Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Glad to see all of you here today. Welcome on a beautiful Sunday morning. It's cloudy, but that's okay. We'll take it. Because we'll. We want rain, right? We'll take rain, we'll take snow, we'll take whatever it, uh, comes out of the sky. But, uh, anyway, glad, uh, everybody is here today. Uh, and, uh, y'all know that old time religion, don't you? Good, because it's not an hymnal, and y'all look like old timers, so I bet you know it. Isaiah, come on up and do the work. Are you guys ready to sing Old Time Religion? Yeah, we are. We are. And you may stand. Choir, come up. And Steve, he sang in the choir before, and we're glad Steve's back. And Old Time Religion. I tell you what, when we get to the. To the change words part, you follow me and we'll go for it. Luca, you play the piano. Give me that old time religion Give me that old time religion Give me that old time religion it's good enough for me it was good for Paul and Silas it was good for Paul and Silas Good for Paul and Silas is good enough for me so give me that old time religion Give me that old time religion Old time religion is good enough for me it was good for my dear mother it was good for my dear mother Good for my dear mother it's good enough for me it was good for my father it was good for my father it's good for my father it's good enough for me so give me that old time religion Old time religion Give me that old time religion it's good enough for me There we go. You may be seated, ladies and gentlemen, and let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for that old time religion that we just come into the word of God and we celebrate the word of God and the grace that is ours and taught even by Paul and Silas back in that Philippian jail. Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. We're grateful for mothers and fathers, grandparents, neighbors down through the years that shared that with us. And grateful that we're able to come today and celebrate that old time religion. In Jesus name, amen and welcome today. Glad you are here as we do have, of course, a good time to gather together and to. To celebrate and sing a little bit and have some fun and got some announcements there. Wednesday night is sloppy Joe night for supper and we would love to have you join us. I tell you what, we'll bring, we'll bring the sloppy and the buns and you want anything else, bring it along and we'll have a good meal Wednesday night. And we've been talking, we started last week a new series called Faithful Footnotes. It's these little lesser known figures in the New Testament. And we are going to learn about John Mark, who many of us call Mark in the New Testament. Let's see if we can find out a little bit about him and that'll be fun. So 5:00 for supper, 6:00 for Bible study. I'll be good. You see our men's breakfast and youth group there. But what you need to not forget is next Sunday right here. I even put a, a flyer in the bulletin for you and that is we're having a Mother's Day breakfast. The men are cooking for the ladies. And this is a family wide thing. Okay. You don't have to be a mother. You don't have. You the only thing you have to have a mother or have had a mother. Okay? If you didn't ever have a mother then, then don't come. But, but anyone that has or has had a mother, next Sunday we'll have a nice breakfast. We're joining together with Taos Valley Baptist Church. It's going to be, it is going to be at 9 o'clock because they've got, they'll be going to their church which starts at 10:30, so they got to eat and drive back over there. And then we're going to eat and fellowship here and start with our service will be normal at 10:45 next Sunday. But we're going to have a good breakfast. We'll have, you know, eggs and pancakes and fruit and what'd you call that? Zhang Frittata. We'll see. And sweet roll. You know, it'll be a nice breakfast. So next Sunday morning we would like to kind of know you're coming. There's a sign up sheet on the back table back there and you can put your name, how many people there are. If you, if you have children this week, you know, you have a couple new babies or something you weren't expecting and you bring them, that's fine. Also we'll take whoever, whatever. All that'll be fun and nice, nice time to fellowship, meet some other believers in town and encourage them and they encourage us and have a good time on the Mother's Day breakfast. So stick that on your refrigerator so you don't forget there and come next Sunday and you don't need to bring Anything. The men. The men got it covered. Yeah. And we're. We thought about Wheaties, you know, little frosted Flakes. But we're going to up our game, actually. We have a nice men's breakfast every Thursday morning. So we're practiced on how to. We'll even do hash browns. How's that? And it'll be a nice breakfast next Sunday morning. Okay. And glad to have each one of you here today. Some of you have met Brianna and some of you haven't. She's in the back. Wave Brianna. And Brianna's doing our kids club here for church. The boys are so happy. They. They don't. They don't have to do the. The pastor's coloring sheet this week. They get to go have Brianna teach them from the Word. What are y'all studying this week? We're gonna do some, like, basic overview of stuff on Wednesdays. I was working with them on, like, the. The miracles of Christ and that kind of stuff. Excellent. I like it. Thank you for doing that. And now let's. Let's see. We're glad to have guests always worshiping with us. And we have a little coaster here as a gift for coming to be a part of our church. And it has a picture of our church and it says, america's greatest tiny church, because that's what we are. We voted and we became America's greatest tiny church. And it will remind you of your visit to Taos First Baptist Church. And you can pray for us when, when you see that. And. But the one thing you have to do is stand and introduce yourself and tell us what brought you here to America's greatest tiny church this morning. And we'll go. I mean, any guests that sit in the front row are not scared to introduce themselves. Plus you've been here before. But stand and introduce yourselves and tell us why in the world would you come to Taos? Well, this is my wife Cynthia. I'm Crawford, and we are from college, Texas Way on the far east side of Texas. We've been here a while back. It's been four years, maybe five years that we visited. And we came to Taos because our brother, my brother and sister in law are visiting here also. But we enjoy coming to Tyler, to Taos rather. And it's a lovely community and it's cool weather. Amen. We're glad to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we are glad you're here. Steve and Sharon, we're glad you all are back. We don't even count you as guests. So so you don't get a coaster. I don't know. We might give you a coaster. Oh, you have a coaster. Okay. Yeah. Good. You stole one. Okay, that's good. Yeah, that's the problem here. They steal the. They steal the mugs, the glasses, everything we got, you know, says to house first. Bad. Oh, nice towels in there, too. Yeah, yeah. By the way, for those of you who don't know, we have this guest house right here that they're all staying in. So, you know, next time you come to Taos, call us ahead of time and it'll save you, you know, $500 for a hotel room or whatever they cost in Taos these days. But glad, glad you all are here and brought your brother, sister in law to join us again. Thanks. Now, all the way from Anchorage, Alaska, let's go over here. I'm Carrie Kosoboom. This is my wife Allison. This is our first time to Taos and we're just here for a day. We're going to go to Santa Fe this afternoon and do a couple hiking trails here. But we've been retired. We're retired and we're living the dream. We just come down every spring and fall, do a th. Do a, you know, a monthlong road trip and just happen to come through Taos this time. Amen. Heading to Austin, Texas, where my son lives, and he's going to make me grandpa for the first time. Excellent. Excellent. You'll be coming twice a year now. Carrie and Allison from Anchorage, you're glad. Glad that you are here. Yeah, yeah. It is definitely world class skiing. So come break a leg sometime. And we've got good orthopedic surgeons here in town also. But we're glad. Glad trying to. I warned y'all when you sat on the front row, didn't I? Yeah. Although I told them they're in the splash zone. I didn't. I didn't warn you about the sticks. Glad, glad you all are here. I think the rest of us are home folk and glad you're here. Let's see, I have also back there a pen and we've got some Alaska pens in there, but we need to add some to it. So we'll stick one in and in Anchorage and some more in. Tyler, that Matt back there sort of reminds us and encourages us of our guests and guests online. We're glad you're here as well. Thanks for joining us. Why don't you all stand up, shake someone's hand, greet them. Today I'm going to pass out a few of These coasters. And we'll come sing Amazing Grace here in just a little. It sa. Okay, now we're gonna sing Amazing Grace 104. And you may stand. How many verses? We'll go for it. Like me I once was lost but now am found what light O now I see Twas grace that O my heart to fear and grace my fears release how precious did that grace through many dangers to grace and crown Be safe as far and grace will lead me home when We've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first first be good. Now you're going to turn your hymnals to 544. Have thine only I could get them. 1, 2 and 4. Have thine own way O Lord, have thine own way Thou art the water, I am the clay Mold me and make me after thy will While I am waiting, kneeling and still have thine own way, Lord have thine own way Search me and try me, master today winer than snow Lord, watch me just now as in thy presence humbly I bow have thine own way, Lord have thine own way hold o'er my being absolutely filled with thy spirit till all shall see Christ only always living in me now we're going to turn your handles to 455. In times like this, all three verses. In times like these, you need a Savior in times like these, you need an anchor. Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds grace the solid rock. This rock is Jesus yes, he's the one this rock is Jesus, the only one Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. In times, times like these you need a Bible in times like these you need not idle. Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. This rock is Jesus yes, he's the one this rock is Jesus, the only one. Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds and grips a solid rock. In times like these, I have a savior in times like these I have an anchor I'm very sure, I'm very sure My anchor holds and grips the solid rock this rock is Jesus yes, he's the one this rock is Jesus, the only one I'm very sure, I'm very sure My anchor holds and grips a solid rock and Paul, you may be seated. And we have some new missionaries to introduce here today before we take our offering. And they are on the bulletin cover right here. Missionaries are Brian and Gloria and Brian and Gloria. Abronovich Abramovich serve in Bolivia and they train pastors and then work with local churches as well. But as you can imagine, it is. Well, it's hard enough to find a pastor in the United States that is ready to teach the Bible and ready to go even harder in Bolivia. And so they do that work there. They got. You got the. The picture there. You can put it up on your refrigerator right next to the Mother's Day breakfast. There you go. And for the month, pray for the Abramovich family, their two children and their work in Bolivia. If you mark it omissions this month, it goes directly to their support. And if you, of course, leave it unmarked, it goes to the work of our church right here and around the world. And I'm going to lead us in a word of prayer. And then Isaiah is going to lead our. Our usher team. Right, guys? Our usher team to pass the plate today. You know what I've noticed? Well, come on up, boys. Just come stand right here. Isaiah, you come up here too. Get the usher team all the way up. Let the people in the camera see you. There you go. Turn there and smile. I have noticed when these guys are here and they pass the offering plate, the offering shoots through the roof. Much better, because you don't want these faces looking at you like, well, you look rich. Why aren't you giving anything? Right? Isn't that the look you guys given? That's what I thought. Okay, so. So find a dollar or a quarter or a hundred dollar bill or whatever and give it to these guys in a little bit when they pass, pass the plate and we'll pray for the Abramovich family. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. I've kind of been training them how to take the offering. I don't know if I've. I've taught you yet. This is the offertory prayer time. That's when everybody bows their head. Looks very. If you're. If you're the ushers, you somber. Okay? Somber. Very somber. Here we go. Heavenly Father, thank you for these boys and they're a service to the Lord here in the church. And thank you for your watch care over us and families like the Abramovich family and the way that they serve the Lord in Bolivia. We lift them up and encourage them and hear the work of our church to boys and girls here in our community and men and women. We're grateful and pray that you would continue to sustain us as you have for these 90 years. And we'll continue on until Jesus comes. We Pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Isaiah, I'll get you guys an offering plate, and we'll have the offering and be ready to go. You guys remember, each one got to get a different aisle, okay? That's the way it works. Make sure everybody gets it. There you go. Come this way, Arsenio. Well, the boys are doing such a good job. I picked too short of an offertory. There, there. There we go. Did you guys get everyone? Oh, keep. Keep on passing it then even though the song's over. Yeah, just. Just keep on. If you need to come back to the front and go one more time, you know, just. And we'll get it all the way through there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. And gentlemen, you can go out with Brianna now, and she'll lead you in the back. And God bless you. Now the rest of us will turn to Ecclesiastes, Chapter one. I began last week a series of sermons that we'll be spending some time on. Life under the sun. And that is that under the sun word phrase is one that comes up over and over in the book of Ecclesiastes. And it is indeed life on this side of the sun, on the underneath side. What is it that we're going to do under the sun? And we get some wisdom from Ecclesiastes, from the preacher. And as it says there, not this preacher, but that preacher that wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. And we'll take a look at that. And I mentioned this last week, but I want to do it again. If you. Many of your Bibles, not all of them, but many like mine has right there. Ecclesiastes or the preacher, the preacher. Ecclesiastes being the Latin name for it, the preacher being the Hebrew name for it. The word is koheleth, which means preacher. And again, in a moment. Just talk about that here in a. In a few moments. But I. I want to look at chapter one, verses 12 through 18, which can be seen in a very hopeless, kind of negative way. And that's true with much of Ecclesiastes. When you look at it, it looks like, man, this guy has really had a bad day, hasn't he? In fact, he's had a tough life. As he goes through and over and over again, he repeats that refrain, which he has right in verse. Verse, verse 2. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Everything is vanity. You know, that, that. That vanity, that poof here, it's gone. It almost looks like this guy really needs a counselor, you know, I mean, he. He is bummed out. He's got everything going bad. And yet I think it. Part of it is because we are one, perhaps misunderstanding some of the words in there. But I think what we're misunderstanding is the, The. The. The style of the speaking and of the writing. I'm trying. I'm going to try to picture it for us a little bit. And even the poetry, most, excuse me, most of the book of Ecclesiastes is poetic. And so we have to take it in a poetic manner and see, trying to get a point across without just kind of the, shall I say, the bluntness of the book of Proverbs. Solomon also wrote the book of Proverbs, as you know. And a lot of times in the book of Proverbs, he's mildly blunt, right? Like, better to live in the attic than with a nagging woman. I mean, he's mildly blunt. The book of Ecclesiastes is not blunt. It is poetic language that you have to take. But, but our problem is, and I. I say our kind of. As Western thinkers. He's an Eastern thinker, We're a Western thinker. A Western thinker. Takes place. Takes place kind of things. You know, just there it is. What you say is what you get. It's outline form. It's 1, 2, 3, and. And here you have it. Rather than sort of the. The mystical, poetic way. I'll give you an example that many of you may know because most of you are old enough to remember the Karate Kid, right? You were a kid when it came out. When did that movie come out? 80s. Yeah. Like I say, we were kids, the good old days. But you remember. Was it Mr. Miago? Yeah. Charles. You kind of look like him. Miyagi. Yeah. Mr. Miyagi. You remember the wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off and all the things that he would say. Or I'll give you another example, if you need. Since this is the fourth. May the fourth be with you. Yoda. That was his name, right? Or was it Jabba the Hutt? What's the big. Oh, Yoda. Okay. You know, he spoke in sort of a. Like Mr. Miyagi. It was all kind of a poetic. I, I get your message, but you're saying it differently. Solomon comes as a. As an Eastern thinker and says it poetically sitting on the porch. So if you take it bluntly, you're going to misunderstand the message of Ecclesiastes and take it as a guy having a really bad day and has no hope in the world. That's not what Ecclesiastes is about. It's actually a very hopeful book, as we will see now. I think in verses 12 through 18, which we're going to look at for a moment, I think that it is Solomon having. He's reflecting back, and Solomon is being a bit. A bit confessional here. A lot confessional. Sometimes we. We men who get older, we get confessional. And he said he's sitting on the front porch, he's talking to his kids and his grandkids and his neighbor, and he's. He's thinking back through his life sort of in a. In a. In a pensive, poetic kind of way. And he does have some regrets there. There are some things that he says, I wish I'd have done this a little bit differently. And he's kind of expressing those to the. To us. And in these verses, I think he is expressing to us that he didn't always go with the wisdom that he had. We'll talk about his wisdom in a moment. He had wisdom. He didn't always follow through with wisdom, which you and I understand that a little bit, because we think, you know, Solomon. Why Solomon? The wisest man who ever lived, given this gift of wisdom, and he had 700 wives. One of these things doesn't belong. You know, what's up with this? I don't get how he's so wise and so dumb at the same time. What are you thinking? He had wisdom. And the sermon title today is When Wisdom Is Not Enough. You've got to have a little more than just wisdom. He didn't always practice the wisdom. He didn't put it to use in his life. And he's going to, if I can put it this way, he's going to regret that, talk about that tragedy and even talk about how he twisted God's word just enough. He was wise enough, shall we say, wise enough not to get caught, but he wasn't wise enough to actually put it all in and into motion. So if you're not careful, verses 12 through 18 almost sound like a rejection of wisdom. It almost sounds like, hey, wisdom. Is that all you got? You're going to need. You're going to need more than that. And there's a sense in which he's saying that you're going to need more than just wisdom. You're going to have to put the wisdom into practice. You're going to have to carry it out and do it. And it's a very specific kind of wisdom that, that, that we had. You know, we won't look at the passage of scripture. But Deuteronomy, chapter 17, verses 16 and 17 prohibits three things. I believe it is. One is the gathering of many horses. That's an odd thing for us. What's wrong with horses? I'll just. Let me just leave it as that is Egyptian thinking. Come with horses and chariots and power. And the kingdom that Judah was supposed to have was not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. So that, you know, there's. There's really nothing inherently sinful about a horse, I can tell you that, although I've never raised a horse, but nothing inherently sinful about a horse. You don't need to sell your horses if you have any. But. But he went that way of strength. It's about horses. It's about many wives. And that was especially. It was a command that was given for the king because very much in that day, as, you know, Middle Ages up, up through at least the Middle Ages, probably. Probably even going. Well, I don't know. Going farther than that. Isabella and Ferdinand had a rather political marriage, didn't they? They only had one husband. One. One wife, one husband that was in multiple. But prior to that point, even up to that point, royal marriages had more to do with politics than anything. And prior to, say, Isabelle and Ferdinand, royal marriages, there was a bunch of them to take care of a lot of politics. That was the way you signed the treaty. You know, we live here in the area that was partially provided for by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I don't know how many wives got swapped in that thing to get that land. I think it was just $15 million, actually. What it was, by the way, if you want to get bummed out sometime, the Louisiana purchase was $13 million $15 and the Guadalupe Hidalgo was million dollars just so they could put a railroad. Now back to the lesson how we get. Here we go. Okay, let's. Let's just walk through it. Rather than reading 12 through 18 at once, let's walk through it a little bit and see what it is. He. He comes and says, I, the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem, verse 12. I, the preacher was king. Let's go ahead and put up a picture of the king here. Gustave Dore did this picture. It's one of his few color pictures. He did wood carvings. Wood, Is that what you call it? Prints out of wood. But this one is in color. A picture of King Solomon there. And here's his picture, even as an old man. And I think this is kind of what we've got here. He's more in royal robes when he uses that word. Preacher again, if you were here with us last week, you remember the word, the, I guess the most literal translation of the word koheleth, the, The Hebrew word that's translated preacher here is the word assembler. It is the idea of one who assembles a group of people to talk to them. Not in the Baptist preacher kind of concept of, you know, open your Bible now and turn to, you know, not, not in that kind of preaching, but in the sense of, hey, you'll gather around. I want to say something and I think very much, and again, I mentioned this last week, it's really not Solomon in a royal decree, not Solomon talking treaty language or covenant language with the, with the people, but rather he's. He's talking personal language. It's a little one on one. It is Solomon more sitting on the front porch with everybody gathered around than it is Solomon in the throne room. Or, you know, to put it in our, our means of understanding, it is. It's Solomon on the Truman Balcony rather than Solomon in the, in the halls of Congress giving the state of the union. It's a, It's a much more personal kind of assembly. So he comes and he says, hey, I, the assembler, the guy talking to you, sitting right here in the rocking chair looking back at life. I was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Now he still is king, but he uses the word was, gives us the idea his life is about over. He's come to the end. I think the proverbs are the same way. But he's come to the end. He is looking back and he says, you know, I was king. I can almost imagine the next words. I was king. But now let me tell you how the king puts his pants on the same way everybody else does. Let's talk real, real friendly, real comfortable here. And he begins in verse 13 then to. To. To share some of his journey and even some of his regret. He says, I gave verse 13. I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all the things that are done unto heaven. Few things there that are significant. I. I gave my heart. I put everything into this. This was not half hearted. He's not talking about his role as the king. He probably would say the same thing. But he's talking about his trying to understand everything. I gave my heart. Heart is a deep word, an intense internal word. And then he goes on to say, seek and search. That kind of intensifies this. I am going to really dig this one out. I think of Some of the places, for example, in the book of Daniel where Daniel is coming, trying to figure out Nebuchadnezzar's dream, or trying to figure out some of the timing things that have been revealed unto Daniel. And Daniel goes to the Lord, Lord, and he's seeking and he's searching and he's using those, those words to say, boy, I really am, am intent on this and figuring this out. So I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom. I want to come back to those words by wisdom concerning all the things which are done under heaven. Now most of the time he talks about under the sun. We're going to see the term under the sun. I think I may find myself wrong here in a moment, but I think that this is the time in the book of Ecclesiastes he talks about under heaven. Maybe there's no difference between under the sun and under heaven. But as I imagine it, it seems to be saying, I want to, in, in saying this, I want to recognize there is, if there's under heaven, there is heaven, there is a God, there is a higher power, there is more out there, not just in this physical world, but let's involve the spiritual world as well. And so I, I came with my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all the things which are done unto heaven. That is, we might say it, the way we might say it today is I want to have a comprehensive worldview. I really want to figure this out now. All of the things by wisdom, something about Solomon we should know. And I've been teaching the book of Proverbs and it took me a long, long time, many decades of scratching my head over Proverbs. You can see I did a good job, didn't you, trying to figure out Proverbs because it seemed this odd, odd collection of things that sometimes are true and sometimes not. So I came to discover that wisdom in the Book of Proverbs is the voice of Torah speaking the Mosaic law, the things that we find in the, in the book of, in the, in the Pentateuch. So I, I think we can take this in Ecclesiastes as well. And if it helps you any understand when you jump across wisdom, understand it this way. In verse 13, I gave my heart to seek and to search out by Torah concerning all the things which are done unto heaven. Now let me put that in a different way. I took the lens of Torah, which is the only scripture they had. You know, I took the lens of Torah and I use that to interpret and decipher Everything that was going on in the world is this good, is this bad, what is it? Now? It's a very Jewish way of thinking, first of all. But there are a lot. I wish we could get into it, a lot into wisdom being Torah in the Old Testament and looking at that. But for now, all I can say is I'm going to take it that way. So here he takes Torah, which is wisdom written down, if you will, and he uses that to try to figure out, search out, concerning all the things that are done unto heaven. And then he says something strange. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. This sore travail. Now again, if we're not careful, it looks like, hey, I tried to figure out this world by wisdom. Man, what a bummer that is, trying to figure out this world by wisdom. It almost sounds like you're not going to figure it out. You're not going to get it. The, the wisdom, the way we preachers would normally put it, because we're trying to make it sound like something that's not terrible. We would say, you know, the wisdom of this world isn't going to give you the answers. And there's some truth to that. But he, he's. I don't think he's saying that. I think he says, as I take Torah and wisdom and I use it to decipher what's going on into the world. It really puts a weight upon me. Solomon saying, this is not an easy one. It is a wait, you know, Do I have the passage there? I think I do. Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 15. Again, I'm not going to turn to it, but if you get there, it's a summary, a little bit of what happens in. When you read the Torah, it comes down to, I have set before you life and death. Choose life. Now, that's a big burden on someone, isn't it? Wouldn't you rather, Wouldn't you rather God has predestined from the foundation of the world everything you say and do, and there's nothing you can do about it. There's a sense in which, oh, that would be a lot easier. This is, this is God's preordination. But in the Torah it is. You can go that way or you can go that way. I think you should go that way. See you later. Kind of leaves you with it. That is a sore travail. Now you say, well, no, it's not. You got life that way and you got death that way. Well, who's going to choose death when you can choose life. Most of us, right, because death, you know, it doesn't, that, that, that way of death doesn't look like something deadly. It looks like something enticing. So here is the pathway to death. Here is the pathway to life and it's up to me to choose where to go. And wouldn't it be easier then say, okay, well there it is, I can have a good understanding, a good lesson. Somebody, you know, grandpa will tell me, well, I almost went that way and I went the other way. And so I'm going to decide just like grandpa said, and I'm going to choose life and then it's good from there. This choose life, choose death thing is a fork in the road. Every step you make, can you imagine, you think it's, oh, it's only here, you know, when I'm 14 years old, I have to choose life or choose death. And then you're 15 and you have to choose life or death. And then you're 16 and you choose life and death. And then you're 60 and you choose life and death. And then you, well, I'm only 59, I don't know about 60. I don't know what you 60 year olds do. But, but anyway, you see, you, you keep taking it and it's, that is, I think the sword travail is saying, hey, every step of the way I've got to choose, choose life, choose death. This is the sword travail that, that God hath given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. Now you can, you can call that a sore travail. And I think in many ways it is. You can also look at it, it and say, oh no, that's, that's really a blessing. I mean you, at least you get to choose life. But I almost, and, and I, I kind of get this question sometimes on our Ask the Theologian program. In one way or another, I almost want to say, God, why didn't you make the Garden of Eden without the tree of Knowledge of good and evil? Why didn't you just make it where there was, there was no way for them to mess up? The sore travail is you can eat from any tree you want except from that one. What a sore travail this is. But at the same time, that is what makes us really in the image of God. It gives us a free will. We're not robots, we're not boxed in. We've got this openness of everything we can do. So there's a Blessing, which becomes a sore travail. So Solomon deals with all of that. And I think what he's. I'm reading between the lines a little bit here, but what he's saying is, I had the wisdom. I was. I was. I'm the preacher. I was the king. I looked at this. You know, there's a nice thing about, I guess, being the king. I've never been a king. I don't know. I think one of the presidents talked about the presidency. I can't remember which one it was. He said it was a splendid misery. So being the king may be a splendid misery, but nonetheless it does have its splendid side, right? And that is you can kind of say, I'm taking the day off, you know, I'm going to study Torah. Remember the musical I bring up all the time, Fiddler on the Roof, if I Were a Rich Man? And he talks about all the things that he would do if he was a rich man. You know, I'd have one staircase going up and one. One going down and one going nowhere. Just for show. If I were a wealthy man. But he. As you go through that song, one of the things he says is the most blessed thing of all is I would be able to study Torah all day long. Okay, If I were a wealthy man. But then he says, I got to feed the chickens, you know, Again, okay, I was the king. I could study it all day long. And I did. I had wisdom above all others. And you begin to read a little bit of Regret that says the saddest words of tongue and pen are these sad words. What might have been? I. I could have put this wisdom to use. Now let's go on to verse 14, when he says, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. Now there is he talking about, spiritually, I've seen everything. Or experientially, I've seen everything. He was the king. I, the preacher was the king. The king can do whatever he wants. You know, he had traveled the world, he had visited, you know, with the Queen of Sheba, all that kind of stuff. He. He had been there, he had done that. He knew all about it and had a tremendous amount of experiential knowledge and of wisdom knowledge. Here's a picture of Solomon. This was done in 1519. This is one of those wood cuttings, the idolatry of Solomon. And if you look at it, this is actually Solomon who's kneeled down here. They're all wearing Middle Ages clothing. That's what Middle Ages artists did, is put Them in contemporary, their contemporary stuff. But one of the things he's doing here, he's got. You can't see it all here, but he's got a bunch of wives and they are leading him to kneel down to this pagan God, whoever it is. So he indeed had gone through and had seen verse 14, all the works that are done under the sun. And behold, he says, all is vanity. And vexation of spirit adds two things. First of all, he had vanity. We've seen that before. Everything just poof. Here it is here today, gone tomorrow. Everything I've seen, it doesn't last. And then he adds vexation of spirit. That is a term which the Middle Ages Jewish commentator Rashi, who has a lot of good insight into some of these Old Testament passages. One of the things he said, he. He defines vexation of spirit as the shattering of the will going based upon the. On the Hebrew there. So it's all poof, it's gone. And the shattering of the will. Have you ever had some. Some concept in your life, some idea, and you thought, this is the greatest thing ever? I am going to do this and I am going to change the world. And you, you. You set out, you begin to do it, you begin to plan, and then reality hits, right? And all of a sudden. Are you a concert pianist yet? Steve? Near. Near. Okay. Started learning how to play piano when he was, what, 75? About that. Okay. And you did it so that you could become a concert pianist. Right. Oh, okay. I thought it was going to be your retirement income. You know, you get into it and then you find. How many years has it been? Five years. Are you good yet? Depends. Depend. Sharon, is he good yet? Don't answer, don't answer. You get into this reality where you say, oh, that's really hard. This is not easy. This is not coming quick. And it can shatter the will. I am sure we could go through every person in this room and say, what was something you were once really excited about. You are going to do it. But your will got shattered. Somewhere along the way, the vexation of spirit came upon you. Maybe we ought to just remember that term, you know, when we're struggling with that, you know, how is it going in your. In. In your project? Well, I'm suffering with a little vexation of spirit. That means every time I take a step forward in this, somebody comes and crushes my balloon, pops my balloon. I just can't get there. And so he comes there and he says, hey, this is a little. What you've got to deal with. Now, again, you can take this very negatively. You can also take it kind of as a bit of encouragement to say, you know what? There's Solomon sits on the front porch, says, here's what you guys are going to deal with as you go out there. You're going to deal with, soon as you got it, they changed all the rules. Rules. They changed the program, they changed the. Whatever it is. Boom. Now it's all a different thing. Just as soon as you got it figured out, we don't do that anymore. And that's vanity. Vanity of vanities. Or, hey, yeah, that really could work. But let me tell you, there's so much government red tape that you're never going to get there. And he talks about this vexation of spirit in a very, let's just say, reality kind of speak. He goes on then to say in verse 15, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. Now here I think he's speaking like Mr. Miyagi a little bit. He's speaking poetically. What exactly are you getting at? You know, obviously, I don't know. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. Okay, profound, right? Or obvious. There must be something profound to it. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. That is, which is wanting cannot be numbered. I think what we've got here is that Solomon, who is taking Torah wisdom to evaluate everything, he comes and he says, hey, there's a fork in the road. Life, death, this is a sore travail that you're going to have to deal with death, you're going to choose life, and you're going to find vanity and vexation of spirit constantly pushing you back to choose death instead. Or you just sort of filter back into that mode of vexation of spirit. You're not as excited anymore about that narrow road, so to speak. And then you get to a point where you're stuck. So that which is crooked cannot be made straight. I think here about the. The. Some of the teachings of Torah. There were things in Torah that you couldn't fix. Once you had committed that sin. There wasn't a way to fix it. There wasn't, you know, father, forgive me, I have sinned. Okay, say 15 rosaries and you're good. There wasn't. There wasn't a way to get over that. What are you going to do? And there was no sacrifice to bring. There was no repayment to bring. That just put you outside of the Covenant community, really now and forevermore. There is in Deuteronomy, chapter 23, verse 2. Again, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna read it. But it talks about, and this is all really kind of strange to us, it talks about a child who is born. There's a Hebrew word for it which is going to come to me in a moment, but there's a child who is born in, in an illicit way outside of the covenant community. Now what it says is that child cannot have kingdom. The, the Jewish kingdom cannot have the kingdom. Blessings unto the 10th generation. It's this very, I'll call it for our day today. Very nationalistic, closed border kind of stuff. No, not only them, but their kids, their kids, their kids, their kids, they are cut off. Now the, that is for the Jewish people. That is the, the illustration that is always used because it's so clear. That's the one that says, some things you just can't fix. Some crooked things can't be made straight. There are other things within the law. Bring your sacrifice, you're good, it's atoned for, it's covered. But there are some things that just aren't ever going to be fixed. And so Solomon talks about this and I think even in his own life to say, as you and I probably have said on many times, to say, you know, I wish I could go back and undo that. Some of you who are old enough to ever sit on the front porch, you know, someone ask you somewhere along the way, if there's anything in your life that you could undo, what would it be? And then you say, having this conversation, that's what it would be. I don't want to have this conversation. We're stuck. And so Solomon talks about that. Then he goes on in verse, verse 15. Also at the end of verse 15, that which is wanting cannot be numbered. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. Now again, poetic speak. What's he talking about? In a sense, he's saying, count the things I'm holding here. Go ahead, they're not holding anything. You can't count it. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. I think that really he's saying it, it's, it goes back to the Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry is called parallelism. And the second line, confirms, elaborates on, says the same thing a little differently from what the first line says. So the first line got something crooked, can't make it straight. Second line, let me elaborate on it. He says a little bit. Once you, once you leave the ranch, you're off. You're not counted anymore. You're not in the numbers anymore. That which is wanting cannot be counted. Of course, unless you're a Baptist preacher. Then you say, well, they planned on being here, so they were here today. But you know that you're, You're. You're gone, you're out of the covenant community especially is the way that he's looking at it. So I think he's saying here, you know, there are some things in my life that I wish I could undo, but once that thing is crooked, you can't make it straight. Once you've gone over that line, nothing you can do about it. That's what I've learned by analyzing the world through wisdom, through Torah wisdom that he lives under. Now, let me say some things, because this is a book, obviously in the Old Testament, and we are New Testament people. That is to say, some more has happened after Ecclesiastes, and we don't want to read, we don't want to get all of our theology from Ecclesiastes, because there's more yet to come that we live in. And where we live in this, in this age of the dispensation of the grace of God is a blessing. There I found the word mamser. Mamser, that was the Hebrew word I was looking for. That's the child born in an illicit way, the mamser, which is cut off for 10 generations. Now, we fortunately do not live in an age of a mamser, do we? We live in the age of by grace through faith, not of works. You know that there is this gift of God, that he is not counting our trespasses against us. 2nd Corinthians 5:19. All of these blessings that our. That are ours. And we think of some scriptures. Here you can again look at later. Even Paul talks about being a blasphemer, but he says, I was forgiven of this because I did it out of ignorance. I thought I was doing the right thing. In First Timothy, chapter 1, verse 13, Romans, chapter 5, verse 20, where sin abounded, grace did more abound. That's where we live today, is this abundance of grace. But when you go back and read the Torah, the Mosaic Law, you don't see this. You see, do this sin. Bring this sacrifice, do that sin. Sorry, it's crooked. It can't be made straight. You're cut off. You can't be counted anymore. And it was a. It was. It was legalism, because that was the age of the law. Now we live in this again, in this age of grace, in fact. 2nd Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ. He. He is a new creature. Okay, that sort of does away with the whole Mamser idea. Well, sorry you were born that way. What a bummer, man, you're stuck 10 generations and beyond. Nothing you can do. You're not counted. But we're not in that age. And so we can celebrate this a little bit and go beyond where Solomon was and what the Lord had carried out and had revealed up to that point. Now, let's continue on. In verses 16, 17, and 18, he says, I communed with mine own heart, saying, lo, I come to great estate, and I have gotten more wisdom than all they which have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. Now, there are some who want to take this to say, pride goeth before destruction. Here, who are you patting yourself on the back, you know, about how wise and how good you are. But the scripture really does confirm what he's saying. Here. Here's a. Here's a picture of the dream of Solomon by Luca. I found someone named Luca, Luca Giordano, Italian painter. And he's got the picture of Solomon there as a young man. And he's having this dream based upon First Kings, chapter 3, verses 5 through 14. You can go read that if you want, but that's the one in which. In his dream, you know, what would you like? It's almost. Can I say this is. I'm going to cheap. Cheapen the dream a little bit. But it's almost like the genie in the bottle. I give you three wishes. What would you like? Well, Solomon says, I'd like to make good judgments when the people come to me. That's what I do as the king. I want to make good judgment. I don't want to mess up on this. And the Lord says, wow, good for you. That is a good answer. And therefore I'm going to give you not only that, but all of these other things as well. And promises him great, not only great wisdom, but great, great, great knowledge, great wealth and other things. So back up taking that in mind in First Kings, chapter 16. Excuse me. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 16, where he says, I commune with mine own heart, saying, lo, I am come to great estate he had. Again, he's sitting on the porch saying, look at me, I. I was king. I was king of Israel, which was the biggest kingdom there was. Come to great estate and. Oh, we can't stop there, can we? Even though it's almost time. Come to great estate. Have you all ever read the Novel. King Solomon's Mines. It's in a movie. You're right. One of the Harrison Ford movies. What were those? Raiders of the Lost Art? Kind of. Yeah, it was one of those. Alan Quartermain. Was that his name that it came from originally? He's been in a lot of movies and books, Alan Quartermaine. But it came from the. From the novel King Solomon's Minds. I know this because our seventh graders at the John Nelson Darby Academy have to read it, and therefore I have read it on audiobook. But, you know, it comes from the idea, the concept that it's a tradition, but that King Solomon, the wealthiest man in the world up to that time, that he was buried with a tremendous amount of treasure in his tomb. And where is it? Where? You know, as we're going to go on a search. You remember in the movie when. When they come out of that waterfall and they fall down, you know they're trying to escape you. You remember that? That's from the novel. I don't know if you remember that or not. This is very. I do deep research for these things. Where am I? I come to great estate. He was a wealthy man, no doubt about it, have gotten more wisdom than all they which have been before me in Jerusalem. Jerusalem. I'm convinced that's not hyperbole. The Lord really did give him wisdom. And I'll say the knowledge of Torah, the. The how to apply Torah. As I've been teaching Proverbs again on our Thursday night online study, I have been teaching it, saying the book of Proverbs is actually the King's user guide to Torah. You catch these little maxims and remember those. If you do that, you'll fulfill Torah. Torah might be complicated to understand. Here's the simple way to get it. He had a tremendous amount of wisdom. I'll go even as he says here before all me in Jerusalem, yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. Let's take it just like he says, verse 17. I gave my heart to know wisdom. He's already said that. Searched it, seek it, search it. I gave my heart to know wisdom. But then he says, and to know madness and folly. Ah, wait a minute. I gave my heart to know wisdom and madness and folly. I think what he's saying here is, oops, I didn't quite stop where I should have stopped with wisdom. I had this idea. I want to learn a little bit more. I want to go a little bit farther. I want to play over there. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I gave my heart to know wisdom, but also madness and folly. I perceived that this is also vexation of spirit. Yeah, I think what he's saying is choose life. Choose death, death. And I did. I did. I chose life, madness and folly, and life and madness. And I kind of, I kind of skirted this thing. And so it goes on in verse 18 to say, for in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow, that there is a need to dance with the one that brung you, so to speak, just stick with it. And that's what he's trying to say as he gathers them together on the porch saying, hey, here's my, here's my struggle, here's my issue. Here's where I'm at under the sun. Now you can take this, and I think many evangelical preachers do, unfortunately, you can take this and read all that and say, man and Solomon, he was just messed up and he was, you know, I chose wisdom and folly. But it's not so messed up when you recognize it, is it? There are some things crooked that I can't get straight. There are some things that are now wanting and I can't count them, I can't number them. I can't put it there. It's, it's. It's a story of an old man sitting on the porch saying, I was king. You asked me what are some things I regret. Let me tell you, I went with wisdom. I went with madness and folly. I tried to do both of these. Wisdom isn't enough if you don't actually stick there if you don't actually do it. So I think what we've got here is not a hopeless man saying, try all the wisdom you want. It's not going to get you there. Which if you read that just on the surface in the Western mind, it almost reads like that, that, hey, wisdom is just not enough. Sorry about that. Wisdom is not. And it almost looks like this experience experiment. I tried wisdom that didn't get me anywhere. So I think I'll try wine, women and songs, see if that one gets me somewhere. And what he's saying is, hey, wisdom really is enough. Really, wisdom is a blessing if you stick right there. And that's what he's encouraging us. Us to do. And those who are sitting on the porch with him next week we'll will pick up in chapter two, I said in my heart, go to, go to. Now I will prove thee with myrrh. Therefore enjoy pleasure. And we'll see that that is vanity as well, well, let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the journey that the preacher takes here, giving us his. His life story, so to speak, his experiences. And we see a man that really was blessed with wisdom and yet confesses to us here in a poetic way, confesses that he, with all his great estate and his great experience of wisdom and knowledge, he didn't always just give his heart to wisdom, he also gave it to madness and folly. And in that there is indeed an emptiness and a vanity that he testifies here. As we go from this place, choosing life, choosing death, looking at the things that are wise as well as madness and folly, things that are just mixed up and confused, help us to make some decisions that really will. Will allow us to avoid some of these regrets that Solomon has experience expresses to us. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks again for being here. Look forward to again Wednesday night. And we'll have John Mark as our study and then we've got sloppy joes before that too. But next Sunday, don't forget to sign up on the way out. I'll also send out some text reminders to see you at breakfast. You gotta. Gotta get up early on Mother's Day. Be here at 9:00 and ready to go and we'll have a good time and all that. Thanks those of you who are online joining us too. We appreciate that. And tell you what, I'll. I'll play a song on the way out and see you at the back. God bless you and you're dismissed. Sa. It's interesting. It is. Sa that get her dress as the wind blows up. Well, that's true. Just. I don't think Jenny bought the whole idea. Oh, did you? You know what it means. So there might. Yeah, I was going to say there are a lot of those that we look up and. Excuse me. We use all the time and never have really looked it up to check it out. Like your purple today. Well, thank you. Roll. Thank you. Thank you. He picked it for me. Sure. Yeah. I'll call color coordinator. You still sell a. Sell a few. Yeah, yeah, every now and then. I haven't promoted it a long time, so I. It's. It's an order here and there. Yeah. Sometimes people, you have a. If you have a narrower pocket, you have to go farther. Oh yeah. You can also do like you go this way, this way and then get that to that corner, that to that corner. Pull those back. Got more of a. Oh yeah, that looks good, doesn't it? And then it doesn't fall down. Yeah, some of them work better than others. We can. I, I, I looked at I was at Home Depot the other day and looked at hair, and they didn't have anything I thought would work either, so. Okay. Yeah, I'll go see if I can find. Think he did too? I thought maybe they might have. I got a couple leftovers. Luca. Luca. Even if you think about it, if their property ends at the sidewalk,