is I haven't broken any Torah laws. I am perfectly within the domain of what Torah will allow you to do. Then I think just briefly about Jesus. You remember, with Jesus, whom we are told lived righteous under the law, and yet they came to Jesus and you know, well, why do your disciples not fast like the others? Fast? And Jesus is like, there's a time for fasting. If I Can borrow from Ecclesiastes 3. There's a time for this, there's a time for that, There's a time for, you know, when I'm gone, they'll fast then. Why should they fast now? This is not the time for fasting. And there, there can be a little Austenite note in us that says, you know, no, I'm narrowing down the world to this. This is all I do. I think in the Pasicalia Solomon is playing the right hand a little bit. He's like, I'm going to dance around the street here a little bit and see, I don't want to, I don't want to get into the traffic. I don't want to get run over here. I want to be wise. But what can I find out? Okay, that's my, my ground rules for reading this passage here. Now with that, let's start. We'll just work our way. As he begins this, this, this, this test here. He said, I said in mine heart. Well, should I stop right there? Didn't get very far, did I? I said in mine heart. Heart throughout the Old Testament is very deep seated, as you can imagine. It contains the, the whole is coming and saying, I am about ready to go on a deliberate inward examination. And we see. I won't go through the passages, but we could look for example at Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, which is the Noah story. And it talks about they were, they were wicked in their heart. But we could talk about 1st Samuel 24, verse 5, where man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. So this is a, this is a deep seated kind of thing that he is beginning to do. And, and the heart really is not just what you feel in the Old Testament, the heart is the center of your rational being, if you will. So if you can take that to its deepest level. I said, you know, deep down in my rational and moral center, my heart. I said in my heart. Back to verse one. Go to now. I will prove thee. Prove my heart. Prove my rational and moral center. Now prove. Don't take it in the sense of I'll show you. Don't take it in the sense of I will, I, I will give supporting evidence. Take prove here in the sense that it's often used through the Old Testament. And that is the sense of testing something, trying something. And so here I'm going to put this to the, to, to the, to the test. Like Genesis 22:1. I believe God says to Abraham, do not test the Lord thy God. Prove. So here it is deep down in the moral center of the man. He says, I said to my heart, go to now I will prove or test thee with mirth. Okay, here's, here's the first test. It's going to be, let's, let's call it joy, the pleasure. I will test thee with mirth. Therefore, now enjoy pleasure. And behold, this also is vanity. Now, mirth and pleasure. I don't know that we should have a testimony time. Did anyone have a mother who did not allow mirth or pleasure? No, don't, don't raise your hand. This is mother's day. But there are some in life who kind of, for whatever reason think pleasure has to be done away with mirth, no joy in life. There are other mothers, you know, who wake up and the sun is shining and they're bright eyed and bushy tailed and, and you wish they would be a little more somber at the moment. But he, he really comes and says, what can I get out of mirth? What can I get out of pleasure? What, what kind of joy can there be in life? You know, there is, I think a, A, a misunderstanding both of Torah and of the Christian life today. Anything religious that it's got to be real joyless, it's got to be somber. You got to wear a tie, right? It can't have any joy in it, any pleasure in it. And so he, he tests, he doesn't say much here. He's going to add to it a little bit in verse two in just a second. He doesn't say much here about mirth and pleasure, but he does say, behold, this also is vanity. Now there's the word vanity that we've had, of course, a number of times that has already come up. And we have to remember it does not here mean worthless. What it means is fleeting. Poof. Here it's gone. We've experienced that with joy before, haven't we? With mirth and with pleasure. It's the way it is. It's. Boy, there's a happy moment. I think what he's saying is, I tested, I, I put to the test mirth and pleasure. And what I found out is you can have some. The Torah does not prohibit it. Within wisdom you can be within mirth and pleasure. It's going to go away, you know. Don't worry. This too shall pass. You're not going to be on, on top of the giggly world forever. But sometimes this can really add a lot to life going on. In verse two he says, I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what Doeth it. Now here, this is part of the test. He is proving something, you know, what a, you know, the scientific method. He's going on the scientific method here. And the scientific method makes a hypothesis. Okay. Laughter. It is mad. That is crazy. Well, let's put this to test and see. By the way, what does the Bible say? Did Solomon write this? Laughter is good. Thank you. Laughter is good medicine. Okay. But for the most part, how often do you have to take your medicine? Okay, three times a day, Whatever, it's good medicine, but it's gone, you know, goes right through you. You're done with that. So this is what he's saying here, of, of mirth, of pleasure, that it is, it is lawful, it is, it is to be expected, but it is short lived, good, but of limited value. Now, do you think that you should not have in your life something that only has limited value? No. We have. Most things we have in our life are limited value. Right. Remember, one of the perspectives that we're taking on on Ecclesiastes is that we know that the Jewish people read it at the time of Sukkot, feast of Tabernacles. They, every year, every Jew, when they set up across the street at the Chabad house, when they set up their sukkah, it's called their booth, their tabernacle. When they set that up, they will go in there one, one day of the, of the feast of Tabernacles and they will read the book of Ecclesiastes. That's what every Jew does. Why the book of Ecclesiastes? I think because the book of Ecclesiastes is about temporary things. Here are temporary things. They go into the tabernacle and they are reminded. There's a lot of temporary things in life. As a matter of fact, the feast of Tabernacles is. See if I have the Hebrew word here. No, I don't. There, there's a, there's a Hebrew phrase that is still used today among Jews that calls the feast of Tabernacles. Basically, I'll use the term the festival of joy. It is a joyous time. Okay, so here we come. Put up the little suka. Remember what a suka is a booth. Thank you. It's what you use it. Sukkot. Put up your sukkah and go out there and enjoy and celebrate. You know, we, we can't always put it together in our Gentile way of thinking, but the feast of Tabernacles is a tremendous. It is considered the happiest of all feasts. Feasts and really, you do. You go out there every night, you get. You get off work early and you go out to the suka and you have a fantastic meal and you have music and you have celebration and you have dancing and it's fun. And then in the morning, you go back to work, okay, it's temporary. And you're sort of reminded this is temporary. So I think maybe what he's saying here at first is, why don't you all put a little bit of joy in your life, right? Have some fun, have some mirth, have some pleasure, have some laughter. This is a good thing. It's good medicine, as the scripture says. And. And as a matter of fact, we are told, in fact, the. The Old Testament, even, I think, much more than the New Testament. But we are told over and over things like, serve the Lord with gladness, come unto the Lord with thanksgiving, let there be a new song. Is all this stuff just. I. Someday we'll have to pull it all together and put. How many times are the Jewish people told to smile and be happy and have fun with this? You're serving the Lord. So he comes and he says, okay, I put these things to test. Yeah, they're here for a moment, gone the next, you're going to get a bad news call. One of these days you're going to have a bad day. Some you're going to stub your toe, you know, somewhere along the way. But mirth, pleasure, happiness, laughter, these are good things. Then we go on and pick up in verse three, and he says, again, I sought in mine heart. Same thing. I'm going to go deep down to the moral center. I sought in my heart to give myself unto. Oh, this is a Baptist church, ladies and gentlemen. To give myself unto wine. No, let me. Let me stop right there for just a moment. I started going to Israel 20, 20 years ago, maybe a little longer. And I've probably been 30 times since then. And I've gotten to know a lot of Jewish people, and I've been around a lot of Jewish celebrations or a lot of Jewish observances, you know, their Sabbath dinners, their passovers, their. Their Sukkah, you know, all these kind of things that I've been blessed to be able to do. And one of the things that I discovered that they can't figure out about me, these are observant Jews. They're not Messianic or Christian Jews. They're. They're Jews. But they know I love them. And I love Israel and I love the Torah and I love the Word and, and, and so they're trying to figure out. I'm so confused. They're trying to figure out all this kind of stuff, but one of the biggest things they can't figure out is how come you don't drink wine? And the only answer I can give is, I grew up Baptist. That's why I just, I grew up Baptist. I don't, and honestly, I, I don't drink wine. I, I, today I'm almost 60, and I know that everything that I drink, I drink way too much of. And I think it might not be good for me to get started in wine. Plus, I'm a cheapskate. And I see your bills at the restaurant compared to mine, and I'm like. But I will say that for the Jewish people, wine is, I will say, a religious experience for them, I would venture to say it's virtually impossible to carry out their Judaism as they see it anyway, without wine, this just does not go together. They don't compute. How can you even worship without wine? And I don't understand them. They don't understand me. But I do understand there is a very deep seated, I would say, down to the center of their moral being, connection of wine and worship. These two things very much go together. And, and so he, he comes, he says, again, I sought in my heart to give myself to wine. Actually, let's, let's look up a scripture. Deuteronomy 14:26. Let's, let's go. In fact, I tell you what, I'm even going to put it up on the screen just in case somebody thinks, no, that's not right. See how I do this here? I didn't set up. There we go. Always have a hard time spelling Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 14:6 is not what I want. 14:26. You all just stay here. There we go. It's talking about some sacrifices they're bringing, says, thou shalt bestow that money. This is the money they're bringing to the Lord. For whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. Now, for lack of a better term, let me say that the money here is the tithes and offerings that they're supposed to bring. There's a little, there's a footnote here, but we don't have time for it. And, but anyway, it says, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. Now that you get there, what do you do with it? Thou shalt bestow that money. For whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, for sheep, or for wine, for strong drink, for whatsoever thy soul Desireth and thou shalt eat therefore before the Lord thy God. And he says, there we go. Thou shalt rejoice. And thine household. That's, that's kind of weird for a Baptist preacher. Let's take the tithes and offerings and go buy some wine and have a nice supper and rejoice before God. But that's exactly what he, what he tells them. And so Solomon comes here in verse three again, I gave myself to wine. Notice, he does say, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom. By the way, I have noticed among the Jewish people very seldom if ever is there any kind of drunkenness or abuse with wine. It is a holy thing. It is used for joy, for celebration, for worship. They carry it out. And so acquainting my heart with wisdom again, I think I, I went to wine, I checked Torah. That's what he's saying, I check Torah. Make sure I'm not doing this too far. Now. Now the Hebrew scriptures does have some things about wine, including, you know, this passage here or Psalm 104, verse 15 is a, is a celebration of wine and worship. And then there's some warnings to, you know, wine is a mocker, and strong drink something. And there's some warnings for the king and strong, strong drink here. But he comes, he takes it. So acquainting my heart with wisdom, middle of verse three. And to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men. Now he puts two things together, wine and folly. I'm testing this out. Now, folly. Don't, don't. And it's not translated as foolishness, so don't see it as foolishness. But it's simple, simple minded not to overthink everything, you know. I don't have a problem with overthinking things. Well, he comes and he says, he's a wise guy, he's a well read guy, he's a well traveled guy. He says, you know what? I want to add a little wine and simple thinking to my life. Now I think that a lot of us probably wouldn't hurt just to say, hey, let's just step back and take a deep breath on this, test out folly. You can live as a simpleton, which is looked at as a bad thing, but this is, this is not going to that degree, this word folly here. And he goes on to say, to lay hold of folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men. That is, I take wine, I take simple living, I take the Torah. I see. Where can you go with these, that is actually good for the sons of men. I can put this in my life and I can use it in a way like mirth, like pleasure. That is a blessing to me, and it's a blessing to others around. And so he goes on again in verse, verse three, that which was good for the sons of men, which they should do under heaven all the days of their life, okay? And in fact, I think he might even realize not everybody gets the benefits of being a king, right? And there is some, there is some joy, actually, I think, in saying, you know what? Here's a guy over here who, he works, he puts food on the table. He goes home and he has a nice meal. He has chocolate cake. Afterwards, he has a glass of wine, and he sits on the back porch and drinks iced tea the rest of the evening and has a simple, wonderful life. Is that outside of wisdom? No, it's not, actually. And he, he's celebrating these things. Now, let's go on in verse four. And he says, I made me great works. Here he's talking about his own labor. I made me great works. I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens and orchards. I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth the trees. So he goes through, in some of these, four through six, about these things that he's done with his labor. There's a sort of repetitive, what do you call it, refrain in there. I made me. I made me. I made me. That is, I got up and went to work. I did something, I made something that did not previously exist. I, I, I put it together. You know, it almost. He's, again, he's proving, he's testing. I think what he's saying is a little bit of mirth, a little bit of pleasure, a little bit of wine, a little bit of simple living, a little bit of go create something that wasn't there before. Go build something, go make something. I'm testing all of these out is what he's doing. And wouldn't you all agree with me, you know, kind of as we've been working on the kitchen back here for two years and it comes along and, you know, Rich comes in and does something for us, and then we go for three or four months until he comes back, but we see the work being done and we say, ah, that's nice. That's a bonus. That's an addition. I like the, I like that. Adds something to my life. You know, the kitchen was just as much of a kitchen when it had the World War II cabinets in there, didn't it, as it does now? But hey, this one is pleasing to the eye. So here he comes. You know, I made a pool. I made a garden. I made the thing look nice. And he's putting all this. And he's. He's testing it. He's saying, what's there. Okay, let's go on. In verse seven, where he says, I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house. I also had great, great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me. Now, let me stop right here. We don't live in a world of servants, you know, like, what, Downton Abbey or something, you know, where they ring the bell and the servants come running. That's not our world that we live in today. But I would suspect that that wasn't most people's world in which Solomon lived. But it would have been a. The servant idea here. Solomon wasn't. He didn't have slaves of his own people or any of that. Most he probably ever had was maybe a prisoner of war. And that's not what he's talking about here. What he's talking about here is, hey, I hired some people. I gave them a job. I put some things out. I made a. Made a. Made a blessing not only for me, but also for them. And this is obviously what a king is supposed to do. But, you know, I had great possessions of great and small cattle. I had more than anybody. He says I was rich with a capital R. Rich. And he was. Was it. Last week we talked about King Solomon's tomb and all the things that they buried him with and whatnot. But he was rich. You know, we should not look at this as bad. And sometimes we read the book of Ecclesiastes with this bad thing. Oh, all he cared about was his money, money, money. No wonder he was despondent. Now, wait a minute. Do you know? I could only find two examples. Maybe I missed some. I could only find two examples of the Bible calling someone filthy rich. We'll go with filthy rich, okay? I mean, they were twice other than this, where the Bible says they are the richest person there is. One was Abraham and the other was Job. And then Solomon comes in and he says, I had more than anybody. Now, we got a little bit, not much, but a little bit of a pattern here. Abraham was a friend of God, right? God liked Abraham. And Abraham had more than all those in his country. The scripture says Job, he was Righteous, the Bible tells us so. And from God's point of view, he was righteous. And Job had more than all the. All the people in the east, it said. All the men in the east, both of them very wealthy. And we look at that and say, oh, this is just a blessing of God upon them. And that's what Torah and the covenant. We're not, we're not under this. So I don't want you to put yourself under it and think it'll come your way. But under Torah in the covenant, if you lived right, you became successful and rich if you lived according to the Torah. That's what God. God told Joshua, you know, be careful to do all that is in it, and then you will have prosperity and success, he said. Joshua 1:9. I believe that is so. What we ought to do is read this the same way we would read it for Abraham and the same way we would read it for Job, is that God's favor really was upon him as he becomes rich. Now verse eight, he says, I gathered also. I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure, treasure of kings and provinces. I get me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments that of all sorts. Now what he's saying is I, I made a garden. I made a beautiful palace. I had servants to come in and put a nice roast beast on my table and a glass of wine and I celebrated and I, I enjoyed. And then I called in the ukulele players and the Pascagoula Players and all, you know, I tried to make my world beautiful is what he said. I think there's something to this that you and I really ought to say. You know what, the people who tried to sell us, I'll use the fancy word, asceticism. They didn't get that from the Bible. They got that from the Catholics. Asceticism is sort of the, you know, I'm, you know, woe is me. I need to get rid of everything in my life. I need to go and live in a cave as a mystic in order to finally find the meaning in life. I need to live in a hovel. And, you know, all that is, is the, the. The renouncing of every pleasure in the world, the renouncing of anything comfortable you remember. In fact, I think when we did. It's been a year or two years ago maybe now, the Kingdoms of the Cross series. I remember when I talked about King Louis the. The ninth. I think he was the one that. St. Louis and all that is the saint that, that Louis, he would wear what they called a hair shirt. A hair shirt. It was an animal that had rough, uncomfortable hair. Take that, make a shirt out of it and wear the hair on the skin so that it bothered you all day, because this makes you more holy. Yeah, I ain't wearing no hair shirt, I can tell you that. Forget that. But there is a line of thinking out there that says you need pain, you need agony. If it's not simple, it's not godly. You know, even that's the Catholics. You could take the Shakers. Remember the shakers. Tis a gift to be simple. Tis a gift to be free. What they mean is, tis a gift not to have anything and just beg from other people at the community table. And you don't have a spouse, you don't have a family, you don't have a job. You know, you're just. Are you just slave for the community all day and somehow this is supposed to be godly? I think Solomon is coming in and he's saying, this is not the Torah way again. I realize we're into the New Testament and there's more to it, but you and I should not see asceticism as the Torah way. What he says is, hey, let's make it nice, let's make it beautiful, let's make it taste good, and let's have some music. And so he goes with it. He calls in the. The musicians. And then we pick up in verse nine. So I was great. There we go. And increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. There we. There again there's the celebration of the riches that he had. Sounds so much like the same description of Job. But anyway, I was great. Increase more than all in Jerusalem. And then that verse, we already looked at those words we already looked at also, my wisdom remained with me. You know, if you want some homework and you just say that sermon so excited me about the book of Ecclesiastes. I want to study more. Here's your homework. Go listen to a sermon on Ecclesiastes 2:1 11 and see if they mention my wisdom stayed with me. I predict he doesn't mention gambling here, so I won't put my money on it, but I would predict that the sermons you're going to get is Solomon thought he could find some hope in a little bit of wine on the table and a musician out there in a pretty garden. How foolish of him. And they're going to miss the fact that twice he said, I kept my wisdom, I stayed within the Torah Boundaries. I understood the value these things have, that they're a temporary shelter that we live in. And then, you know, tomorrow we got to get up and we got to go to work. And that's. It's. It's not a permanent reality, but it is something that can provide some joy. So going on in verse 10, he says, Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. That again, the way we read that, that sounds like a horrid thing, doesn't it? But he just said, my wisdom remained with me. Okay, so he's got the. His wisdom as the. As his guide. And then whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. Yesterday, Luke and I were in the grocery store, and we were walking down the aisle where they put all the sweets, and he was behind me, and I was in front of him. And he literally said, quit looking at that. I'm going to memorize this verse. Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. Notice again, this is my heart, my moral center, my soul, my being. I found the joy. I withheld not my heart from any joy. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor. And this was the portion of my labor. And then that's. That's a celebration. Hey, this is paid off. This is good. I can enjoy verse 11. Then I looked on all the works of my hands that I that had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Now again, if you're not careful and don't take the. The full scope of that passage, verse 11 looks like it's worthless. It is just all worthless. In which case, you know, you almost kind of want to close that up and say, I need a counselor. What in the world am I going to do? All the. Everything I ever loved in life is just vanity and vexation of spirit. But I think what he's Saying in verse 11 is what we need to hear. That is not the final answer to life. There is more he hasn't gotten completely to. What is more other than his. His use of wisdom that we equate with Torah. And he's certainly going to get it later. You know, remember the Lord in the days of thy youth. Some of the things that he's going to say in the book of Ecclesiastes that he's going to bring about. And I think what he is going to say is he's speaking from a Jewish perspective, but he's going to say, you know what? Life under the covenant really is a blessing. Life under the covenant offers you so much joy and pleasure and we need to get the, the, the, the, the idea out of our mind that in order to be a good Christian, we're just going to have to look like we just came out of the pickle factory, you know, and, and be, be somber and, and you know, have nothing but a Gregorian chant. If you like a Gregorian chant, go for it. But we need, we need, we need not only the, what was the thing with the left hand osta us that thing, but we need a lady fluttering around over here to have both of that in our life and bring that as a, as a blessing in our life. Realizing that, hey, one kind of keeps us grounded, the wisdom, the word. And another says, hey, God has given us, remember this, it is the scripture. God has given us richly all good things to enjoy. So enjoy them. And don't think, man, I got it right here. Got wine, women, song right here. Everything's good. No, there's, there's some good to that. We, you know, we're celebrating Mother's Day. I know I'll get some emails from mothers saying you weren't anti alcohol enough. And others will be saying, finally he's seen the light. I don't know, but I think I gotta quit. I think I, I come more from a Billy Sunday kind of environment. You know, you all know this name, Billy Sunday. He was an evangelist back in the 20s. But you know, every, I haven't heard many because there's not many left. But every Billy Sunday sermon I've read or heard, he was talking about the devil's Kool Aid. That devil's Kool Aid going to take you to hell. And it just sort of puts this, this fear of God into you that, you know, I better walk straight laced on the straight and narrow. And I think what Solomon is saying is, hey, loosen up a little bit, there's some good things in life. Go ahead and play the music and eat the nice meal and enjoy the things around you and you know, clean up the garden and make it pretty and put you a chair out there and take the hair shirt off and be good and enjoy and life will be a blessing. Amen. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I do pray that I have understood this chapter, this the segment in the book of Ecclesiastes. Well, and seeing the person of Solomon that we find in the scripture, that seems to be someone who is honored and honorable and gives to us, these words that they're very well here could be. And looks like to me there is this message of enjoying the enjoyable things of life and finding that yeah, they certainly are a puff in the wind and here a moment and gone another. But they are also thrills and joys and mirth and pleasure that you have given to us to enjoy as children of God here walking on this earth that we're so blessed abundantly by. We rejoice in it. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, thanks for being here with us today and worshiping with us again. Shelly and I are going to head to Texas and we'll be back on Saturday and here to preach on Sunday. Give Luca the biggest hard time you can on Wednesday night. Make it as hard for him as possible. And we want those scowls that I was preaching about this morning. All that. Luca, you'll do well and we appreciate you and God bless. We'll see you all soon. Say that every day. Sa. Thank you. It. Yes, it. And still enjoy all these things. Thank you. How's. How's it all going? But he does read music and he said something that wasn't true. He said he just listens to it like. Well, that's what he said. Put. Put a hymnal down and ask her to play it. I can read Greek. Yeah. I don't remember his other Josiah. No, I don't. Italian. Those. Yeah. What you call that like the full handle? Was I. It was like hours goes a long time. Yeah. They did a great time on others or did parts. This a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not quick. What time are you standing right there. Yeah, I know. Well, only because we're already from here. It doesn't. In fact, I. I always try to get them to leave from here and they're like, tomorrow they're supposed to start The Angel Bar 64. What are they doing this time? Is it this side? I don't really know. Yeah, I'm not sure. I think they add a little every summer and then band aid it for the winter. And then they come bag and take a bandaid off and. Well, this side could certainly use some work if they do. Yeah, this one is pretty hot. Have you been in any of the new hat stores here in Him? I have not. I have any. I just like them. So I guess they're. It's the. Thank you. Sorry we're not going lunch today. Hi, babies. Sorry we're not going to lunch. Well, if you might want to go. It was. Was excellent. Yeah. I thought of everything then. Yeah, we know that's a lie. It's okay. You're titled to one. One a year. That's your than there. Thanks, everybody. Happy Mother's Day.